In advertising and news terms, the cloud is everywhere. But should you be considering it for your business?
Here are the top five questions raised by business owners and IT staff who are considering the move to modern, cloud technology, along with our comments:
Is it secure & resilient? For the vast majority of businesses, it is likely to be far more secure than the on-premise systems they are currently running. For our clients, all cloud systems and data are located in physically secure UK data centres equipped with the latest security and backup systems and are built using high-availability, self-healing hardware. These services are constantly monitored and checked to ensure correct operation – many local IT systems fall short in these critical areas.
Will it scale as my business grows? Yes. This is a massive benefit of cloud computing. If you need more processing power or storage space for your apps and data, they are easily added within minutes without the need for prolonged system down-time.
What does it provide in terms of worker flexibility? With the cloud you can work anywhere and on just about any device. If your business operates on Microsoft Office, you can access your apps and data on PCs, laptops, Macs, tablets and smartphones – all you require is a Wi-Fi or 3G Internet connection.
How is it supported? Because your apps and data are all stored in the cloud, they can be supported from a central location without the need to have technical staff dashing all over the country. This often removes the need to have an IT services contract to support traditional on-premise systems with the traditional ‘break-fix’ approach, which leads nicely on to…
Will it save me money? Yes, if well-planned and implemented. We have already highlighted the potential reduction in support and fuel costs but you can also save time, capital (hardware) costs, software upgrade costs and much more.
At Cloud Heroes, we are happy to discuss all the issues surrounding cloud computing in order for you to decide if it is the right approach for your business IT systems. Please contact us to arrange a no obligation discussion.
