Thinking about moving to the cloud?

Are you concerned about moving to the cloud?

A lot of business owners are put off with the idea of moving their IT systems to the cloud. This stems from concerns about security and where data is stored, worrying that the internet isn’t fast enough, thinking it is too expensive or simply not trusting something because of not understanding how it works.

It's not a matter of if, but when...

First and foremost, the cloud is where everyone will end up, it is not a matter of if, but a matter of when,  because the technology firms are pushing for everything to be in the cloud in the near future so that they can get all customers on a subscription model.

Security is Key in Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is very secure, it is in the technology firms’ interests to make sure their services are as secure as possible to protect their own reputation as well as their customers. Bad news travels fast, these businesses know that, so they invest in their security, however, this doesn’t absolve responsibility from the customer’s own security. It just means there are a lot of security options for the customers of the cloud service. The cloud service providers also work with each other to ensure that their services integrate with each other, making sure that customers are not blocked from choosing their service and can also work more collaboratively.

The other benefits of moving to the Cloud 

• Cloud service provides also allow customers to choose where they geographically store their data, this is to ensure that a customer can adhere to their country’s data policies such as GDPR so they can ensure compliance.

• Cloud services are optimised so that they can work over a typical broadband connection.  There are certain circumstances where using cloud services over a local service is detrimental, typically if working with large files such as video files or design files, then a slow internet connection will not help. But for most organisations data usage, cloud services are ideal, especially with the flexibility that working in the cloud provides. It is what helped a lot of organisations get their staff working from home so rapidly during the pandemic and if there is a user working from home, they typically find a similar or better experience working in the cloud as they do in the office.

• One of the refreshing things about cloud services is the change in how they charge for the service, instead of a capital expense to buy a produce and refresh it every 3-5 years with another capital expense, it is an operational cost, with a small monthly fee per user for the service(s) the organisation consumes.

• Organisations can flex consumption of services up and down each month as circumstances change. If an organisation needs to rapidly expand for a new project, then it can flex up subscriptions temporarily without committing to a long-term purchase. It also helps organisations with their cashflow by allowing the finance department to budget IT on a month-by-month basis, most financial teams prefer operational expenditure rather than capital expenditure, which depreciates.

• Saving the best until the very last…… the cloud is ever green, in other words, the service you subscribe to from the cloud provider will always be up to date and current, no more using out of date software that is not compatible with other clients.

Fear of the unknown

The last thing that puts organisations off is not understanding how these services work, but this should not put an organisation off moving to the cloud, the best way to understand how cloud services work is to see it in action.  We can setup a free 30-day trial for the majority of cloud service providers to help explain how it all works.  Contact us for more information. 

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