Should Your Company Shift to a Hybrid Workforce? Look to the Cloud for the Answer.
By: Steven Perlman
Tags: Remote, Technology, Best Practices, Cloud, Hybrid Cloud

Should Your Company Shift to a Hybrid Workforce? Look to the Cloud for the Answer. Steven Perlman Apr 27·4 min read

Think back five or ten years to when your company first started considering the idea of moving to the cloud. Likely, a few people wanted to move entirely to the cloud, a few were entertaining the idea of a hybrid model, and even more thought the idea of a complete migration was ridiculous. Where are all of those people now?

Likely, it would be unfathomable to imagine your company without the use of the cloud in your day to day life, especially now that the modern workforce is in a transitional period.

Think about now how you and your colleagues think about a remote work environment. Likely, you have a similar dynamic. Some of you are ready to work from home full time, others think a full return to the office is the only way, and still others are pushing for a hybrid model.

Onsite = On-Prem | Remote = Cloud

Years ago, the companies who were early adopters implemented a cloud-forward strategy and were considered the risk-takers. They were the ones everyone waited to see if would fail, and now they’re considered the revolutionaries. The only way to access a good internet connection was to log onto the big, bulky desktop at your workstation in the office (I’ll bet you can still hear the dial up tones if you try). No one would have ever imagined you’d be able to work in that same spot without having eyes on the physical place where your data is being stored securely — remember the big server room (remember paying rent for a big room for your data)? It’s now been rendered all but obsolete.

We are hinging on the same type of transition when it comes to a remote workforce. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic radically changed the way that people were able to work. There was no choice but to send employees to their homes to work, and while everyone originally had thought it a temporary fix, over a year later, it seems like it may not be so much.

Hybrid Workforce = Hybrid Cloud. It’s a good option, but it’s better used as a transition.

There were absolutely more conveniences to having some of your data in the cloud as opposed to none of it. As you started utilizing the cloud, you likely had some info on there and the rest on-premise, then slowly transitioned until you were totally virtual.

You’re likely having a similar experience now with the remote workforce. Maybe you have a rotation going of who comes into the office every two or three days, or everyone meets once a month for a certain meeting. There’s probably talk of when it will be safe to return to the office full time, and some employees would rather be back as soon as possible while others would prefer to stay virtual.

This is where the cloud vs. on-prem metaphor returns. Making a move to an entirely remote workforce is the same choice that your predecessors had to make about moving entirely to the cloud. A daunting concept at first, but now looking back, it’s hard to believe anyone was ever against it. In five or ten years from now, it will be hard to believe anyone ever stood against a remote workforce.

There are many benefits to a remote workforce that haven’t even been realized yet, the same as it was with moving to the cloud.

For example, when people made the choice to move to the cloud a decade ago, how could they have known it would be vital to allowing employees to work from home during a deadly global pandemic? Talk about an unforeseen benefit!

More immediately, think about the money you’ll save as a company by going fully remote. You won’t have to pay rent, utilities, insurance, or anything else that you would normally pay on a physical space. You’ll be able to hire #TopTechTalent from anywhere you want to — there’s an entire untapped market of technology professionals you can choose from when building out a team.

Your reputation as a Best Place to Work is also likely to skyrocket. Remote work capabilities are a huge benefit for companies, and it will definitely give you a leg up over your competition. You don’t want to miss this chance to be at the front of an evolving workforce.

Steve Jobs once said, “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” Which one are you going to be remembered as?