Hey there! Companies around the world are flocking to the cloud – and for good reason. Migrating business systems and data storage to the cloud can transform efficiency, productivity, scale, and innovation potential. It opens the door to advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and provides access to compute power most companies could never afford on their own.
In this post, we’ll explore some standout examples of huge enterprises that successfully embraced the cloud. Through their journeys, we’ll see firsthand how the cloud can accelerate growth for organizations large and small. We’ll also get insider perspective on the rewards – as well as challenges – involved in cloud adoption.
So if you lead technology decisions for a major company (or simply want an insider’s take!), be sure to read this intel all the way through. Let’s dive in!
Why Large Companies Choose the Cloud
Before looking at specific examples, it helps to understand why many global enterprises actively choose to migrate to the cloud:
Cost Savings – One of the cloud‘s most compelling features is eliminating large upfront investments in physical data centers. Instead, it allows you to pay-as-you-go based on actual usage, like utilities. And by consolidating servers, storage, and staff under cloud providers, you gain new economies of scale.
Speed & Agility – On-prem IT departments struggle to keep pace with business teams demanding new resources and applications. Cloud platforms like AWS and Azure make scaling faster and easier through instant self-service access.
Productivity – With cloud handling backend infrastructure and operations, your teams get freed up to focus their energy on developing better products and serving customers.
Innovation – Advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things sensors (IoT), blockchain ledgers, and more become accessible through your cloud platform. This allows smaller teams to innovate like never before.
Reliability – Hyperscale cloud data centers employ extensive failover measures most companies can’t replicate alone, keeping your data safer.
Global Scale – Cloud providers operate a vast network of data centers around the world, unlocking the ability to rapidly reach new international markets.
Now let’s look at examples of specific industry titans that reaped game-changing benefits from strategic cloud adoption…
Microsoft Azure Wins Over Global Giants
Given its deep roots serving enterprises worldwide, Microsoft enjoyed natural advantages competing for major cloud clients from across sectors. Today Azure counts over 95% of Fortune 500 companies among its customer base.
Automaker Giant GE – Yes, the same GE that Thomas Edison founded – moved key digital solutions to Azure as far back as 2014. By migrating workloads like artificial intelligence, analytics, and IoT systems to the cloud, GE has accelerated the pace of data-driven innovation.
Apple ditched AWS entirely starting in 2016, announcing a major partnership with Microsoft to migrate essential services like iCloud storage to Azure. This long-term commitment will integrate key platforms like iOS and Windows.
Adobe delivers its wildly popular Creative Cloud software suite entirely through Microsoft Azure. By handling backend infrastructure, Azure empowers Adobe to offer reliable, scalable SaaS accessible online or offline to millions of demanding creators worldwide.
Industrial Conglomerate Johnson & Johnson tied up with Microsoft far back in 2015 to standardize operations across 250 subsidiaries on Azure. By migrating and consolidating over 300 legacy apps to the cloud, J&J gained huge efficiency leaps.
As you can see Microsoft secured early buy-in from business titans worldwide. Today over 95% of the Fortune 500 run at least some workloads on Azure. Let‘s explore another trailblazing market leader next…
Amazon Web Services: The Cloud Leader
As the original trailblazer in public cloud computing, Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds attraction for major enterprises on multiple fronts:
- Broadest, most mature range of services 🔃
- Added efficiencies as leading cloud host 🔆
- First mover advantage over rivals ⚡
Today, AWS growth exceeds all competitors with over 32% market share globally. Let‘s see how some household names tapped AWS cloud advantages:
Netflix – The streaming media giant relies on AWS to deliver fast, smooth content to 220 million subscribers worldwide. By analyzing viewing patterns in real time using AWS data lakes, Netflix personalizes your binge watching based on your taste!
Kellogg‘s – By consolidating its vast digital estate including over 1,500 websites and apps onto AWS, the consumer giant gained cost and resource efficiencies hard to achieve otherwise.
BP – Even traditional big oil runs partly on AWS today! Following its 2010 crisis, BP relied on AWS to develop predictive analytics and AI to improve safety across oil drilling platforms.
Expedia – As one of the world‘s largest online travel agencies, Expedia serves up deals on flights, rental cars, activities and hotels for millions daily. The company consolidated 25 data centers down to just 5 private AWS Outposts to improve reliability and scale.
Philips – The Dutch conglomerate tapped AWS machine learning expertise to develop AI-driven healthcare products including smart CT scanners that limit radiation exposure by 40%.
From oil giants and manufacturers to media disruptors and conglomerates, AWS empowers diverse enterprises worldwide to unlock innovation and drive growth.
Adobe Creative Cloud: All In on The Cloud
For creative professionals and enterprises worldwide, Adobe Creative Cloud sets the standard for design, photography, video, photography and publishing software.
