IT productivity is essential
The owners, executives and managers of small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) emphasise productivity and quality in almost every aspect of their enterprise. Consequently, you may be reluctant to yield control over your servers, data and applications to the great unknown of the cloud.
Disadvantages of on-site IT
Containing your entire IT infrastructure on-site and all in one place may seem advantageous at first thought. However, exercising this form of control has its downsides: operating servers and data centres within your company is time-consuming and expensive. It also makes your network and systems increasingly vulnerable to downtime, data loss and cybercrime.
The hybrid cloud solution
The fact is that the contents of your entire IT system can be stored remotely in the cloud. What’s more, SMBs that do so save a fortune in outgoings. Unfortunately, too few CEOs are willing to share the infrastructure that supports their data and technology.
Cloud computing isn’t an all or nothing scenario. This is where hybrid cloud solutions come into play. Your core services are stored securely in the cloud whilst giving you fast access to your files locally. Put simply, you retain local control of day-to-day business activities on-site but also benefit from the overall scalability and cost-effectiveness of the cloud.
Hybrid cloud data backup
Data backup is a classic example of the application of hybrid cloud solutions: your local server is managed on-site but its contents, or specific parts thereof, are backed up in the cloud and stored remotely.
Hybrid cloud strategy
What follows are some straightforward guidelines to help you develop a hybrid cloud strategy: assess your IT strategy, decide which data remains on-site, acknowledge hybrid cloud benefits and implement hybrid cloud over time.
Assess your IT
As your business grows and expands, so will your IT infrastructure. A few laptops will become a few dozen and a single server may be replaced by several. With your IT expansion may come disorganisation. You may find yourself in a situation using disconnected software and applications operating on different servers. You and your in-house IT team should assess which systems are critical to your current business operations and which technology is redundant and no longer supports the future initiatives of your SMB.
Which data goes to the cloud?
Selecting the data goes to the cloud will depend on the size of your business and its specific IT deployment. You and your employees will need to decide on which data and files will be stored locally and which can only be accessed via the cloud. You may prefer to keep large files and databases on-site while having secondary databases and backups in the cloud for easy access for remote working. As a rule of thumb, most SMBs use the cloud for email storage.
Acknowledge hybrid cloud benefits
Once you understand and acknowledge the many benefits that moving to the cloud offers, you’ll be ready to take your IT infrastructure to new heights. In the past, cloud computing was reserved for corporate giants and large enterprise. Now SMBs have the opportunity for increased business flexibility and agility through applying hybrid cloud solutions. A hybrid cloud environment means seamless remote monitoring, 24/7 help desk support and disaster recovery and business continuity solutions. Moreover, you can access the cloud regardless of your operating systems, server type or mobile technology used for work.
Phased implementation
Staged implementation is another useful strategy when planning a migration to the cloud and phasing in the cloud over a few years is sound practice. At the start, you may want to have private controlled access to public cloud services. You can also gradually implement SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) applications for payroll, messaging and customer relations management. Deploying your move to the hybrid cloud in phases makes good business sense and gives you control over your IT infrastructure management.
Your local MSP and the cloud
If you have decided that this is the year to leap into the cloud and are serious about a strategic mix of private and public cloud services, you should contact your local IT Managed Service Provider (MSP) for guidance and support. With years of experience, access to the latest technologies and unprecedented expertise, your MSP offers high quality and cost-effective managed IT services. The MSP will design, implement and maintain both private and public cloud solutions and your data will be protected and secure with regular backups and archiving. The MSP will make your transition to the cloud stress-free and you can look forward to a year of growth and prosperity for your business.
