No technology is a hundred percent failproof, and as businesses get more and more digitalized, they’re also unwillingly increasing the risk of someone stealing their data or compromising their credibility. Therefore, before taking their business to the cloud, organizations must carefully choose the platforms that ensure the safety and compliance of their data while enabling them to seize the opportunities available to them.

In this infographic, you’ll catch a glimpse of both sides of cloud technology: on one hand, the immense opportunities it provides in terms of innovation and mobility; and on the other, the risks that businesses must be aware of to safeguard the continuity of their operations in the digital world.

View: 6 risks and opportunities of the intelligent, connected cloud

Data. There’s a lot of it, and it’s everywhere. Azure cloud services helps organizations manage all aspects of their volumes of data. Here is an example of how a company in the oil and gas industry could utilize Azure Cosmos DB for data acquisition and Power BI for rich analytics with real-time insights. Through partnering with Microsoft, a company like Lizo would be able to actualize their vision of next-generation data analysis and visualization. Watch this and look for additional Lizo videos to demonstrate the capabilities and power of Azure!

Digital hasn’t only made things more comfortable for us, it’s also made them better for those without access to basic health or basic services around the world. One example of this is, by creating an interconnected world, we gain a better understanding of how technology can be used to control our natural resources more efficiently and accessibly. While these use cases may be employed in the First World to make existing services self-sustainable and cleaner, in more remote parts of the globe they can be used to create new services that make life better for everyone.

Subscribe now to learn more about how you can utilize Microsoft Azure to make your clean energy solutions a reality.

View: Harness the power of affordable, clean, and sustainable energy. Learn more about Microsoft Azure.

It’s no secret that modern consumers are unforgiving. But then again, never before have businesses been armed with so many options for creating exceptional experiences, and becoming more efficient organizations.

Digital transformation has become the great equalizer between large and small to medium-sized retailers, and thanks to tools like Microsoft Dynamics 365, turning revenue-increasing initiatives into reality is easier than ever.

Subscribe now to learn more about the digitalization of retail and how you can get started re-envisioning your business with Microsoft.

View: Use digital transformation to deliver outstanding retail experiences. Learn more about Microsoft Strategic Retail Solutions.

Regardless of the nature of your organization, keeping your data secure and ensuring compliance are two of the most demanding priorities. After all, what good is creativity, efficiency, and talent if they can get easily stolen, copied, or shut down because of outdated technology?

The good news is that even though these requirements are as crucial as they’ve ever been, never before have businesses been vested with so many alternatives to customize the way they do business. In fact, the cloud has allowed organizations to shift their manpower from security and compliance to increasing productivity and innovation.

Subscribe now to learn about digital transformation success stories and how you can ensure your business remains secure and compliant with Microsoft.

View: Drive security and compliance across the entirety of your business. Learn more about Microsoft 365.

“Work smarter, not harder” has become the motto of the digital age. Yet in some parts of the world where modern technology is not accessible, hard, manual labor is the only choice people have to get things done.

For example, in parts of Africa where running water is not available, farmers like Monica must manually extract water from a well and distribute it amongst her family, crops, and animals. This isn’t just exhausting but also extremely inefficient, and can lead to small yields for such an extensive level of effort. To make matters worse, seasonal changes greatly impact the amount of water available, making life for people like Monica that much harder.

So, how can you leverage the power of modern technology to help these farmers produce more food and secure a better future? Watch this video to learn how SunCulture is using solar energy to bring hope and prosperity to Monica and more farmers like her in Kenya.

Some would argue that grocery shopping, price tags, and offers go hand in hand. However, traditional paper coupons and price tags are extremely inefficient. First and foremost, they’re the opposite of environmentally friendly and most of them end up as unrecycled waste. Then there’s the issue of production costs, which not only include the production of thousands of assets, but also the logistics of their storage and distribution. Lastly, there’s the manual effort involved in changing, including, or updating hundreds of price tags across retail stores.

Thankfully, digital transformation has allowed for creative and effective ways for grocery stores to leave paper behind forever. In this video, you’ll learn how retail industry giant Kroger is leading the way to more efficient, impactful, and eco-friendly supermarket experiences.

Ensuring citizen safety is the utmost concern of any local government. With so many things that can go wrong at any given time, it pays to have the best technology available aiding these efforts to enable accurate situation analysis, quick response times, and effective monitoring of the response teams involved. Fortunately, digital transformation has empowered the rapid evolution of cities’ response protocols and opened the door for new capabilities to be integrated into their existing efforts.

In this video, you’ll learn how the City of Houston has embraced digital, and the IoT to ensure disaster recovery and response, keeping schools safe, and guaranteeing transportation, trust, and mobility.

If you’re reading this, then chances are that getting easy access to clean, running water isn’t an issue for you. But for around 43 percent of the world’s total population, this simply is not the case. For them, obtaining the drinkable water they need to sustain their families requires hard work and commitment.

To make matters even more critical, most of them live in rural areas in which farming is their main source of income. This means that any available water must be carefully distributed between their crops and family, an exhausting situation that can take all day just to keep a small patch of land in farmable condition.

Such is the case for Monica, a Kenyan farmer who every day must assume the roles of mother of four, farmer, merchant, and housekeeper just to make ends meet. In this video, you’ll learn how she managed her dwindling water supply to keep her farm yielding, family fed, and trade at the local market—a situation that was soon to improve dramatically thanks to modern technology.

It’s time to go grocery shopping: you’ve built your list—a critical requirement and pro move—and written down everything you need. Before digital transformation, you simply got into your car and drove to the supermarket of choice. But what was that choice based upon? Distance, price, product selection? Most likely it was a combination of the three, but rarely was it the uniqueness of your experience with the store’s brand.

In other words, if two supermarkets offered the same price ranges, product selections, and were right next to each other, most people wouldn’t mind shopping at one or the other. This was an obvious problem for grocery stores. But without digital, the dynamics of grocery shopping were pretty much set in stone.

In this video, you’ll see how Kroger—the United States’ largest supermarket by revenue and the second-largest general retailer—embraced digital transformation, and learn about their vision for using the tools available to offer new services and experiences to their customers.