Why every business could benefit from migrating to the cloud

Companies were moving to the cloud in significant numbers long before COVID19 hit the world. Now the case for abandoning on-premises IT infrastructure has become even stronger.

Here, Luke Watts, Director of RoundWorks IT shares his insight into the benefits you get from migrating to the cloud.

Better remote security

On-premises IT networks have tended to be designed on the assumption that there are always going to be IT staff on-site to look after them. Remote working usually just meant that IT staff could undertake certain tasks from their desks rather than that they could work from anywhere.

Now, for many businesses, being able to support remote working is increasingly less likely to be optional. Even if you’d prefer to have all your staff on-site all the time, you need to have a backup plan. Right now, the main barrier to on-site working is almost certainly COVID19. Going forward, however, that may change.

The simple fact is that no business knows for sure what threats it’s going to face in the future. That’s exactly why all businesses need a robust plan for business continuity/disaster recovery. In many, if not most cases, having staff work remotely is by far the most sensible option. Using the cloud makes this relatively easy and can help to keep your business secure.

In the cloud, the vendor takes care of external security, i.e. keep attackers from getting into the cloud itself. The cloud user (or tenant) only has to take care of their own internal security. This basically means access control, configuration management and software/API selection and management.

Agility

If there’s one lesson COVID19 has taught the world, it’s that adaptability matters. The cloud is often referred to as “scalable”. This is true but it’s not the whole picture. Most, if not all, systems are scalable, at least to some extent. Where the cloud excels is its overall agility. Its scalability is just one part of this, albeit an important one.

With the cloud, you can do a lot more than simply increase or reduce what you already have. You can create whole new configurations literally with a few clicks. This kind of agility simply cannot be replicated in on-premises networks or even collocated infrastructure.

Cost-management

For many businesses, especially SMEs, financially, the key advantage of the cloud is not the fact that it’s cheaper. In fact, strictly speaking, that’s not guaranteed although it is highly likely. The key advantage is that costs can be managed a lot more easily.

Firstly, using the cloud eliminates the need for hefty upfront investment. For SMEs, this in itself can be enough justification for using it. SMEs can opt to lease equipment but if they do so they still need to manage the leases. They also need to manage the equipment or arrange for someone else to do it on their behalf.

Secondly, the main cloud vendors typically offer multiple pricing options. One very popular approach is to go for a contract to cover services you’ll know you’ll need. You can then add on extra services on an ad-hoc basis as, when and if you need them. This makes it much easier to budget and manage that all-important cash flow.

Greater overall efficiency

Using the cloud does tend to result in great overall efficiency. It should be noticed that part of this could be because the act of organizing a cloud migration encourages companies to reassess what they do and how they do it.

It is, however, also fair to point out that it can be much easier to make changes in the cloud than in on-prem networks. This means that it’s also easier to back-out changes in the cloud than in on-prem networks. Together, these facts can encourage businesses to develop their IT infrastructure in a way that just wouldn’t be viable in the on-prem environment.