The availability of cloud services has made making large capital investments into IT infrastructure redundant. It has helped start-ups and small and mid-sized businesses in Kitchener benefit from agile capabilities to outpace legacy rivals that rely on ‘in-house’ and ‘self-owned’ infrastructure.
Cloud computing has made investing in expensive, specialized and energy-guzzling servers a thing of the past. Now, remote servers and subscription models offer the same utility at a fraction of the price. IT professional services can help you figure out what’s best for you.
There are hundreds of advantages of upgrading to a cloud based server, but we’ll keep this list fairly short at 10.
Scalability
Flexible services – Cloud-based services allow businesses to adopt and offload services as they need. It is fast and easy to scale up capacity with little notice. Truly, ‘just-in-time’ services for a rapidly evolving market. This operational agility gives businesses a real edge over competitors. Service Level Agreements allow tremendous flexibility in deployment. CIOs appreciate hassle-free deployment of services.
Competitive advantage – If your competitor is taking months to plan, procure and hire additional capacity, you have a big advantage over them. It is how small and agile businesses have been able to compete with established competitors. Best of all, cloud-based servers empower small and mid-size businesses with the same business intelligence and analytics tools that the big outfits have access to.
According to a study, 94% of business reported an improvement in security after they switched to cloud-based servers and services.
Technical capability
Powerful dashboards – Keeping track of the exact status of a task has never been easier. Powerful and visual dashboards let you, or your IT consulting firms, see the status of all interconnected operations. From server uptime to file sharing, monitoring and assessing organizational efficiencies is a cinch.
Increased collaboration – It is hard to overstate the benefits of ‘everything, everywhere’ the cloud enables. Connecting remote teams seamlessly and permitting them access to critical information securely has revolutionized the way business is done. Version control and user hierarchy enables total control over collaboration too.
Document control – Have trouble managing tens or hundreds of versions of a document flying between company teams? Having the document in the cloud makes it supremely easy – and much safer too. The cloud-based storage server does the heavy lifting as it ensures all participants have the same file.
Nearly 75% of Canadian organizations have shifted at least part of their IT delivery to the cloud.
Maintenance
Automatic updates – Cloud servers are maintained by IT consulting firms whose priority is the security and stability of the server. The latest feature updates and security patches are installed promptly – but without disrupting your workflow. You don’t have to worry how long (and if) your in-house IT team will take to roll out the update across your organization.
Agile security – The best way to secure information is to not have it! Lost laptops, tablets and smartphones are one of the biggest security concerns for companies and the IT professional services they use. Hacking attempts are a close second. With cloud computing, sensitive business information is stored on an off-site server, keeping it immune from ‘local’ cyberattacks. Moreover, since information is served to mobile devices on a ‘receive-as-you-need’ basis, the risk of information loss is reduced as well. Of course, remotely connected devices can be managed (and wiped) over the cloud too.
Disaster Recovery – Cloud Backup for Business
Rapid restoration – From natural disasters to accidental loss of data, every organization requires disaster recovery at one time or another. Where disaster recovery timelines were measured in days, with cloud backup for business they can be as short as minutes or hours! Since cloud servers are off-site, they are far less likely to be affected by whatever caused data loss at your business.
Cost
Agile workforce – The cloud enables more informed sales, better organized remote operations and off-site work. Cloud-based services, including mobile apps free you and your employees from being tethered to their terminals. Did you know, many workers are willing to take pay cuts to be able to work remotely!
Low capital expenditure – Deploy the latest technologies with none of the associated costs. Unlike in-house servers and services, you don’t have to bear the enormous capital expenditure. Rather, it is spread over hundreds, maybe thousands, of users who subscribe to the latest tools and capabilities for as long as they want. Never has IT adoption been as easy or affordable.
Speak to an EMKAL representative in Kitchener to find out how we can help you migrate your operations to the cloud.