Hosting your software and IT in the cloud will prepare your business for a future in which network resources and data storage will increasingly live in digital environments. On-premise servers, desktops and other traditional pieces of hardware were progressively being scaled back even before a global pandemic forced many into working from home for the first time ever. Investments in web-based application and infrastructure models were growing before COVID-19, and the flexibility granted by those decisions after the mass shutdowns around the country only reinforced them.
All of this should come as no surprise to anyone who has paid attention to how cloud technology has infiltrated the consumer world. As our personal tools continue to migrate to SaaS and hybrid environments, your business must begin to develop a strategy around how and where to take advantage of web-hosted platforms.
Here are the top reasons why cloud hosting will prepare your business for the future:
Reducing Onsite Servers and Costly Upgrades
Traditional hardware deployments rely on a lot of capital expenses that only grow as you add locations, users and additional touchpoints down the line. On-premise servers are expensive and cumbersome to scale, as well as to perform regular maintenance and upgrades just to keep your systems running at capacity. Migrating data during renewals can also be a precarious venture, while moving to SaaS or IaaS gives you more redundancy for protecting your information, and peace of mind during updates.
Hybrid Cloud Environments Allow Flexibility
The conversation around web-hosted applications in the past obfuscated one of the most beneficial factors – hybrid cloud environments are not only very possible, but they also deliver incredible value return for SMBs. It can be costly to wholesale replace and migrate from an existing IT set up that represents a big investment for a small business, but the ability to slowly introduce new digital resources grants significant flexibility. This gives you options for security by segmenting data, avoiding on-premise upgrades by bringing in additional assets through the cloud, and many more advantages that transcend the traditional narrative of choosing one option or the other.
Hosted Infrastructures Enable the Work from Home New Normal
There were tremendous investments made by many enterprises in hosting their IT infrastructures online, and these paid off in a big way when the pandemic hit. As millions of workers across the country were forced to work from home for the first time, cloud hosting enabled the transition and quite a few were able to adapt as seamlessly as was possible. The technology allowed an unprecedented facilitation of business continuity as businesses were able to quickly pick up where they left off without having to manually migrate their data.
Preparing for the Multi-cloud World
All the talk of private and public clouds has also obscured another growing trend – we live increasingly in a multi-cloud world, where the resources of different publishers feature some level of collaboration. Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon and all of the other hosted services have their own databases, yet users frequently move data between their applications and take advantage of limited integration. As the technology becomes more widely adopted, providers will have to deliver options to link these silos to allow customers to unify their software and IT stacks, granting you additional opportunities to scale.
Users Are Accustomed to SaaS Technology
Millennials are called the first “tech-savvy generation” and Gen Z follows in their footsteps when it comes to leveraging digital tools for accelerating productivity. Many of the streaming services that have proliferated the consumer world are much more seamless (and singular purpose) versions of the workplace apps we leverage, like the Microsoft Office suite. The reality is that your network users are only going to become progressively used to the experience delivered by these SaaS systems, and your technology stack should replicate that representation to capture the best value.
Cybersecurity is Making the Difference for Cloud
Cloud security is the chief overriding concern for the decision to migrate, and even as past anxieties have been overshadowed by the benefits, this scrutiny persists. Yet even as the worry persists, publishers and cloud service providers (CSPs) have only increased efforts to secure cloud environments for customers and reduce user gaps. Migrating to hosted platforms requires a change in cybersecurity posture, and human cyber intelligence services (like the SOC, or security operations center) are making the difference for incident response solutions.
Talk to SWK Technologies to Develop Your Cloud Hosting Strategy
Cloud hosting for your software and IT assets will be the standard of the future as more and more users become comfortable with web-based features and performance capacity. Do not let your business be left behind as your competition outpaces you – talk to SWK Technologies today to start building your migration strategy.
Contact SWK here and discover how you can best move to the cloud at the pace that delivers the most value to you.[fc id=’34’][/fc]