5 Signs Your Business Should Migrate to the Cloud
The cornerstone of efficient digital transformation, cloud migration and technology provides unparalleled scalability for growth while delivering quick wins across all aspects of business operations. However, figures released by the CSO in 2018 show only 45% of Irish organisations were leveraging cloud technology. Unsure if it's time to make the move? Here are 5 signs that indicate its time for your business to consider the cloud!
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As the number of businesses migrating to the cloud continues to grow, many have already seen quick wins thanks to improved flexibility and security. The cloud helps drive smart decisions through improved data transparency with 69% of global enterprises moving business-critical information to the cloud.
For organisations that have not yet moved to the cloud, they are often waiting for the right time or for a specific event to trigger the move. It could also be a case of data backup and cloud computing not being a top priority. This reactive approach to cloud migration allows cloud-native organisations to gain a competitive advantage through improved operations and customer experience excellence, while organisations hesitating to embrace the cloud get left behind. Further, for any business regardless of size that is not backing up to the cloud, experts suggest it is a matter of time before a hardware failure or cyber-attack.
Considering cloud migration? Here are some signs that your business is ready to leave behind on-premise data centres.
1. End-of-life Technology
Every component in an organisation's IT infrastructure has a limited lifespan. Although they can be preserved through frequent back-ups, maintenance and regular updates, eventually hardware components begin to age. This causes more issues where more maintenance is required. When servers reach end-of-life, companies have the option to invest in replacement systems which often come with a large upfront cost and don’t provide the performance boost and access to next-generation tools and features provided by the cloud when just paying a smaller monthly fee. Businesses of all sizes can benefit from harnessing the power of the cloud for security and back-up services.
2. Technology Not Aligning With Growth
If your business is experiencing rapid growth, it may become expensive to update current resources as you grow. However, with scalability being a key benefit of the cloud you can easily scale up and down with unlimited space available. Similarly, if a company is going through an acquisition, working with on-premise servers can be complicated with difficulty in merging information. However, IT integration is easier when companies store information in the cloud speeding up the acquisition process.
3. Lack of a Disaster Recovery Plan
Despite some organisations being hesitant to migrate to the cloud due to the security concern of not storing their data themselves, the cloud has proven itself over recent years. Cloud providers work tirelessly to keep your data safe and keeping backup and support a number one priority. The cloud can prevent businesses from losing data in any incidents that may occur. The loss of a single server could wipe out years of vital files and important information which in turn could take a long time for a business to recover from. Storing on the cloud is the best back-up plan for a business, protecting information no matter what occurs.
4. High IT Costs
Managing an on-premise IT infrastructure requires experienced staff to constantly monitor the system and to fix any issues that may occur. Unexpected issues may become costly and can easily eat away at budget. By migrating to the cloud, organisations can predict their monthly fee and allow expert IT staff to move away from a maintenance role to a more strategic role where they can focus on innovation and growth delivering more benefit to an organisation. Further, updates are often automatic in the cloud meaning IT staff can focus on using cloud technology to help their day-to-day business processes.
5. Employees Working Remotely
In today’s modern working world, organisations are expected to be flexible with many offering remote working to some degree whether it be a full-time or a hybrid approach. The cloud makes it easier for employees to connect with just a simple internet connection giving them access to company data and apps anytime and anywhere. Following the rapid uptake in remote working in 2020, 59% of enterprises expect cloud usage to exceed prior plans due to Covid-19. As it appears remote working may remain at least partly, organisations need to ensure they are able to provide remote access in a secure and governed way in the cloud going forward.
For the most part, it appears that moving to the cloud is a matter of when rather than if in the long-run, but if you see some of these signs in your organisation currently, it may be better to act now. If you would like to speak to a cloud specialist to figure out the best approach for your organisation, Storm’s experts are on-hand to help.
Contact us to start your journey today.
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