Cloud Migration: Benefits of Moving to the Cloud

At home, the move away from physical media like CDs and DVDs has seen Cloud-based streaming services like Spotify and Netflix become ubiquitous. At work, Microsoft’s 365 services and Zoom’s video conferencing services allowed businesses the world over to pivot to work-from-home strategies successfully during a global pandemic.

Those two well-known examples are just the tip of a very large iceberg when it comes to what Cloud migration can offer. With that in mind, we thought it was time we looked the big benefits of moving applications to Cloud computing – and why, if you haven’t already, now is the time to consider doing so.

10 advantages of moving to the cloud

What are the benefits of cloud migration? They’re many and plentiful – and every part of your business will feel them.

1. Cost efficient

Our first benefit of moving applications to the Cloud could be huge for your business’ bottom line. Moving online means you won’t have to buy, maintain and eventually replace expensive data centres and on-site servers.

Instead, you can pay a hosting company for space on theirs. That means they incur the hardware and facilities costs their end, allowing you to invest more in the other aspects of your business.

2. Scalable

With Cloud solutions, you also tend to pay for what you need. As those needs change over time, your hosting company will be flexible enough to meet them (that’s their business model!).

There may be times your business unexpectedly makes a sudden breakthrough, goes through an enormous growth period, or simply needs to upscale its storage space to get ahead of future demand. A significant benefit of moving applications to Cloud computing is that if and when that happens, you can scale with agility, without significant hardware investment.

3. Secure

If we had to rank them, we’d say this is one of the top 5 Cloud migration benefits. Any data backed up in the Cloud is encrypted – which means only the people you want to see it will be able to. Cloud hosting providers also constantly monitor and update their security features, which means your data is as secure as possible – all without your IT team needing to lift a finger.

As long as device access is kept to your employees, using the Cloud really is the safest way to operate a business from a data security perspective.

4. Speedy disaster recovery

Another one of the benefits of moving applications to the Cloud is that it protects your business in case of disaster.

No more relying on a privately-owned off-site recovery system – migrating your data to the Cloud instead means that even if an emergency happens, you can keep running your operation from anywhere.

5. Greener

Doing away with on-site servers and off-site recovery systems has another benefit – your business consumes less power.

Additionally, because the Cloud servers you use scale to your needs, your company only uses the energy it absolutely needs to – making Cloud computing brilliant for lowering your business’ carbon footprint.

6. Enables remote working

Also contributing to the lowering of carbon footprint, Cloud-based businesses allow their people to log in and work from anywhere. That means less people commuting, and less cars on the road.

During the onset of COVID-19, Cloud-powered companies were best placed to adapt to government-enforced homeworking. With that now proven to be a viable working process, employees are sure to request more flexibility from their bosses than ever before. Migrating to the Cloud, then, might be a necessity when it comes to retaining and attracting the best people.

7. Encourages collaboration

Of course, your business will always be better when you’ve got the best people working together as a team. Another of our 10 advantages of Cloud migration is that the Cloud empowers your team to do that in remote working situations, or when your employees simply aren’t local to your physical HQ.

Cloud-hosted software also allows multiple users to edit documents at the same time, then sync and save those changes in a single point of truth. So, no more worrying about which document is the most up to date, and no sending the wrong file to clients out of human error.

8. Time-saving

Not only is it easier than ever to migrate your legacy systems to a Cloud computing solution (something we can help with), but doing so is likely to save you time when it comes to rolling out new software and training across your business.

Without data centres to regularly update and back up, you’ll also find your tech teams have more time to direct to the day-to-day running of your business. Additionally, collaborative Cloud-based tools make communicating and working together easier than ever. All of which means more time, spent by more people, being more productive.

9. Always up to date

We mentioned this above under security, but it’s such an important part of working with a Cloud provider that it really is worth emphasising.

Our penultimate benefit of moving applications to Cloud computing is that it means moving away from needing to monitor and manage security threats to your data. Because your Cloud hosting provider does it for you, you can focus your resources instead on the running of your business.

10. Future proofed

The last of our 10 advantages of Cloud migration touches on the emerging technologies that are sure to become a core part of big business in the very near future.

Internet of Things enabled devices, connected to 5G networks, aided by AI and Machine Learning, are changing the way businesses operate – across every industry. Each likely to be utilising or connecting to Cloud computing in some way. So if you want your business to be future-ready, migrating to the Cloud is a must.

Conclusion

One thing is clear: almost every tech-driven business should have a Cloud migration strategy. If you haven’t – then why not?

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