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Efficiency is one of the biggest benefits of moving to the cloud. Fifty-five percent of IT professionals say increased efficiency is one of the main benefits their company has experienced by moving to the cloud, along with increased employee ability, more ability to innovate and more freedom to shift IT staff to other projects, CDW reports. Here are three examples of successful companies that are increasing their efficiency by using the cloud.

Netflix

One company that has enjoyed explosive growth by moving to the cloud is Netflix. Originally offering physical DVD rentals by mail, in 2008 the company began moving to the cloud following a database problem that prevented DVD shipments for three days. To resolve this, the company decided to move away from an infrastructure with vertically scaled, single failure points in their local datacenter to horizontally distributed, scalable cloud systems. Netflix decided to go with Amazon Web Services (AWS) based on AWS' scalability and range of features and services.

By the time Netflix completed its cloud migration in 2016, the company was enjoying over 1,000 percent growth, with eight times as many members. This rapid growth was facilitated by the AWS cloud's efficiency, which enabled Netflix to scale up at will, adding thousands of virtual servers and storage petabytes within minutes when needed.

AWS' cloud servers are also distributed around the world, enabling Netflix to shift resources where needed in order to efficiently stream videos to users anywhere. This capability allowed Netflix to expand into 130 new countries this year.

Meanwhile, Amazon is also leveraging its success with companies such as Netflix, by launching a new cloud migration service. Amazon reported that more than 1,000 companies used the service during the preview.

Apple

Not all companies migrating to the cloud are necessarily going with Amazon. Apple is reportedly shifting its cloud use away from AWS toward its own private cloud. Since 2011, Apple has reportedly been using AWS and Microsoft Azure to run some of its cloud services, a rumor confirmed in 2014 by a white paper acknowledging that Apple stored encrypted portions of iOS files on AWS and Azure. Morgan Stanley estimates that Apple spends $1 billion annually on AWS.

But earlier this year, Apple began spending $400 to $600 million on Google Cloud Platform services, reducing its dependence on Amazon and Microsoft. Following the disclosure, additional sources came forth to reveal that the move is part of an Apple effort to develop its own in-house cloud infrastructure, an endeavor dubbed Project McQueen.

Project McQueen was prompted by the fact that Apple's growth was running ahead of even Azure's capacity, sources say. The project is intended to bring Apple's massive database of iTunes and iCloud files under one infrastructure in order to more efficiently deliver services to Apple customers.

Findley Davies Other companies are increasing the efficiency of their customer service by moving their contact center infrastructure to a cloud contact center. Human resources consulting firm Findley Davies uses cloud technology at its contact center to answer client questions about benefits packages for health and wellness programs, pensions and 401(k) plans. Using the cloud gives Findley Davies employees the flexibility to log in from anywhere, giving the company an expanded national presence. Meanwhile, the cloud enables efficient information exchange between the company's locations around the country, resulting in faster service to clients.

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How Successful Companies Increase Efficiency - The Suit Magazine