Is Migrating To The Cloud Right For Your Business? (Fear Not The Cloud Part 4)

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again, we’re huge proponents of the cloud. Are you considering making the move? Many businesses like yours are using cloud applications. However, migrating your infrastructure and data to the cloud isn’t always the right business decision.

On the other hand, sometimes it’s not only the best choice but the easiest. It all depends on your unique business needs and goals. So, if there’s no one-size-fits-all answer, how are you supposed to know whether or not a cloud migration is right for your business? We’ll give you several pointers.

1. You Need More Flexibility and Scalability

One of the biggest benefits of the cloud is that it allows organizations to be more flexible with their software applications and scale up or down.

Flexibility: Your employees are able to work anytime and anywhere since the applications and the data they need are readily available in the cloud.

Scalability: If your company is planning on growing (or restructuring), the cloud is where it’s at. You’ll be able to add or remove users with the click of a button and not have to worry about wasted “seats” since for most cloud apps you pay on a per user, per month basis (with discounts for yearly sign-ups, of course).

So, if your business isn’t going through any major growth spurts or reorganizations anytime soon, sticking with the current technology you have could absolutely be the right choice.

2. Your IT Budget Could Use a Little Breathing Room

According to Gartner’s IT Budget Report, healthcare companies spend up to 75% of their IT budget maintaining internal systems. By migrating to the cloud, you’ll be putting those maintenance responsibilities on the service provider, which could ultimately free up large amounts of space in your IT budget. It’s not uncommon for the initial, upfront costs of a cloud migration to make people a bit weary, but the long-term savings are generally well worth it once all is said and done.

3. You Want to Be Prepared for Anything

Who doesn’t? By using cloud applications and cloud storage, your data is backed up and replicated. And you won’t have to do a thing (although you should still run your own backups just to be safe). Should the power go out at your office, your employees will be able to gain access to everything they need from the comfort of their own homes and resume operations (sorry to be ruining the magic of snow days!). And if a workstation mysteriously bites the dust, the data that’s applicable to the cloud services and saved within the cloud storage will be retrievable from anywhere.

4. You’re Beholden to Very Strict Industry or Federal Regulations

This is one of the cases where a full-blown cloud migration may not be the best choice, or may be an option but could be so limited in what’s permissible under the regulations that it’s easier to just continue as you are.

Heavily regulated industries, like healthcare and finance, are used to the restrictions placed upon their IT needs. But as it becomes more commonplace for just about every type of company to hold some type of sensitive customer and user information - from credit card numbers to mailing addresses - it would be worthwhile to closely examine your cloud options and see what fits your ethical responsibilities. Basically, storing data in the cloud is typically safer than storing it on physical servers.

Are you interested in learning more about backups, business continuity, and how migrating to the cloud could help?

Download our whitepaper, Backups vs. Business Continuity and find out the differences between the two.