Being called Clearsky, we don’t really deal with clouds, but we make an exception for cloud computing! The cloud seems to be everywhere these days, you get messages popping up on your phone asking if you want to store your photos and backups there, and you likely press ‘ok’ without really thinking about what the cloud is, or how it works.
We’re all about demystifying aspects of IT here, and using the cloud is becoming more and more important for businesses, but why? And what on earth for? Let’s take a look…
How does the cloud work?
Given the name, it’s easy to imagine the cloud as being an airy-fairy, completely intangible thing. If this is what you have in your head, then it might surprise you to know that it is in fact, the complete opposite. “The cloud” actually just means you’re able to access your data at any time, anywhere, from any device, but that data is stored on someone else’s servers.
That’s right, behind the cloud, are ginormous buildings filled with physical servers that hold all of the cloud data. They’re incredibly secure and run 24/7 which is what gives you total access all the time.
Why do businesses need the cloud?
Just a few short years ago in 2017, 74% of Tech Chief Financial Officers said that cloud computing was the thing that had made the most measurable impact on their business. That’s a whopping percentage. And since then, as more and more people are realising how useful the cloud is, end-user numbers have been increasing year on year, with a 7% jump from 2021 to 2022.
There are lots of ways moving to the cloud can benefit each unique business, but here are some of the general ways adding the cloud into your IT plans can add tremendous value to the way your organisation works.
Reduced costs
This is a great one. In-house servers are expensive to run and maintain when they go wrong, and with rising energy prices this could become even more of a problem. It’s also cheaper to add extra storage, which leads us on to…
Easily scalable
Not only is adding new storage cheaper, it’s also incredibly easy. Great news for growing businesses! You can simply expand the amount of space you need and carry on working without fuss. It’s the dream.
Increased efficiency
When you rely on everything being stored locally, this can make PCs and laptops run slowly and cause issues. When they’re accessing something from the cloud, it doesn’t take up the memory space, which means your team will want to throw their machines out of the window much less, if at all.
Protection
If you currently hold backups using on-site servers, what would happen if there was a fire? You would lose everything. If you implement a solution that means you hold an offsite backup as well, or instead of an on-site one if something were to happen to your office space you still have all of your critical company data to work from.
Security
While it might sound a bit strange, allowing another company to hold your data because it feels safe in your office… if you think about it, it’s probably safer in the cloud. Millions of pounds are spent on the physical security of the cloud servers, and they’re protected by layers and layers of it. Definitely more so than the server(s) in your office!
A hybrid model
It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Every organisation has unique needs, and moving fully to the cloud might not be the right thing to do. That said, having a hybrid model is a great way to get the benefits of the cloud, in certain areas. For example, you might have everything your team needs in order to do their jobs stored in the cloud, which allows them to access their work from anywhere – a great solution for flexible working!
Is moving to the cloud difficult?
We don’t want to lie to you, it can be if you don’t know what you’re doing. Again, it varies from business to business depending on how much data there is that needs to be moved across.
Having expert help, and a step by step strategy in order to move all of your data without losing anything is essential, and that’s something we can help with.
Do you want to know more about what makes a great plan for moving to the cloud? We’ll be writing about it, here on the Knowledge Centre.
