4 Reasons to Move to the Cloud

Cloud computing has revolutionized how organizations connect with their employees, customers, and business partners. It significantly reduces operational and maintenance costs, facilitates business continuity throughout the global pandemic, improves employee productivity and allows for faster technological development/deployment. Cloud computing utilizes the internet to deliver applications/services. It is now a widely adopted practice for businesses to store their data/applications on cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS).  

So, What Are the Benefits of Moving to the Cloud? 

1. Increase Business Productivity, Revenue and Safety 

Being able to work from home is more important now than ever. Storing company applications/data online facilitates maximum accessibility for all key users. Thanks to cloud services’ global accessibility and virtually constant up-time, your staff, clients and customers can work/do business at the location, or hour of their choosing. Ultimately, this increased flexibility leads to greater productivity and profits while maintaining public safety. 

2. Improve Data Security 

Losing company/client data could irreparably damage your business operations and reputation. Protecting business/client data is a matter of company survival. It requires more than a network firewall and data backups. Cybercriminals, malicious insiders and human error can all fatally damage your local data and backups. The military-grade cyber security measures, redundancy and disaster recovery features that cloud service providers offer to make cloud storage highly desirable. Most companies also appreciate the ability to easily implement two-step authentication processes for their remote employees.  

3. Reduce Cost & Maintenance 

With cloud services, businesses simply pay for what they use as an operating expense and have no depreciation of capital assets. Cloud computing is much cheaper than setting up your own server and infrastructure. Instead of purchasing in-house equipment, hardware needs are left to the cloud host. This means less capital is required to initially go live with a project/implementation.  

Cloud services can be increased or decreased as per business requirements without a change in the IT equipment that a company must purchase and manage. The pay-per-use flexibility of the cloud allows end-users to scale efficiently based on the demands of the business. There is also a notable decrease in energy costs, labour and maintenance costs.  

4. More Working, Less Waiting (Faster Go-Live) 

Cloud-based software testing and deployment can take minutes compared to the days, weeks or months required for on-premise network setup, software installation, testing and deployment. Storing applications on the cloud also facilitates Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) which are key to agile development and Shift-left DevOps. 

In Conclusion 

The accessibility advantage cloud servers provide can also facilitate vulnerabilities as confidential data could in theory be accessed from malicious agents using unknown devices on unsecured networks. However, it’s generally much easier for hackers to gain access to a local network than a sophisticated cloud storage company. 

Epic Technologies currently offers both cloud-based and on-premise solutions to our clients so we understand the pros and cons of both implementations. Whether your company started on-premise, was born in the cloud, or is looking to hybridize, our experts can help guide you to cloud success. For more information about implementing cloud-based solutions for your business, contact us for an IT Consultation today!