Cloud computing was a true game-changer during the pandemic. It enabled ecommerce and collaboration to thrive. The cloud-based platforms allowed billions of ecommerce purchases and teleconferences each day to be held. This has been a critical element that has fueled the survival of many businesses.

According to research by Global Data, more than 80 percent of business executives say that cloud computing and networks are crucial in aiding businesses to withstand the effects of the pandemic. For those in retail, for example, the cloud, whose adoption accelerated during the pandemic, has helped them bring together customers and their businesses when no in-store purchases were allowed. According to Deloitte, the online sales of grocery rose by 233 percent during the pandemic in March 2020 compared to back to the same month in 2019.

The need to respond to the coronavirus pandemic with agility has renewed the emphasis on adopting cloud-based applications. These applications will support modern technologies such as robotics, big data, and digital channels of distribution. It will also support the increased adoption of digitization post-pandemic. Expect crucial aspects of workplaces such as communications and core business applications to be moved to the cloud to help improve availability, reliability, and resilience, all of which are critical in keeping operations running in changing times post-COVID. With the computational needs expected to fluctuate from one time to another, the cloud will immediately scale to adjust to the increase or reduction in business requirements every day, which will minimize losses.

For healthcare, cloud computing and AI have become famous in the past two years in research and in helping medical professionals and researchers fight the pandemic. Researchers have resorted to cloud computing-based AI technologies to analyze vaccines and find potential cures for the disease. In the US, Europe, and Asia, these efforts have succeeded in shortening the vaccine development process. This has saved millions of dollars in time that would have been wasted and investments that would have been used in research. The advanced communication technologies will help patients to access the healthcare cloud anytime, regardless of the location. In short, cloud computing is helping build value-driven and patient-centric care.

The transport industry is also benefiting immensely from cloud computing. The rise of connected cars or buses requires massive storage of data. This means that things such as traffic management will depend on the cloud, which would have been difficult for the traditional methods to solve. The cloud-based traffic management systems will ease the coordination of traffic signals and tracking of emergency traffic cases.

Besides helping in medical, transport, and commerce, cloud computing will be beneficial for small and medium-sized businesses. It promotes operational efficiency, improves innovation, and expands financing and markets. Digital transformation is helping SMEs bring significant benefits, which are critical for local economic development.

After the pandemic, businesses will have to strictly focus on digitizing their operations because that is the right thing to do in this era. Technologies such as cloud computing will help companies become independent, reduce cost of operations, and ensure intelligent and effective service delivery.