Have you got concerns about moving to the cloud? If you have, no doubt that’s stopping you from taking the cloud-leap. But, did you know, in most cases, moving to the cloud brings a host of benefits for businesses?
The 4 benefits
Moving to the cloud brings benefits around costs, functionality, scalability and security. We’ll take a look at each in a bit more detail and also what cloud migration actually is.
What is cloud migration?
Migration is just another word for moving. You may see it called ‘moving to the cloud’, ‘migrating to the cloud’ or ‘cloud migration’. It’s all the same thing, and essentially just means the moving of your business services from ‘on-premises’, IT that is physically located in your premises within hardware, to the internet, or ‘cloud’.
Almost all your business services and IT infrastructure, such as hosted desktops, backups and CCTV, etc. can be moved to the cloud, which you then remotely manage, with much less security risk, inconvenience and cost.
If you already use Office 365 or Google Drive you are already interacting with the cloud, even if you didn’t know it!
Reduced fixed asset, operational and maintenance costs
Have you noticed the rising costs of electricity? Never has there been a better time to move to the cloud. There are no costs associated with physical data storage and much less investment in hardware required. Added to this the much-reduced maintenance costs of the upkeep of hardware and the staff required to do it.
Plus, there are no heavy upfront contractual costs, since with cloud you only pay, on an ongoing basis for what you use.
82% of small and medium businesses report reduced costs as a result of adopting cloud technology.
Increased functionality – productivity and integration
Moving to the cloud doesn’t mean you need to overhaul all your systems and work in different ways, it should mean that everything you currently use and your system, is all in one place. You can be reassured that your current applications are just more secure and streamlined, and accessible for remote working.
Many businesses report increased productivity and significantly more efficient ways of working since improved communication between colleagues and integration of applications is enabled.
Improved scalability and adaptability
Business still utilising hardware, fixed cost contracts and one-size-fits-all services will have difficulties up or down scaling their business.
Not if you’re on the cloud.
Adaptability is crucial for businesses these days and with the cloud, you can use more or less depending on your needs, often without notice.
More secure than traditional systems
If your cloud migration is handled in the right way, by a managed provider, it will be more secure than a traditional setup. Security features include: analytics, updates and 24/7 remote monitoring.
Plus, a reputable managed service provider will take the security of your data extremely seriously and use one of a number reputable, ‘tiered’ datacentres, which they should be able to describe the security credentials of.
Once you move to the cloud, you won’t look back
Take the leap to the cloud, you won’t regret it. You’ll be unlocking benefits for your business that offer so many commercial advantages, not to mention service improvements for your customers.
Need to chat further about the cloud? Get in touch.
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