The pandemic caused a major shift in favor of remote work and cloud infrastructure – a trend that has only accelerated ...
The pandemic caused a major shift in favor of remote work and cloud infrastructure – a trend that has only accelerated in recent years. A 2022 cloud computing study from Foundry reported that 69% of IT decision-makers had accelerated their migration to the cloud over the course of the year. Research from Google found that 93% of technology leaders said that they were “mostly cloud,” while only 7% responded as being “mostly on-premises.”
Why migrate to the cloud? From scalability to accelerated growth, cloud computing represents an opportunity for organizations to unlock a number of benefits. Read on to discover the top 7 reasons why so many IT leaders are increasingly choosing the cloud as the foundation for their applications and systems.
Cloud migration brings transformative power to organizations: eliminating slow manual processes and improving security. Explore the top reasons why cloud migration is an increasingly popular choice for businesses.
On-prem software has a major weakness – scalability. The modern world is highly dynamic, with businesses requiring significantly different resources depending on demand. Handling these major swings with local hardware is expensive and challenging. Many businesses will end up over-investing in hardware that they only ever use at peak demand. This waste is unacceptable in the fast-paced, highly competitive modern economy.
Migrating to the cloud provides the ability to scale resources up or down based on demand. This flexibility allows enterprises to efficiently manage resources, accommodating peaks in demand without over-investing in hardware. Organizations migrating to the cloud will likely see two terms discussed in relation to this: elasticity and scalability. Elasticity refers to a cloud network’s ability to dynamically scale its capabilities in response to demand. Scalability, another feature offered by cloud providers, refers to a solution whereby organizations can steadily increase their cloud workload in a pre-planned manner.
Both features help make organizations more agile, enabling them to reach their goals faster and more efficiently. Easily scale your cloud workload without having to invest in hardware or deal with any kind of maintenance costs. That’s the power of the cloud.
For those who’ve grown used to on-prem solutions, it may sound counterintuitive to say that moving to a remote network would be more secure. However, there are several reasons this is the case.
One primary reason is consistency. Instead of the patchwork of different technologies and applications that many companies build up as they grow, cloud platforms are seamless systems designed with the big picture in mind. Keeping systems consistent and correctly configured is critical for achieving strong cybersecurity.
Public cloud providers also invest far more heavily in cloud security technologies than most organizations could internally. They are able to get the best talent and implement the best hardware and software to ensure your data is kept safe from hackers.
Finally, cloud computing also increases security by giving you support. When your network is attacked, you’re on your own to try to investigate the incident, resolve it, and recover your data. When your cloud-based app is attacked, the cloud provider will come alongside you to help you resolve the problem. They keep multiple copies of data across a range of servers, making it easy to recover data lost in an incident.
Why migrate to the cloud? One answer is to better support your remote workers. Remote work continues to be a major trend, and 24/7 connectivity has never been more important. Cloud services enable employees to access applications and data from anywhere, at any time, as long as there is an internet connection. Local systems often require users to be physically present on the local network or require complex VPN setups for remote access.
The cloud also supports a wide range of devices, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops. Remote networks facilitate collaboration by allowing multiple users to view, edit, and share documents simultaneously from different locations. Again, cloud providers come through with consistency. By ensuring that all users access the same version of the software and data, the cloud eliminates the inconsistencies that often occur with on-premises systems where updates often need to be manually deployed.
Purchasing and maintaining an on-prem network is extremely expensive. Server hardware, batteries, server licensing, and backups can each cost you thousands of dollars. Businesses currently relying on local hardware are also likely to spend thousands of dollars every month just to maintain these systems. Is demand going up? You’ll need to buy more servers. Professionals will then need to install and configure these servers. Is demand going down? You’ll still need to pay the costs of maintaining the servers you purchased previously.
Cloud migration enables you to achieve greater cost efficiency by reducing your need to invest and maintain your own hardware. Additionally, because the cloud service provider handles so many tasks for you, your own IT staff will be able to focus on higher-value tasks, saving you money and making your business more efficient. Many cloud providers offer a pay-as-you-go pricing model. In this model, you pay for cloud computing in a similar manner to a utility bill. You only pay for as much as you use. This is a highly flexible model that is also highly efficient.
Disaster recovery is yet another reason why many organizations are opting for cloud migration. When a disaster wipes out an on-prem network, downtime is a virtual guarantee. The exact opposite is true with cloud systems. Cloud providers distribute data across a wide range of geographic locations. If a natural disaster hits one cloud data center, other servers can immediately pick up on where those left off, ensuring virtually zero downtime. Achieving anything close to this level of redundancy would be far outside the bounds of most IT departments’ budgets.
Cloud service providers also provide automatic backups. This ensures that backups are performed regularly according to the desired schedule. Many businesses have lost data due to human error or neglect – a serious risk with on-premises backup solutions that often require manual interventions.
In October 2025, Microsoft will stop supporting Office 2016 and Office 2019. As software solutions age, developers often stop supporting them at a certain point. If companies continue to rely on these outdated applications, they expose themselves to certain risks. When vulnerabilities are discovered, the developer will release a security patch to resolve the issue. However, security updates often cease once the software is no longer being supported.
There are several other issues with relying on end-of-life (EOL) software. Regulations often place strict data protection and privacy laws on businesses. Knowingly using a system that could be compromised could be considered a violation of legal standards and could result in penalties. As software ages, the cost of maintaining it goes up. The few developers who have maintained their skills in maintaining the software will often be far more expensive when needed. Furthermore, EOL software often struggles to integrate with newer technologies.
Cloud solutions, by contrast, are designed to be flexible and regularly updated with the latest technologies, facilitating seamless integration and continued innovation. New applications and configurations can be added as a service, making it simple to upgrade to new applications over time.
Today’s consumers have increased expectations for the services and products with which they interact. The cloud is enabling businesses to meet those expectations with greater speed and agility than ever was possible with on-prem tools. The cloud environment offers several pre-configured platforms and services, enabling development teams to get straight to the meat of a project without having to reinvent the wheel. Plus, with automated features and APIs, you can deploy new services and applications with ease.
Geographical distance from users often introduces latency and a poor user experience for network-based applications. However, cloud providers are often geographically distributed, bringing your app’s infrastructure closer to your users. This optimizes speeds and enables businesses to easily expand their operations into new markets without the need for significant investment in local infrastructure.
These are the top reasons why migrating to the cloud is becoming so important for business leaders and IT professionals. Among the many benefits it provides, moving to the cloud offers scalability, enhanced security, and better disaster recovery. If you are ready to move your email from an on-prem tool like Microsoft Exchange to the cloud-based Office 365, Cloudficient can help. We use advanced migration technology to streamline your transformation into a cloud-powered business, working alongside you as a partner to simplify the migration process. Whatever your unique situation may be, we can create tailored solutions that exceed your expectations.
Discover more about what Cloudficient can do for your business – contact us today.
With unmatched next-generation migration technology, Cloudficient is revolutionizing the way businesses retire legacy systems and transform their organization into the cloud. Our business constantly remains focused on client needs and creating product offerings that match them. We provide affordable services that are scalable, fast, and seamless.
If you would like to learn more about how to bring Cloudficiency to your migration project, visit our website, or contact us.
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