5 Reasons You Should Migrate Your Business to a Cloud IT Solution

You’ve heard of the cloud by now, and we’re sure you’ve considered moving at least some of your business’s services off-site, but you may not have considered how much time, money and effort can be saved. We explore a few of the ways you can take the pain out of technology by moving your IT infrastructure to the cloud.

A Simpler, Clearer Budget

When budgeting for on-site servers, there are a lot of factors to consider, even if you’re paying for a third-party support contract. Each of these factors – electricity, space and cooling, amongst others – add both cost and another layer of complexity to your budget.

That would be okay if the solution you install is permanent, but of course it’s not. The average lifespan of a server is between 3 and 5 years, so you’ll need to repeat the process again not long after ironing out all the inevitable teething issues of your system.

Frustrating, isn’t it? Cloud systems are specifically designed to take these problems off your hands. Services like Microsoft 365 are turn-key solutions, slotting straight into your staff’s workflows without any hardware, giving you a fixed monthly cost to plan to and ensuring total reliability.

Responsive and Agile Infrastructure

Another hurdle to overcome with on-site systems is that in many cases you’re forced to choose between minimising up-front investment and allowing room for future expansion.

Hardware can often be a barrier to growth as a business. With server costs running into thousands, you can find yourself having to compromise when it becomes time to upgrade. In our experience we find businesses are often forced to sacrifice functionality in order to build a system they can afford.

With the recent proliferation of cloud services this has been turned on its head. Microsoft’s Azure, for example, lets you add capabilities and power to your servers as your workforce and customer base grow. The ability to scale seamlessly and painlessly allows businesses to run leaner than ever before while still providing cutting-edge technology to their staff and clients.

Flexibility in the Cloud

On-site technical infrastructure places a lot of demands on your office. Aside from any headaches it causes when you’re settled in a building, moving office causes all sorts of problems. If you’ve got anything more than the most basic of servers, you’ll have to plan your new building’s network, air-conditioning, power and connectivity around your servers to get the best performance.

This adds unnecessary stress and cost to an already difficult process – if you’ve ever needed to move a piano between houses you’ll have an idea of how hard it is to safely move servers to your new office. We won’t even mention the added expense of running replicated hardware solutions on two sites.

The benefits of cloud systems here are obvious. Since the hardware running your services is tucked away in data centres, there’s nothing for you to move. Everything’s accessed over the internet, so all you need to do is plug computers in at your new office and pick up where you left off.

Work From Anywhere

Remote access is far from guaranteed if you’re still running on-site servers for your staff’s tools. Building your own robust and secure server rack to be safely accessible from home is certainly easier than it used to be, but it’s still not something you could tackle without your own IT team.

Network security becomes your biggest concern when you host your own data and services – if a hacker were to break into your network they could wreak havoc. It should come as no surprise that the enterprise-grade network and security tech you need to enable safe and secure remote access for your staff is not cheap, and is no picnic to configure.

So why not let the experts worry about it? Cloud services, by their very nature, work from home. If you already use Microsoft 365 you know how useful collaborative editing and shared cloud storage is when you’re in the office, let alone when you’re locked down at home. Remote desktops take this one step further by giving your staff access to specialist work apps and cloud processing power from any internet connection.

The Latest Features

If you’re anything like us you always want to get your hands on the latest and greatest technology to improve your business, however can the cost always be justified?

Deploying new apps and technologies to your staff used to involve investing in new hardware, carving out space in a crowded server rack, and possibly even network-wide downtime while it’s installed. All-told, it could take several months to deploy new technology or even just upgrade your existing apps to the latest release.

No wonder so many businesses are running outdated systems and making do. Fortunately, times are changing, and this is just one more headache cloud systems save you from. Since the cloud systems are managed by either the manufacturers themselves or experts like us, they’re always running on the latest versions, so you can constantly take advantage of the newest developments.

Now the real benefit here is that upgrading to the latest tech each time doesn’t cost you a thing. It’s in your cloud suppliers’ interest to host all their clients on one version of software, so to charge for upgrades would be counter-productive. You can be assured that your business is always using the latest, most secure and feature rich solutions available.

Chalvington are experts of cloud technology. Whether you’re looking for a simple Microsoft 365 migration, or you’ve got a full server rack providing customer-facing tools and specialist apps to your staff, we can help you make the switch to the cloud.