Move Your Business Quickly to the Cloud
Shifting to cloud-based communications and technologies has become integral to many companies over recent years. The term cloud computing embraces the concept of moving a business’s back-end computing infrastructure to data centers of various providers rather than housing it at your place of business (on-premise). Common applications and hardware that can easily be moved to the cloud include servers, application platforms, databases, accounting tools, email clients, and even phone and other digital communication platforms.
The big advantage of moving the back-end operations to the cloud is that they offer scalable solutions. There is great flexibility to align business needs with corresponding expansions and declines – you only pay for what you need. This model is a tremendous change from the historical way of addressing IT infrastructure needs, in which businesses had to absorb large, periodic capital expenditures to lower consistent operational spending.
While many businesses have begun or are in the midst of migrating their operations to the cloud, there have been some companies hesitant to make this change, primarily due to security concerns. And while security concerns were valid in the early days of cloud computing, many cloud service providers have grown to the point where they can offer greater levels of security than on-premise solutions can.
For those holdouts, COVID-19 has provided the incentive needed to hasten and prioritize their migration to the cloud. Cloud solutions are often far more cost-effective, making them an integral strategy for businesses trying to weather uncertain economic times.
And as many companies are scrambling to implement secure and reliable remote working solutions, and cloud environments are ideal for this type of IT infrastructure. Data clouds offer a secure way for employees to work from anywhere and increase collaboration and communication capabilities across their team.
While many different applications, platforms, clients, and hardware devices can be moved to the cloud, here are some examples of high-productivity tools that can relatively easily be moved to a cloud environment.
- For email: Microsoft’s Office 365 or Google’s Gmail
- For office applications: Microsoft’s Office 365 or Google’s G-Suite
- For file storage: Microsoft’s SharePoint and OneDrive or Google GoogleDocs
- For servers: Microsoft Azure or Amazon’s AWS
- For accounting: Intuit’s QuickBooks in the Cloud
- For phones: any of several high-quality VoIP providers
Cloud solutions will likely be a core strategy for many companies as they get through the COVID-19 pandemic, and it can provide the key to remaining successful long after the pandemic clears. Cloud-hosted applications offer scalable solutions for a mobile workforce, which may be particularly crucial right now. However, it is highly likely that remote working will remain prevalent long after the pandemic as businesses seek more secure, efficient, and cost-effective ways to reach and serve their customers.
COVID-19 has forced many business leaders to reconsider their business processes, operations, and business models, and many of these companies are undergoing a rapid transformation to adapt to new working styles and outpace their competitors. Cloud computing can be a critical component of this transformation, and one that can prepare your business for the future of work.
The scalability offered by the cloud can ensure that your business grows and responds to changing market conditions, which can improve its current and future financial viability – this flexibility is the key to ensuring your company makes it through turbulent economic times.
The chaos and uncertainty that COVID-19 has caused is forcing many business leaders to make tough choices about the future of their company. It has also underscored the need for rapid responses to changing circumstances and market demand – no matter what your industry may be. The key to future success for nearly all companies will be ensuring that you have the flexibility and agility to adapt nimbly to these changes, even long after the pandemic clears. Because if you aren’t on the cloud, you can bet many of your competitors are, leaving you in a poor competitive position.
If you need to move your business quickly to the cloud, Sagacent Technologies can help. We started migrating clients to the cloud way back in 2008, and today nearly all of our clients have a significant part of their IT infrastructure in the cloud.
If you need help getting your employees trained on security best practices, call at 408-248-9800, or email us at info@sagacent.com.
Sagacent Technologies offers premium IT services, delivered in an unlimited, all-you-can-eat manner, at a fixed monthly fee, all specifically designed & performed to significantly reduce the IT business risks of Data Loss, Security Breaches, Business Interruptions, and Compliance failures.
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