Migrating to the cloud can greatly benefit any kind of business, but a lot of business owners are unsure of what form of cloud setup their business is best suited for – Here are some tips you can take on board, to help you work out which options might be the best for you.
Consider The Size Of Your Business
The first thing to consider is probably the easiest one to recall, as every business owner has seen their business grow from a one-man band, to a fully operating office, factory or whatever premise you now have. You will need to consider how many employees you have – Will they all need direct access to company files? Do you believe everyone within your business will require their own access to a managed server, as well as each having their own login details?
Think About The Type Of Data You Need To Store
Data held in the cloud can be diverse, large and confidential to say the least, so it is important to have a good knowledge of what you’ll want to store in tier 3 data centres (Where cloud data is held and continuously backed up). If your company data contains client’s personal details, personal documents or banking information, you will be much better off from a legal point of view by investing into a private cloud server, dedicated to holding data for just your company, or in other words, not on a public data cloud which is available for anyone to just gain access to.
Do you have files that need to be accessed not only from the office, but away from it too? Some data may be needed by employees from home, on the road, or when visiting clients. So if your company relies on having instant remote data access, with guaranteed fail-over – Then you’ll want a fully managed cloud desktop service to tailor to your business. You might need testimonials, email backups, confidential customer data or even employee handbooks – In light of the restrictions still in place, you may be having to continue home working procedures, so these are some of the kinds of data your staff will need just as much, if not more, now they are working away from the convenience of the company’s premise.
We become more reliant on having direct access to data when away from the office – Emergencies can occur, out-of-hours messages can come through, you might get customers calling up over the weekends needing support, and having access to your data via remote cloud servers can transform the level of service you can provide to your customers.
What’s My Budget Like?
Using the word budget is a bit of a red herring, because migrating to cloud in any setting is a smart investment, so your budget shouldn’t persuade you to save on the cost of switching. Cloud technology is a fantastic investment, it provides elasticity, scalability and security, and implementing additional privacy and security to your business is invaluable.
Obviously, every business is going to have a budget, so if you do have a price in mind, take note that a lot of cloud services on offer will be payable for the volume of the service you utilise each month, instead of paying outright for the services.
This is because your cloud setup could either be hybrid, private or fully public – It is your provider’s job to manage this for you, to optimise the security of your data, files and server (Should you receive a service with your own company portal). Each type of cloud may cost more or less, depending on the number of users you need for programs such as Office 365 or your remote desktop application licenses.
Do I Want Public Or Private Cloud?
Every company needs the right balance between security and scalability – That’s why a hybrid cloud setup exists. If you have private data and confidential information that needs to be secure to avoid being exposed or hacked into, you can utilise your own private cloud server. If you need to add more users quickly, or expand your data capacity, that is where public clouds exist. Public clouds are on-demand data centres that can quickly scale companies up and down, as well as change the requirements an organisation needs, such as data storage plans and license fees etc.
With a hybrid cloud, the two types of cloud (public and private) come together to give your company the ease to expand quickly and flexibly, while also retaining high-level security and avoiding unnecessary uncertainty. A hybrid cloud will work great for any company as your cloud provider can manage all of your public and private cloud services for you remotely, and manage any updates that may need to be implemented, keeping you and your staff out of worry, and up-to-date whenever you step into the office, whether it be from work, or remotely from home.
To many companies, having privacy for when it comes to data surrounding clients and staff is vitally important, so being able to expand your data capabilities, while having your cloud server managed on an enterprise level, as opposed to within a public cloud server, can provide great security. A private cloud desktop service is created to tailor to your company, and your cloud provider will fill the gap of being your personal IT expert/s, managing updates for your organisation, ensuring regular backups are happening for important data, and keeping you in the loop about anything that can be upgraded or added to your setup, to further improve your business’s level of service.
I Don’t Know Who To Go To For My New Setup
If you are still unsure about which type of cloud solution is the best for your business, you can always test out our market-leading solution here at Cloud Shepherd.
We give all of our prospective clients a free test drive to give them a sense of what a fully managed cloud desktop solution looks and feels like. If you are looking to migrate to a cloud service, be sure to contact us for any assistance.
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