Unlike traditional desktop software, Creative Cloud runs 100% on cloud servers instead of your local device. This online-first architecture unlocks key advantages:
🔁 Continuous delivery of real-time updates and new features
💻 Cross-platform flexibility with the same experience on desktop, tablet and mobile
🌉 Universal file access with cloud syncing across locations and devices
With over 30 separate apps under one subscription including icons like Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro, Adobe Creative Cloud serves over 30 million subscribers globally today.
Originally hosted on AWS since launch in 2012, Adobe recently entered an8-year partnership with Microsoft to migrate Creative Cloud fully to Azure. This deal ensures reliable and scalable delivery of Adobe‘s market-leading creative apps worldwide.
For creative teams and marketing departments of all sizes, running on the cloud unlocks new potential for secure collaboration and universal access compared to traditional desktop-only tools.
Google Cloud Wins Media Titans
With core strengths in analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), Google Cloud Platform (GCP) holds natural appeal for data-rich industries like digital media and entertainment.
Cloud rivals AWS and Azure can cost 2-3x more for bandwidth – the lifeblood for streaming video and gaming. So Google leverages big discounts here to win marquee brands:
Spotify – The world‘s largest music streaming platform with over 456 million subscribers relies on Google Cloud for core infrastructure and analytics. Spotify also utilizes Google‘s AI tools to tailor music recommendations to individual listeners.
Snapchat – The ephemeral social media disruptor and parent company of popular AR platform Snapchat agreed to spend $2 billion with Google Cloud over the next 5 years.
Activision Blizzard – Google Cloud won the blockbuster gaming company as a marquee customer after hiring former Oracle cloud executive Thomas Kurian to lead GCP in 2018. The company will tap Google‘s networking for streaming games and AI for insight into players.
Spotify, Snapchat, and Activision Blizzard represent just a sampling of modern digital media innovators winning with Google Cloud today. Despite being smaller than AWS and Azure, GCP continues to disrupt through aggressive investment and tempting discounts.
SAP Cloud Powers Enterprise Leaders
Companies worldwide rely on SAP software to optimize vital business processes for management, manufacturing, logistics and beyond. The provider‘s growing cloud portfolio integrates easily with these mission-critical systems.
Siemens AG – The German industrial manufacturing giant tied up with SAP in 2021 driving $30 billion in IT spending over 5 years. 80% will shift to SAP S/4HANA Cloud radically simplifying business systems.
NASCAR – The high-speed racing league turned to SAP for unified analytics accessible to executives and crews at races. This "single source of truth" leverages live telemetry data to increase insight.
Colgate-Palmolive – By consolidating 88 regional systems into SAP S/4HANA running on Microsoft Azure cloud, the consumer goods giant gained unified data and higher productivity across 200 countries.
Schneider Electric – The energy leader tapped SAP cloud solutions to embed real-time supply chain visibility and contextual insights directly into core energy management products.
From the earliest days of cloud adoption, SAP built specialized solutions for vital industries like Energy, Manufacturing and Asset Management. Today, alliance partnerships with Microsoft and Amazon Web Services ensure reliable global delivery at scale.
Cloud Delivers Data Insights for Retail King Walmart
Ranking #1 on the Fortune 500, Walmart serves over 265 million weekly customers across over 10,500 stores worldwide. Managing retail operations of this mind-blowing scale presents immense data complexity.
In 2018, Walmart invested $1 billion in a partnership with Microsoft to migrate a wide range of workloads to Azure. The results proved transformative:
Unified Data Lakes – By consolidating petabytes of fragmented data onto Azure data platforms, Walmart established unified data lakes far exceeding the past. Data harnessed here feeds next-generation AI to elevate real-world retail.
Global Inventory Visibility – Walmart gained an unprecedented view of inventory and supply chain flows worldwide. This powers predictive analytics to limit stockouts and identify growth opportunities.
Enhanced Cybersecurity – By leveraging Azure security protocols and consolidating systems, Walmart hardened infrastructure against cyber intrusion. Confidential data also remains accessible yet more secure.
Sustainability – Increased control over energy usage in stores/vehicles using IoT sensors helped Walmart exceed sustainability targets early, saving costs.
Across the board, migrating key workloads to Microsoft Azure helped Walmart accelerate innovation in retail by harnessing new cloud-powered analytics, efficiencies and security far exceeding the past.
The Takeaway: Cloud Adoption Must Align Business Strategy
As we’ve seen, global giants across retail, manufacturing, oil & gas, automotive, consumer goods, media, tech and more run significant elements of their business in the cloud today. Multi-year cloud partnerships now drive growth.
Yet simply lifting and shifting systems to the cloud fails to unlock real advantage without business alignment. Legacy processes and bloat transfer as-is!
Instead, cloud migration works best when:
- Driven by clear business objectives and outcomes
-scoped to align existing workflows with new capabilities - Cultural adoption ensures teams leverage possibilities fully
So rather than seeing cloud as yet another IT project, astute executives recognize how cloud platforms today empower bold new data-driven strategies delivering tangible ROI long-term.
Hopefully the examples above provide inspiration for shaping your own cloud-powered vision! Feel free to reach out if you need guidance getting oriented.