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Cloud computing for large companies
Many large organisations want to modernise, but older IT systems, rising costs and security requirements can slow them down. Cloud computing helps your organisation become more flexible and easier to scale, if you choose the right setup for your applications, data and business needs
Move to cloud with control, not complexity
Cloud gives teams more flexibility, but it also needs clear agreements. Who manages what? How is data protected? How do you avoid unexpected costs? This page explains the basics of cloud computing and helps you understand which cloud solutions could fit your organisation.
Is your IT landscape holding you back?
If your organisation is considering cloud computing, these are the situations we hear most often from large companies and organisations.
Legacy is slowing you down
Older systems can make it harder to stay flexible. Keeping applications up to date takes more time and effort every year, while new change requests keep piling up.
How do you modernize without disrupting critical operations?
You need to move workloads in or out of cloud, but don’t know where to start
Your applications, data and teams are connected in many ways. Moving everything at once is rarely the right approach.
What should move first, what should stay, and what is the right sequence?
You have too many options and need confidence in the right choice
Many cloud providers promise similar benefits, but the right choice depends on your organisation’s needs.
Which approach fits your requirements for control, compliance, sovereignty, performance and budget?
If one or more of these situations sound familiar, cloud computing can be a strong foundation, provided it is designed for control and scale.
What is cloud computing?
Cloud computing means you use IT resources as a service, when you need them. Instead of buying and managing your own infrastructure, you access computing power, storage and software through cloud platforms.
This can run in a public cloud, private cloud, sovereign cloud or a combination of multiple environments, such as hybrid cloud (a combination of private and public cloud) or multicloud (using several public cloud providers alongside each other).
In large organisations, this only works well when security, costs and responsibilities are clearly managed.
Why cloud needs clear governance
In large organisations, cloud decisions affect many teams, suppliers and business processes. This is why cloud governance matters: clear rules for security, ownership, operations and costs help avoid uncontrolled growth, audit issues and unexpected costs later.
How does cloud computing work?
Cloud computing makes IT resources available faster. Teams can request capacity, storage or software via self-service portals or automated tools, often based on standard templates. This keeps environments consistent. Usage is measured so you can track costs. Monitoring, logging and security controls help manage performance, audits and incidents.
Cloud service models and deployment models explained
When people talk about “cloud”, they usually mean two different things. First, there is the type of cloud service you use: software, a platform or infrastructure. Second, there is the way your cloud environment is set up: public, private, hybrid or multicloud.
Cloud service models (the type of service you use)
IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)
You rent basic IT resources such as computing power, storage and networking. You still manage the operating system and the applications that run on it.
PaaS (Platform as a Service)
You use a platform to build and run applications, while the provider handles the underlying management, such as the operating system, updates and automatically adjusting capacity when demand increases or decreases.
SaaS (Software as a Service)
You use ready-made software delivered as a service, such as e-mail, collaboration software or CRM. You configure it, but you don’t manage the platform or infrastructure.
Deployment models (where it runs)
Public cloud
Cloud services from providers such as AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. You use their infrastructure on demand, while your data and environments remain separate from those of other organisations.
Private cloud
A dedicated cloud environment for one organisation, designed for more control, security and specific requirements.
Hybrid cloud
A connected environment that combines private and public cloud, often used to modernise step by step or support specific needs, such as fast local processing or data location requirements.
Multicloud
The use of several public cloud providers alongside each other, often for resilience, specific capabilities or organisational requirements.
What are neo-clouds?
Neo-clouds are specialised cloud providers focused on AI workloads. They offer on-demand access to powerful GPUs for AI, machine learning and other compute-intensive tasks, without the need for large upfront hardware investments.
What are the benefits of cloud computing?
For large organisations, the goal is not simply to use "more cloud". The goal is to improve flexibility, resilience and efficiency. Cloud can help you move faster and stay resilient, as long as it's implemented with clear governance.
The key advantages
Faster delivery
Set up new cloud environments quickly, so teams can start building and testing without waiting on hardware or long internal queues.
Elastic scalability
Increase or reduce capacity as demand changes, without investing in infrastructure you do not always need. This can also support connected sites, devices and edge use cases.
Resilience and continuity
Keep critical services available and recover faster when something goes wrong, using standard approaches for backup and disaster recovery.
Stronger security by default
Apply the same security rules across teams and platforms. This is especially important when employees use multiple tools, applications and digital workplace services.
Better audit and compliance readiness
Make it easier to prove what happened and who had access. Central policies and logs help you answer audit questions without chasing information across systems.
Clearer cost visibility
See what is used, by whom, and why. This makes it easier to allocate costs, spot waste and make informed choices about spending.
Step-by-step modernisation
Improve what matters first without disrupting the rest. Many businesses start with less critical or customer-facing applications and modernize core systems later.
