Advantages of Moving to Cloud-Based Services
There are some of us who struggle with change. In the business world, success is often coupled with new trends. Throw in updates in technology with those business trends, and one can find themselves overwhelmed. Over the past few years, one can hardly get away without hearing “The Cloud” in relation to technology. It can seem a bit overwhelming for sure. Here are a few considerations when thinking about the next steps about moving to a cloud-based environment.
Wait, What’s “The Cloud” Again?
Think about this…you want a mouth-watering pizza with these amazing toppings. Can you make pizza at home? Sure you can, you just have to buy all the ingredients, have pizza oven (if you want to do it right!), and the time to make everything. OR, you could just call your favorite local pizza place. They have the specialized equipment, the best ingredients, and can do it in a shorter time than you could. Best part is, they deliver it to your door. This same concept can be said for technology in the cloud. Instead of your company purchasing the software (ingredients), servers and specialized equipment (pizza oven), Cloud-based solutions take care of it for you, and deliver solutions to your place of work virtually. From a high level view, servers at different locations around the world house software & applications, rather than it being on a server or equipment at your company. Let’s outline some of the benefits below.
What is all in The Cloud?
Glad you asked! The Cloud is such a wide-encompassing term, that we could spend hours exploring it. Broadly speaking there are three main areas where your business could benefit from transitioning some or all of your needs remotely. On the website www.geeksforgeeks.org, author Harshita Pandey outlines these categories very simply in her article, “Cloud Based Services”:
- Software as a Service (Saas): This method has companies deliver services & applications via the Internet. No need to install software, updates or patches! Some services are sold as subscriptions or pay as you go.
- Platform as a Service (Paas): Enables developers to build applications and services from the provider’s platform & environment. The provider hosts all the hardware & software within their network. When a developer (such as VectorOne!) is executing a project, they have the advantage of developing and deploying their solutions remotely, independent of their hardware. Developers can achieve more complex solutions with the host’s software & equipment, rather than utilizing their own.
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Also known as Hardware as a Service (HaaS). This service focuses on providing on one or more of the following: networking equipment, devices, database & web servers so developers can create necessary solutions.
These services can help your company achieve the following: equipment/infrastructure/ administrative cost savings, increased reliability, more flexibility, and centralized support. Reach out to IBM, AWS, Azure/Microsoft, Salesforce, etc., take the burden off your hands.
Let someone Else Deal With It!
Believe it or not, cloud-based technology and the transition from records to digital music are similar! I’m a vinyl person and love having all those records, turntable, and the stereo equipment that goes with it. If I have my whole library online with iTunes for example, I am not spending money on a turntable, receiver and speakers to listen to my music. I have more space in my home that records are not taking up. But as with the technology world, if you have all of your infrastructure onsite, you are looking at increased overhead costs for equipment, space, and maintenance to name a few. With having relying on cloud-based systems, you reduce the worry for support off your payroll. Save money & time by not having to purchase, install and trouble-shoot software and equipment. You don’t need a whole team to maintain services; maybe you can scale things back to one or two people. Savings & resources will add up quickly!
What Are the Other Benefits?
In addition to the apparent cost savings, there is something to be said about reliability and how it can affect your organization. Not having to house, maintain, and plan for your company’s technology needs is a huge relief to leadership and budget. Without having to house all that extra equipment extra work to maintain, your team can be more efficient and focus on your company’s goals and core competencies. Cloud companies have multiple locations to manage redundancy and backup of software, programs, and data.
When there are updates that need to be done, your provider can easily perform those tasks. Instead of having a team dedicated to constant maintenance and fixes, these functions are done remotely. Instead of having to upgrade software or install updates on multiple machines, this is done with the host and then branches down to all the users. Your employees will see reduced time waiting for machine updates and increased time focusing on important tasks.
Speaking of software updates, working within the Cloud structure allows your company to keep up with the latest technology. This flexibility means when Microsoft comes out with a new version of Office, it will be no sweat to make the transition. You will receive notifications about the upcoming changes, but your team will not have to make any changes to their machines. This also comes in handy when your company has to scale up to meet demands. When adding on team members, having a Cloud-based software & platform reduces your on-boarding time, and the time required to get that user’s equipment ready.
The last advantage (but there are certainly more!) that I will call out is having one’s Administrative needs centralized. I can have new users, security functions, and other changes done within one portal. If one needs to monitor network performance or create contingency plans, this is easier to be done when your resources are tied together within an outsourced platform. Think about this: if there was a fire/disaster at your physical location, what would be lost? Having a Cloud-based infrastructure allows for getting your employees and equipment up and functioning more quickly with little to no impact.
It This Really the Best for My Company?
Obviously one has to weight the pros & cons of each decision when it comes to costs and equipment management of their company. There are going to be costs for transitioning from current methodologies and equipment to a Cloud-based system. Reducing the strain internally of having to manage systems and equipment will be a realized savings faster than one might anticipate. One of the biggest wins however, might be gaining the agility that your company is lacking when comes to scaling to business needs. “This scalability minimizes the risks associated with in-house operational issues and maintenance. You have high-performance resources at your disposal with professional solutions and zero up-front investment. Scalability is probably the greatest advantage of the cloud”, states Vedran Bozicevic from his article Cloud Computing Benefits: 7 Key Advantages for Your Business.
What needs do you currently have that VectorOne
can help get your company on the right track? Whether it is a Cloud-Based solution or not, our team can present ideas and concepts tailored to your specifications. Drop us a line at hello@vectorone.com
, we would love to hear from you!
