The cloud is often viewed with suspicion by those that have spent years developing a sophisticated and robust on-premise infrastructure, but it has much to offer and is more friend than foe.
It is difficult to ignore the lure of the cloud and for those still assessing its benefits alongside their still-capable on-premise infrastructure, we believe we have three compelling reasons why now is the time to consider a hybrid solution to develop your data centre.
Reason 1 for cloud – think enhancement not replacement
Choosing to adopt cloud services to extend, rather than replace your existing infrastructure can increase reliability and performance, whilst expanding your capabilities.
Cloud will help you deliver secured mobile apps anywhere you have users, whilst reducing the time and effort you expend on theĀ edges of your IT responsibilities.
Now, within the first of our three reasons, we need to highlight four areas that we believe will benefit significantly from you embracing cloud technologies to enhance your on-premise resources.
1. Disaster recovery and backup – improve business continuity provision through better protection of data and applications.
- A great first step in adopting cloud technology
- Protect apps and data against equipment failure and natural or manmade disasters
- Your business data will be accessible from just about anywhere
2. IdentityĀ – cloud lets you manage user identities and access more efficiently, wherever they are.
- You can provide access to cloud apps with single sign-on
- Empower users to self-manage by resetting their own accounts and passwords
- New security technology and updates automatically applied
3. Datacentre extension – no building work or significant investment needed to expand capabilities.
- Add enterprise-grade virtual machines quickly to meet growing demand
- Connect new virtual machines to existing on-premise infrastructure
- Demand-led capacity can be switched off and on as needed
4. Database and SQL as a service – apply hyper-scale tolls on demand to cope with big data needs.
- Scale-up or down easily without waiting days to implement new hardware
- Converge different data streams from separate platforms
- Manage high volumes of data more quickly and more easily
Okay, if that’s still not enough to convince you that cloud is your friend and you should discuss next steps with us, let’s take a quick look at another couple of reasons why cloud offers what you need.
Reason 2 for cloud – it’s the future and you’re not King Canute
Hybrid is recognised as a viable solution to the challenge of a mobile-first, cloud-first world, but don’t just take our word for it.
Leading global market research company IDC delivered the following view of 2017 in its ‘Worldwide Mobile Enterprise Applications Predictions’ report:
- 25% of IT software budgets will cover mobile app development, deployment and management
- 75% of internal core business apps will be optimised for mobile
- 100% of customer-facing core business apps will be mobile optimised
By choosing a hybrid future, you have the best of both worlds.
Your on-premise architecture delivers fast local access to large files and lets you closely control access to sensitive information. It also ensures compliance with industry-specific regulations, where appropriate.
And the cloud offers improved data storage and backup, combined with on-demand hyper scalability. It also delivers secured distributed access to mobile apps; what’s not to like?
That’s two reasons down and one to go, but now it’s going to get personal; we’re going to talk about you, in a good way.
ReasonĀ 3 for cloud – time to get personal
The cloud is not a threat to the role of IT professionals, but a great way for mundane day-to-day activities to be delegated and free up your valuable time for more important activities. You will have sufficient time to ensure IT is an enabler for growth of your business and not a stumbling block.
Your on-premise architecture gives you a lot to do. You have to source, purchase and implement hardware, then maintain the infrastructure, systems and services. You must identify and replace outdated equipment, clean infected devices and update software. And we know almost all of your activity goes unnoticed by the wider business.
Embracing cloud to deliver a flexible and adaptable hybrid solution puts IT front and centre in every modern business. You will be central to helping groups in your business with new applications and projects, not just broken equipment and missing files.
You and your IT team, supported by specialist service providers like Quiss, will help increase productivity and efficiencyĀ throughout the business, whilst managing services more effectively as the needs of the business change.
Being able to spend more time on analysis and less on maintenance, you will identify new opportunities by charting data flows and business process information – you will become invaluable to the future success of the business. You’re welcome.
If pressed, we can probably come up with a few more reasons why now is a good time to adopt some cloud technology to develop your business, so get in touch and we’ll talk you through a few more.
Clive Taylor, Operations Director, Quiss Technology plc
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