Why your next software installation should be in the cloud

No doubt you've experienced the global pandemic’s impact on business. This impact continues to surface in both small and big ways, from evolving security threats to the lasting effects of remote and hybrid work. In response, many organisations like yours have accelerated their migration to the cloud and began to take digital transformation more seriously. As Microsoft’s CEO famously said early in the pandemic, they witnessed “two years of digital transformation in two months” as customers quickly adopted cloud solutions. 

The rise of cloud adoption

Even before the pandemic, cloud adoption was already on the rise. SaaS applications were increasing, and more companies, like yours, were moving their build infrastructure to platforms like Azure and AWS. Today, that shift’s matured into a broader strategy: cloud-first development environments, containerised delivery pipelines, and modern licensing models that support dynamic usage and deployment needs. The focus has shifted from just moving to the cloud, to making the cloud work smarter, enabling flexibility, visibility, and resilience in an increasingly fast-moving market. 

Cloud technology's been around for a while. What you might not know is that it's believed to have been invented way back in the 1960s by Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider with his work on ARPANET. The first wide area packet-switched network and one of the first networks to use the TCP/IP protocol suite. The capabilities obviously grew from there, as did spend on cloud technology. According to Flexera's 2025 State of the Cloud Report, nearly one-third (33%) of organisations are spending more than $12 million annually on public cloud services. 

If you’ve not moved to the cloud, it’s time you put it into your strategy. Below, we explore some of the amazing benefits of moving software installation to the cloud.

What cloud adoption means for installers

Traditional installation workflows, such as manually triggered builds, local packaging, and static installers, aren’t keeping pace with modern software delivery. Today, more teams are moving installation builds to the cloud, integrating them directly into CI/CD pipelines for faster, more reliable packaging. Building in the cloud means you don’t get bottlenecks tied to individual machines or limited environments. It’s scalable, repeatable, and better aligned with agile development practices, so your installation process evolves as quickly as your product does. 

Modern build pipelines are increasingly cloud-native by design. Whether you're using GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD, or Azure DevOps, the expectation is clear: your builds should be automated, version-controlled, and portable. Cloud-based infrastructure makes it easy for you to spin up ephemeral build agents, run parallel jobs, and integrate seamlessly with testing and deployment workflows. For installation builds, this means moving away from manual steps and embracing automation that fits naturally into your existing pipeline. 

Security’s no longer just your final checkpoint, it needs to be included in every stage of your build process, including installation. Cloud-based pipelines make it easier to enforce consistent security policies, integrate code signing, and automatically generate SBOMs as part of your release. With increasing regulatory focus on software supply chain integrity, especially for vendors selling into critical infrastructure or the federal government, building securely isn’t optional – it’s expected.