Making the Move to the Cloud

Posted by Derek Epps, Senior Account Executive, TCC Software Solutions IT Managed Services

Well the time has come. Your server(s) are old and the software even older. You are being told by your IT staff or IT vendor that it’s time to purchase new hardware. This solution has always worked in the past so why even think twice about it? If it’s not broken, then why fix it? In some ways, this statement may be true and you can probably keep going down the same road you have in the past with IT infrastructure. However, technology is constantly evolving and to take advantage of this you should consider doing your due diligence and at least investigating all options.

According to https://www.mimecast.com/resources/press-releases/dates/2010/12/70-percent-of-companies-using-cloud-based-services-plan-to-move-additional-applications-to-the-cloud-in-the-next-12-months/ 70% of companies who already have at least one application running in the cloud plan on moving additional applications to the cloud within the next 12 months. Things must be going well for them if they want to move more to the cloud. Here are some key advantages and options for moving to the cloud, as well as some common questions and concerns about moving to the cloud.

How secure is the cloud? Depending upon which provider you go with, the cloud can be more secure than having your infrastructure on premise. According to http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/opinion/Clouds-are-more-secure-than-traditional-IT-systems-and-heres-why the cloud is more secure. Let’s think about this for a moment. If you are hosting your applications in a local Data center that has security certifications, can withstand fires, floods, hurricanes, tornados, lightning strikes, earthquakes and any other disaster Mother Nature can throw at it, don’t you think that is more secure than keeping your server in your closet in your building? Can your office building withstand all the above? Probably Not.

We have a backup of our servers and a disaster recovery plan. Great! You are doing better than some and something is better than nothing as they say. However, have you ever tested this solution? Often companies spend thousands of dollars on an on-premise backup solution that is supposed to replicate to the cloud. Some of these solutions are really good, however without testing or monitoring these solutions what good are they really? If you are running any major applications or other software programs that would hinder your business than there needs to be a disaster recovery plan and testing done periodically. If not, you may be in for a rude awakening. When moving to the cloud many of these solutions have their own backup and disaster recovery built in. Often your data is replicated throughout several secure data centers for redundancy. You no longer must invest in another piece of hardware onsite.

We have applications that won’t run in the cloud. They are either too old or too resource intensive. This is a legitimate concern and may be true. However, most software vendors have been working hard to keep up with the Microsoft operating systems. If not today, it will likely be very soon that these legacy applications will be capable of cloud access.

Cloud costs are too much. I can’t afford more monthly cost. Alright, then factor it as an annual cost. Cloud versus on premise comes down to Capital versus Operational expenses and opinions vary. However, if you do not have an IT budget setup annually you may be over or under spending. By under spending I mean you are letting hardware and software go so widely out of date then when something does fail or you finally decide to upgrade, the cost will be significantly higher than if you took smaller bites out of it over time.

The cloud is reliant on the internet. What if my internet goes down? I need to pay more for a more stable and high quality internet connection(s). Yes, your internet could very well go down. However, the price of internet is essential for nearly any business these days. Prices of fiber are becoming more and more affordable. Why wouldn’t you want a more stable and faster internet connection? There is also the option to have multiple internet connections and the secondary internet connection does not need to be as robust as your main, just enough to run your business until the first comes back online. If anyone currently runs Microsoft Office 365 or Google Aps how many times has the internet affected your e-mail? A handful, none? Also, the beauty about the internet is that it can be accessed from different locations. Almost certainly there is a fast food place like McDonald’s or Starbucks nearby that you could easily get reconnected. If your server goes down and you must restore from backup or worse yet have no backup, is that the best strategy? Probably not.

There will continue to be business that refuse to move to the cloud for various reasons, however from an operational and financial aspect the cloud should be considered for at least one or more business applications.

Please contact TCC Software Solutions and IT Managed Services for more information. https://www.e-tcc.com/managed-services