Trends toward online and hybrid buying have accelerated during the pandemic, creating an industry-wide shift toward multichannel fulfillment and a reimagined customer experience. Through this change, cloud has proved vital in achieving the digital transformation necessary to become a retailer of the future.
The Retail industry was initially slow to invest in cloud, but today it’s playing an increasingly important role in retail IT leaders’ approach to their digital transformations. According to an in-depth study conducted by Frost & Sullivan, multicloud adoption in retail rose by 50 percent in 2020, and hybrid cloud adoption rose by 19 percent.
While cloud brings organizations many benefits, for retailers, agility is often one of the most important. By enabling rapid testing of new ideas, faster innovation, and the ability to get up and running in a new environment in a short time frame, cloud makes it easier to respond to sudden change and experiment with the dynamic relationship between consumers and products.
Beyond its agility, the cloud’s scalability and high availability support digitization projects that are vital to today’s retailers, such as developing collaboration tools for remote workers (sought by 61 percent of retailers), supporting flexible networking (55 percent), and becoming data-centric (50 percent). Within these initiatives, security also remains a leading concern; the ability of Microsoft Azure to protect customer, employee, and proprietary business data across cloud and on-premises environments is another significant benefit.
In addition to these features, the cloud allows retailers to increase sustainability, support more imaginative innovation projects, and achieve numerous other benefits.
For retailers looking to get started in the cloud, the big question is “Where do we begin?” The answer boils down to migration and modernization, two approaches that are complementary and highly interrelated.
Migration allows you to take advantage of an infrastructure that’s elastic, scalable, secure, and cost-effective. Modernization leverages that infrastructure to improve the performance, agility, and user experience of legacy applications.
As retailers embrace the benefits of the cloud, it’s also important to maintain synergy with existing infrastructure, driving a sharp increase in the adoption of hybrid and multicloud services.
One of the key advantages of Azure is that it was built to support the need for this flexibility, allowing you to execute migration and modernization initiatives at your own pace. Using Azure hybrid estate solutions, you can manage resources across both on-premises and cloud infrastructure with consistent management and governance controls.
Once in the cloud, you’ll be able to take advantage of numerous opportunities to enhance your ability to understand and meet customer needs, drive efficiency and creativity, and improve your response to changing market trends.
Across the Retail industry, cloud services are helping businesses to achieve a range of outcomes, including:
For example, as your cloud infrastructure grows, you might leverage the significant data resources gathered through point of sale (POS), customer loyalty, and online data capture to optimize the customer experience. You might also take a customer-centric approach to your supply chain, using artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive analysis to respond more proactively to evolving customer needs.
Cloud-enabled digital transformation is reshaping the retail experience, from dynamic e-commerce solutions to innovative applications for delivery and curbside pickup. That’s why 59 percent of retail businesses are modernizing their company data centers and 46 percent are adopting hybrid/multicloud environments.
For example, Walmart has chosen Microsoft as its preferred and strategic cloud provider. Using Azure to manage its diverse IT environments enables Walmart to capitalize on Azure’s compute capacity, seamlessly manage workloads in an elastic environment, and use cloud-native resources to manage cost.
Azure provides Walmart access to new and powerful toolsets that accelerate its rate of innovation. As the pandemic has made clear, change can be sudden, and retailers’ ability to manage supply chain breakdowns and meet customers where they are with the experiences they expect is key to survival. Through cloud, Walmart is improving its ability to respond to changing market conditions, whatever their cause.
It’s also driving efficiency and improvement in Walmart’s operations. For example, using an internet of things (IoT) platform to connect HVAC and refrigeration units helps Walmart conserve energy and meet sustainability goals. Machine learning (ML) augments the routing of thousands of trucks in the supply chain. And using Azure simplifies the management of a vast and diverse IT estate.
Intwo makes it easy for retailers to begin or continue their digital transformation. Comprehensive resources and guidance make planning and executing migration and modernization strategies easier. Talk to us about your cloud vision and let us help you get started.
Cloud-enabled digital transformation is changing the face of the retail experience, from dynamic e-commerce solutions to innovative delivery and curbside pickup applications. Research shows 59 per cent of retail businesses are modernizing their data centres and 46 per cent are adopting hybrid or multicloud environments. The cloud provides retailers with the following advantages:
Major retailers such as Walmart have opted for Microsoft Azure for these strategic benefits.
