Why Should Your Business Move to the Cloud?
Capital investment in communication equipment, servers, storage, software, maintenance, and security is a significant line item in corporate budgets. But there is also a hidden cost that is often overlooked by business owners themselves: the valuable IT resources expended on technology issues which are not mission-critical. Fortunately, there is a cost-effective solution available to you when, not if, you choose to migrate your business to the cloud. Solutions include guarantees related to the safety and security of your data, the ability to lower your capital expenditures, and the ability for your IT personnel to focus solely on the job they were hired to do. And the fact that your business already uses various cloud-based applications daily will make the transition to a full cloud-based solution easier than ever before.
When Should Your Business Move to the Cloud?
Sooner rather than later. Capital equipment and software depreciate quickly as technology improves, these days at an ever-increasing rate. Accelerating your company’s transition to the cloud now will allow you to reallocate your capital expenditures and IT personnel in such a way as to increase the value of your business and allow your technology infrastructure to scale with your business. Ultimately the focus of your management team is growth and profitability. That’s why today, more than ever, utilizing cloud solutions provides you with a roadmap to your company’s growth and success.
What Cloud Service Strategy is right for my Company?
There are many cloud service vendors to choose from. Most small- to medium-sized enterprises favor cloud-based solutions in general because they’re flexible, affordable, scalable, mobile, and secure. They also represent an operational cost within your budget that is more manageable than a large capital outlay.
Here are three cloud-based options to consider: IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), and SaaS (Software as a Service).
IaaS is much like a hosting model but with virtualized provisioning. Your business uses resources on a “cost-per-unit” basis, thus minimizing the expense and allowing your business to scale up or down as needed.
PaaS includes base-level IT resources as well as the operating system itself. Your cloud services provider supplies the platform on a subscription basis. This model offers a virtualized, responsive, and robust environment even when things are slow but has the ability as well to ramp up as your business grows.
SaaS is the ultimate cloud-based solution. The vendor provides a customized software plan on a subscription basis that supplies everything your company needs for a successful cloud-based experience, including, but not limited to, the data storage facility, computer hardware, applications, data security, patching, and updates.
What Should You Look For?
When you outsource IT infrastructure, one of the key components to negotiate is a suitable Service Level Agreement (SLA). It is also critical to ensure that your provider has a robust Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) for both your custom software and your hardware platform, although with Software as a Service (SaaS) products, like Email, Salesforce, and Adobe Acrobat, the majority of disaster recovery issues are dealt with by the provider.
Does it Make Sense for my Company?
The affordability, flexibility, and responsiveness cloud-based services offer make a great deal of sense for anyone managing a business. The secret to success is based on choosing a cloud-based enterprise solution tailored to your unique needs, one that allows you to lower capital expenditures and focus your team towards revenue growth and profitability.
