Over the past few years, the number of small retailers adopting cloud technology has greatly increased, a move that ePLDT, the industry-leading enabler of digital enterprise solutions in the Philippines, believes does not only drive further growth but also provides them the resources to perform at a level comparable to large enterprises.

According to a worldwide study by MarketsandMarkets, the global retail cloud market is expected to reach $28.53 billion by 2021, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 20.9 percent. SMEs or small and medium enterprises compose the bulk of cloud adopters. In terms of location, the Asia-Pacific region is projected to witness the highest growth.

“For a small retailer, moving to the cloud is already a given. Not only does it improve back end operations, it also greatly helps in expanding their presence and engaging their target audience. And all of this is possible in a quicker and much more efficient manner,” said Nerisse Ramos, senior vice president and chief operating officer of ePLDT Group.

Ramos notes that the cloud’s ability to accelerate the pace of innovation is one of the most important benefits to small retailers. Hosting applications on cloud platforms, for example, offers rapid scalability and elasticity. By allowing businesses to cope with changing business demands with minimal physical infrastructure and cost requirements, companies can harness the full potential of an innovation-driven mindset.

“Online retailers can also gain from the cloud’s on-demand availability feature which provides instant agility and faster deployment. Through cloud, a business can easily scale up and add infrastructure in just a few minutes,” said Dave Simon, chief technology officer and head of Data Center Business Operations at ePLDT. “For instance, an online store can simply scale up during peak shopping periods where an online store expects a larger number of transactions and scale back down afterwards as easily.”

“Another core feature of the cloud is the full replication and backup of all data and applications, thereby creating a secondary infrastructure,” Simon said.

In the event that an online store crashes, businesses can simply switch to the backup cloud server, allowing it to continue operations in a matter of minutes.

“Customers will always choose to transact with companies that offer a smooth and secure shopping experience. That said, those looking to be at the forefront must utilize the flexibility of cloud technology to satisfy customers, improve the overall business process, and maximize financial resources,” said Ramos.

According to ePLDT, a retailer’s success can only go so far depending on the capabilities of its cloud service provider. To reduce hiccups along the way, it recommends partnering with an entity that can provide a complete, end-to-end cloud service. This setup greatly reduces hassle, costs, resources, and time, as everything is handled by a single provider working from beginning to completion, without the involvement of any other third party.

As the industry-leading enabler of digital enterprise solutions in the country, ePLDT provides the full spectrum of capabilities — cloud resources, professional services, cloud connectivity, cloud security, and business applications — with an end-to-end cloud strategy and multi-cloud platform management service for the optimum cloud experience. This is further bolstered by the company’s ten VITRO Data Centers, the country’s largest network of data centers.

Retailers today face cutthroat competition that gets more intense by the day. The only way to survive and thrive is to adopt new technologies and maximize the opportunities they come with.