AI readiness
Use AI for reporting, forecasting and process automation without losing control over data, security and costs.
Cloud security: what to clarify before you scale?
Cloud security protects your data, applications and user access in cloud environments. With cloud computing security responsibilities are shared: the cloud provider secures the cloud platform, while your organisation remains responsible for how users, applications and data are managed.
Common risks include misconfigured access, weak identity controls and inconsistent security policies across teams.
Basic principles of cloud security
Identity and access management (IAM)
Ensure the right people and systems have the right access, with least privilege and strong authentication.
Logging and monitoring
Track activity and security events so suspicious behaviour can be detected and investigated.
Encryption
Protect data in transit and at rest so it remains unreadable if intercepted or exposed.
Segmentation
Separate systems and applications so a security issue in one area does not spread to others.
Secure configuration
Apply standard security baselines and continuously check for misconfigurations.
Cloud compliance: what to clarify before you move?
For large companies and organisations, cloud decisions are rarely only technical. They also affect compliance, auditability and risk ownership. The goal at this stage is not to interpret laws, but to ask the right questions early so your cloud setup can meet business and compliance requirements from the start. Regulations such as the EU Data Act, AI Act, NIS2 and DORA often make these questions more urgent, especially in regulated or critical sectors.
Key questions to answer internally
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Who can access what, from where, and under which conditions (MFA, privileged access, third parties)?
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What evidence do you need for audits (logs, access records, change history), and how long must it be retained?
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Who responds when something happens, how fast, and how do you coordinate across providers and internal teams?
How do you keep cloud costs under control?
Cloud costs depend on how you use cloud services, how much data you store and transfer, and how much support you need from managed services. For large organisations, the goal is not "cheaper than on-prem" in every case but cost visibility and control: knowing what you spend, why you spend it, and how to prevent surprises as usage grows.
What affects your cloud costs?
Usage (compute)
The use of virtual machines, containers or cloud services over a certain period of time.
Storage
How much data you store, how often it is used and how quickly it needs to be available.
Data transfer (egress)
Moving data between cloud environments, regions or providers can create additional costs.
Licences
Software, databases, security tools, and enterprise subscriptions.
Operations and management
Monitoring, backups, updates, security management and operational support provided by your team or a partner.
Consultancy services
Support for strategy, architecture, migration planning and optimisation.
How do you prevent unexpected cloud costs?
Tagging and ownership
Make sure every cloud resource is linked to a team, application or project.
Budgets and alerts
Set limits and automatic warnings before costs start to escalate.
FinOps practices
Ensure IT, finance and business teams work together to monitor and optimise cloud costs.
Policies and guardrails
Define clear rules for what teams can deploy, use approved standard templates and switch off unused resources.
Choose the right cloud approach
Align applications and data with the right cloud model (private, public, hybrid or multicloud).
Ready to take the next step with cloud?
Now that you understand the cloud basics, use our checklist to prepare the decisions that will shape your cloud journey. The information you provide is crucial for Proximus NXT to recommend the right solution for your organisation (i.e. matching the right cloud to the right workload, within the right budget).
As your local partner, Proximus NXT can guide you end to end and take the operational burden off your teams when needed. We work as vendor-agnostic as possible to maximize value for you, selecting the best-fit approach based on your requirements, not on a single platform.
Frequently asked questions
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Cloud computing is the broader model of consuming IT as services (infrastructure, platforms and software) on demand. Cloud hosting usually means running applications or systems on cloud infrastructure, often in a more traditional hosted setup. If you want to explore practical approaches, start from the overview: explore our cloud solutions.
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Either can be secure. Security depends on how you design identity and access, logging, monitoring and operational processes.
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Hybrid cloud is often used when organisations want to modernise gradually, keep some applications under tighter control, and still benefit from public cloud services where it makes sense.
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Multicloud can make sense when different cloud providers are needed for different business needs, regions or security requirements—provided you have governance and operational consistency.
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Sovereign cloud typically focuses on stronger control over data location, access and governance, often driven by regulatory or sector requirements.
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Start with clear agreements on responsibilities, standards, tagging and budget control, combined with central management across multiple environments. If you’re dealing with multiple clouds, this page is a useful next read: Cloud Management Platform (CMP).
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Compliance becomes manageable when policies for data, access, logging and retention are defined once and enforced consistently across environments. If compliance is strongly linked to security in your business, you may also want to see: cybersecurity for large companies.
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Agree upfront on workload criticality, data requirements, service levels (availability/disaster recovery) and who owns operations, security and cost control.
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Many large companies and organizations do, especially when you need integration across network, identity and security, and clear operational ownership. Explore how Proximus NXT helps large companies beyond cloud.
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Edge computing processes data closer to users, devices or locations where fast response times or local processing are important. If you want background context, this article explains the concept and drivers: Edge computing: innovation at your doorstep.