Too late to get on the cloud?

Staff, suppliers and even your customers are asking ‘Why aren’t you using the Cloud?’ But if you’re a sceptic, concerned that the Cloud is new, you are not alone.

Well the truth is that the Cloud is not new: Microsoft Hotmail, Google’s internet search, Salesforce CRM are all cloud services that have been around for over 15 years. And your emails have been using cloud services to find their way to other companies since 1971, if you were using email then!

 

 

So it’s not too early, but is it too late?

If you have ever checked your email online, or bought from a web site, you have experienced some of the benefits of the Cloud. But is your organisation thinking about the next steps? If not you are probably missing some opportunities.

To Cloud…

Cloud services can deliver benefits including:

  1. Efficiency, scalability and flexibility to change as your business changes.
  2. Predictable IT costs with minimal capital investment and automatic software updates.
  3. Mobility & remote working, and ease of 3rd party collaboration.
  4. Data security, disaster tolerance and 24×7 supportability.

… Or Not To Cloud. That Is The Question.

There have been well publicised security and reliability issues, and you may be concerned about loss of control. Or you might just not have fast and reliable internet connectivity. Some cloud providers are not as mature as their marketing would suggest and badly run cloud services won’t actually deliver any of the promises!

Cloud fits best when you use generic ‘vanilla’ standard IT services where the provider can deliver on economies of scale. So the following point away from cloud services:

  1. A high level of customisation of your applications.
  2. You have already recently made a significant investment on new internal infrastructure.
  3. Your systems are already giving you what you need in an effective manner.
  4. You can’t cope with any systems outages whatsoever and you want to own this problem.
  5. Your systems aren’t designed to run on cloud platforms or your vendors aren’t mature cloud providers.

Find out more

We frequently meet businesses who are struggling to take advantage of the cloud, or how it can be integrated into their existing IT. Working out where you could use cloud solutions and reviewing your systems could give you that business edge over your competitors.

If you’d like to talk to us about to understand the potential benefits that cloud could give you then please get in touch.

Freeman Clarke is the largest and most experienced team of fractional IT leaders. We work exclusively with ambitious organisations, helping our clients use IT to beat the competition and grow. Contact us and we’ll be in touch for an informal conversation.