Migration and modernization are complementary but distinct approaches to cloud adoption. Migration is the process of moving data and resources from on-premises environments to the cloud, allowing you to leverage elastic, scalable and cost-effective infrastructure. Modernization takes the idea a step further by enhancing legacy applications in order to optimize performance, agility and user experience specifically for cloud environments. Most retailers go down both of these roads at once – moving workloads first, then modernizing applications to take full advantage of the cloud native capabilities such as artificial intelligence, advanced analytics, and real-time data processing.
Microsoft Azure has become the preferred cloud platform for retailers, with major brands such as Walmart choosing this as their strategic cloud provider. Azure provides powerful compute capacity, workload management in elastic environments and cloud native resources for cost optimization. Retailers especially appreciate Azure’s capabilities and the tools that make artificial intelligence and advanced analytics projects easier, which allows them to experiment and innovate more quickly. In addition, Azure offers excellent security features for protecting customer, employee, and proprietary business data in both cloud and on-premises environments.
Retailers seeking cloud transformation focus on a number of digital priorities. Developing collaboration tools for remote workers is important for 61 percent of retailers, while 55 percent place flexible networking capabilities at the top of the list. Being data-centric is a priority for 50 percent of retail organizations. Beyond these, retailers want to improve customer experiences through personalization, improve the responsiveness of supply chains, increase operational efficiency, and enhance their security posture. Cloud platforms such as Azure help retailers meet all these priorities with a unified and scalable infrastructure.
Azure was created especially for the flexibility modern retailers need. Using Azure hybrid estate solutions, you can manage resources on both on-premises and cloud infrastructure and have consistent management and governance controls. This enables retailers to keep the synergy with existing systems and migrate workloads gradually at their own pace. Azure’s compatibility supports easy integration with a variety of technologies, legacy applications, and even other cloud platforms, so retailers don’t have to choose between an all-or-nothing migration.
Walmart’s collaboration with Microsoft Azure reflects the revolutionary power of cloud for retail. Using Azure to control its varied IT environments, Walmart takes advantage of Azure’s compute capacity and seamlessly manages workloads in an elastic environment. Azure offers access to powerful toolsets that help to accelerate Walmart’s rate of innovation. Practical applications include IoT platforms connecting HVAC and refrigeration units to ensure energy conservation and comply with sustainability practices or machine learning configures routing for thousands of supply chain trucks. This helps Walmart respond effectively to the changing market conditions.
Cloud migration fundamentally changes retail supply chains from old push models to data-driven models that respond to demand in near real-time. With Azure’s advanced analytics and machine learning capabilities, retailers can optimize truck routing, forecast inventory requirements, and respond immediately to disruptions in the supply chain. The scalability of the cloud ensures that the systems cope with the peak periods of demand without the degradation of their performance. Additionally, IoT can be used to connect logistics assets in real time, providing improved visibility throughout the entire value chain and ready decision-making.
Security remains a leading concern for retailers handling sensitive customer, employee, and proprietary business data. Microsoft Azure provides comprehensive protection across cloud and on-premises environments through always-up-to-date threat detection and security services. Azure enables and improves security across the entire technology estate with built-in encryption, identity management, compliance controls, and threat intelligence. This unified security approach helps retailers meet regulatory requirements while protecting against evolving cyber threats without managing multiple disparate security tools.
Yes, Intwo specializes in ERP, CRM, and SaaS platform migrations to Azure infrastructure. As an Azure Expert MSP with advanced migration specialization, we manage complex application migrations with tools such as Azure Migrate and Azure Site Recovery so that downtime is reduced. Whether you’re moving Dynamics 365, Salesforce integrations, or custom business applications, our structured migration process ensures compatibility, performance optimization, and seamless integration into your existing systems. We support both lift and shift migrations, and full modernization approaches based upon your business requirements and timeline.
Intwo makes it easy for retailers to start their digital transformation journey or continue their transformation. With more than 25 years of experience in the cloud and all Microsoft Solutions Partner designations such as advanced Azure migration specialization, we offer end-to-end resources and guidance to plan and execute migration and modernization strategies. Our services range from assessment, migration planning, implementation to ongoing managed services. Whether you need to modernise data centres, implement hybrid cloud environments, or maximize your use of AI and analytics, our experts work alongside you to achieve your cloud vision and business objectives.
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