The recent Covid pandemic has been a big jolt for most businesses. Businesses that did not have a set digital strategy suffered a major setback, with many shutting down operations permanently.
To sustain in the pandemic scenario organizations need to consider investing in digital and cloud solutions.
Progressive companies that had recognized the potential of cloud technology had invested in it during the initial days have reaped the benefits and experienced double-digit growth.
What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing involves delivering IT resources over the internet. It is an on-demand service with a pay as you use pricing structure. It is storing and accessing data and applications over the Internet instead of having them stored on the computer’s hard drive.
The organization does not have to invest in purchasing and maintaining data centres, servers and other IT resources. With an online connection, cloud computing is possible anytime and anywhere.
Businesses can access their database from cloud providers, like Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Google Cloud Platform as per their requirements.
What are the major reasons to migrate to cloud?
- Reduced costs
Optimizing a business requires a flexible infrastructure that can be possible with cloud technology. Cloud computing allows businesses to replace servers requiring expensive overheads and staff for its maintenance.
Cloud computing involves lower acquisition costs in comparison to spending a huge amount on purchasing perpetual licenses. The hardware costs are less as the business does not have to invest in purchasing new servers.
A research study by Gartner’s research and studies shows that shifting to the cloud can save around 14% in operating costs. A survey by CompTIA showed that cost savings were the key reason for most companies to move to the cloud.
- Improved collaboration
Thanks to cloud technology employees located in different parts of the country or world can simultaneously work and share documents/files in real-time. This leads to improved collaboration and efficiency of the employees.
Cloud computing enables collaboration and efficient working by making documents available to everyone located anywhere and at any time.
Some of the benefits of cloud-based collaboration are:
- Flexible work environments
- Improved and efficient communication with customers and vendors
- Boosts business scalability
- Facilitates workforce mobility
- Cuts down on operating cost
- Increased security
The biggest worry related to cloud migration in the earlier days was security. Over the years Cloud service providers have started providing higher levels of security and data integrity.
Cloud computing services like Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers in-built security capabilities that help protect your resources. It also offers protection to your data, helps monitor the accesses/activities and sends automated notifications.
Cloud computing ensures that valuable and sensitive data is no longer stored on individual devices like laptops or phones. The data can be stored on the cloud provider’s servers and can be securely accessed over the internet. One can also clear out all data from stolen laptops and phones remotely through the cloud.
- Backup and disaster recovery
One of the key benefits of migrating to a cloud is its robust backup and disaster recovery services. How is the cloud effective for backup and disaster recovery?
- Safety: When the company’s data is stored in the cloud the business does not have to worry about fire, flooding, or theft. The stored can be easily accessed, it is secured and stored on encrypted servers and systems minimizing any loss of data.
- Easy to recover: In case the data is lost or deleted due to some human or technical error, one need not worry. The data is safely backed up on the cloud. Multiple copies of the data are stored in locations independent of each other.
- Accessibility: The backed up data is always accessible as long as you are connected to the internet.
- Thrifty: Taking a backup on the cloud is less expensive than investing in tape drives, servers, or other hardware and software required for performing a manual backup. If a business maintains manual backups, then it needs to spend on transportation of media containing the backup data, security and safekeeping of the media, and employ skilled staff for managing and troubleshooting backup systems.
- Mobile Work Environment
Today more and more employees have started working remotely due to the pandemic. Companies have to create a mobile work environment to ensure work continues as before and the efficiency is also not affected.
Cloud services enable companies of all sizes to conduct business remotely in an affordable and effective manner. The cloud enables all the employees to connect securely through a virtual machine and continue their daily work.
The cloud allows the business to function efficiently similar to working in a traditional working environment. An effective mobile work environment is not only important during a pandemic but can also be very useful in case of business interruptions due to natural disasters, storms or cyber-attacks.
Final Words:
Migration to the cloud is the latest global trend for businesses across the world. Cloud migration offers convenience, helps save money and provides near-permanent uptime as compared to on-site infrastructure.
Thanks to the several benefits of migrating to a cloud, analysts have predicted public cloud infrastructure spending to rise to nearly $500 billion by 2023.
Reduced costs, improved efficiency, better backup and restore facilities are just a few of the cloud benefits. More importantly, cloud migration helps speed up IT modernization.
With the pandemic continuing its furore, remote work is here to stay for long. More organizations will need to take their digital operations to the cloud.
If you are planning to migrate to the cloud with a managed-IT service provider, Integral Choice is the best-managed service provider to partner with. We’re the leading provider of cloud solutions for any size business and our focus is on Customer Migration to hosted and contact centre IP services.