Why Cloud?
Explore the benefits of migrating to the Cloud. Broken into several categories,
we give you digestible answers to the questions you might have.
WHY SHOULD I CONSIDER MIGRATING TO THE CLOUD?
SEE CATEGORYWHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF THE CLOUD?
SEE CATEGORYIS MICROSOFT THE BEST PUBLIC CLOUD?
SEE CATEGORYWHAT HAPPENS TO ALL MY BUSINESS DATA?
SEE CATEGORYIS MIGRATING TO THE CLOUD SECURE?
SEE CATEGORYDOESN’T MOVING TO THE CLOUD COST LOTS OF MONEY?
SEE CATEGORYWhy should I consider migrating to the Cloud?
Remote Working
Migrating to the Cloud opens up a range of options for how you want your users to work. More importantly, it gives your users options, so they can make a choice, on how they want to work. The Cloud streamlines your office and remote working, without the headaches that might be associated to how it’s traditionally done i.e. RDS, VPN etc…
Ease of Management
Managing on premise IT is cumbersome. Firstly, you have to choose and build hardware, load your apps, increase the storage, set your backups, manage renewals, you get the picture. It’s a timely process. The Cloud eliminates infrastructure management, meaning your IT staff can focus on user demands and business related requirements.
Security
For any business, data security is key. That’s why we deliver our services through Microsoft Azure. They have 90+ compliance offerings, to keeping your data secure. You have complete control over your data, where it resides and who has access to it. No business can compete with the security levels you receive with Microsoft’s Azure Cloud.
What are the advantages of the Cloud?
User Experience
Over the years there has been a blend of work/life balance, as technology scales, this blend is becoming more and more intertwined, as user’s are easily able to access emails on the go. With the introduction of the Cloud, you can give your users the same experience of IT from in the office, or out on the road (internet dependant). The user experience is transformed by easy access which increases productivity.
Scalability
By assessing your needs for your business today, you are able to have a solution that is scaled to that exact degree. Traditionally, you would purchase hardware that would be suitable for where the business might be in 3- or 4-years’ time. The Cloud eliminates this and gives you the opportunity to use what you need and introduce more compute or storage, when you actually require it.
Simplified Cost Model
At the moment you likely have multiple hardware warranty renewals, a handful of software renewals and in truth, may not know the full extent of your IT spend from year to year. Moving to the Cloud, means you have no large capital expenditure, instead you have a monthly invoice based on your consumption i.e. number of users. you can easily predict annual IT spend and the costs associated to business growth.
Reduction in Hardware
Moving to the Cloud doesn’t just allow you to just reduce your infrastructure hardware costs, it also allows you to assess your user device requirements. Through running our Virtual Desktop, your Windows 10 machine is run in the Cloud, so you can transform your client device from Fat to Thin. Saving on power and cooling across the board.
Reduced Overheads
Larger organisations typically employ more IT staff, many of whom are tasked with firefighting infrastructure issues, whether that’s hardware, or backup related. When these elements aren’t working, it takes up a lot of time. By investing in Cloud technologies, you can streamline your IT. Saving time, money and manpower.
Is Microsoft the best public Cloud?
Compliance
We partner with Microsoft Azure because they’re the leader in public Cloud technologies. They have 90+ compliance offerings (more than any other Cloud provider), to help your organization comply with national and industry-specific requirements governing the collection and use of data.
Number of Data Centres
Globally Microsoft have 160+ Datacentres, over 100,000 miles of fibre and subsea cable and 150+ edge locations. Wherever you need your business services and data residing, Microsoft will have a region close to you. We build our services within UK South and UK West Data Centres.
Investment in Security
Microsoft employs over 3500 security experts and invests over $1billion annually to ensure your data and services are secure.
Sustainability
Part of our reasoning behind choosing Microsoft Azure, is based on their ambitions boost sustainabilty and be carbon negative by 2030.
In Numbers
Microsoft Azure’s Cloud runs on trust.
Azure serves over 1 billion customers in total and over 20 million companies worldwide.
What happens to my business data?
Data Centre Regions
The primary locations of the Data Centres we use through Microsoft Azure are within UK South and UK West. If you have a requirement for our service to be hosted in another region, we can facilitate this on a global scale. This ensures your data is as close to you as possible.
File Data & Office 365
You’re in control of your data and you can access it when you want. Microsoft has over 90 compliance offerings to adhere to data regulations and they take strong measures to restrict access from unauthorised personnel. Your data is encrypted in transit and at rest for maximum security.
App Servers
The same principles apply as to that of your file data and Office 365, they are retained in secure Data Centres close to you for maximum performance.
We also ensure your app servers are backed up daily to a secondary site, as well as implementing site to site replication for failover purposes.
Is migrating to the Cloud secure?
Protecting Your Users & Your business
Keeping users, their devices and your business secure is a constant headache and firefighting exercise. This management overhead can become cumbersome, if it’s not managed in the correct way. Business data remains secure in one central location, so you don’t have to worry about data sprawl or device management. Every time a user accesses their desktop you have view of it.
Cloud vs On Prem
There is a big difference between on premise and Cloud IT. With on premise IT, you are responsible for the administration and security of your software and hardware.
With the Cloud, the administration element is stripped away, as your infrastructure isn’t on premise and the security layer is managed by the Cloud provider. All we have to do is apply a few tweaks to make sure you’re fully secure.
Multi-Site Replication
Typically for a normal business, they will host all their IT on premise or in a data centre. What many businesses fail to do, is plan for a disaster. So when a disaster does happen, they are unprepared and they struggle to get the business back up and running. Utilising the Cloud we are able to implement backup layers and also site to site replication, so if one site goes down the secondary site takes over to limit disruption.
Daily Backups
Daily backups are a standard practice in the Cloud, they are measured by the frequency and retention period. So, moving to the Cloud will allow you to put in place a robust backup policy that you know is reliable.
Microsoft Azure
We use Microsoft Azure due to the fact they are the number one public Cloud provider globally. As discussed in our security section, they hold more compliance certifications that any other Cloud provider.
Uptime Guarantee
Each of the services we provide, has a minimum of 99.9% uptime guarantee.
So, you can be assured that your services will deliver against your individual business requirements, when you need them.
2FA
As standard, we implement 2FA across Microsoft Office Applications and Email. Why? To limit access to a user’s account from unsolicited sources. This is done by texting you a unique code, which you then enter when prompted. This simple approach adds a layer of security to your accounts.
Doesn’t moving to the Cloud cost lots of money?
Traditional Cost Model
Traditional IT is associated with refreshes every 3-5 years, and with this a large capital expense.
On top of this, you have yearly and monthly renewals, so it can become very hard to pinpoint the overall cost of your IT.
Cloud Cost Model
The Cloud offers you a simplified way of managing your IT spend. Rather than refreshing every few years, you can convert all your IT spend, into a manageable monthly spend, where you can reduce a lot of hardware and software renewals.
What you can expect
With our Managed Service, we’re able to provide you with a defined monthly fee. This allows you to predict the cost impact on your business, should it grow or shrink. Every time you add a new user, you know the cost to the business, it’s that simple.
