How does IT benefit from a move to the cloud?
by admin
Working in IT can be a thankless work. Nobody appreciates all of the work that goes into keeping the network and servers running. But when something goes wrong, everyone blames the IT guys.
Part of this attitude comes from your end-user’s assumption that computers should be easy to maintain since they are completely automated.
They don’t understand all of the hard work that goes into setting up servers, swapping backup tapes, upgrading hardware, troubleshooting problems, and preventing the wiring from looking like spaghetti.
And when you’re not fiddling with hardware, you’re in board meetings trying to justify expensive projects and negotiating budgeting increases for future problems that may or may not materialize.
But what if it was easier? Cloud computing makes it easier.
When you move your servers to the cloud, you can extend the life of your current IT infrastructure while also eliminating many of the maintenance and financing headaches that come with IT management.
One of the biggest sources of waste within IT spending comes from the fact that you need to purchase, install and configure a new server in order to use it. This means a huge up-front capital outlay to run software that might not be a proper fit for your organization. And since IT growth can be somewhat unpredictable, you need to over-spend on hardware in order to anticipate potential problems.
Instead of buying tomorrow’s software today, what if you could buy it tomorrow… when prices will be lower? Cloud computing lets you do this.
When you host your servers in the cloud, you only pay for what you use on a pay-as-you-go basis. There’s no point in buying a 500 gig hard drive if you’re only going to use 100 gigs.
And the fact that you’re only paying for what you use on a month-to-month basis means that new projects can be quickly deployed, tested and abandoned if it’s found to be a poor fit for the organization.
With cloud computing, you don’t have to worry about cooling, power, or datacenter space allocation. All of these details are already taken care of for you. And if you ever decide that your cloud host isn’t right for you, it’s a simple matter to transfer your servers back to your datacenter or move them to another provider.
Although we would never advocate handing over your security obligations to a third party, cloud providers invest a fortune into the security, monitoring and protection of their datacenters. And for most small businesses, a cloud datacenter might very well be more secure than what they could affordably maintain within their own IT infrastructure.
When it comes to hardware maintenance, nothing could be easier than the cloud. Instead driving over to the datacenter, taking the server offline and opening it up to change replacing hardware components, you can simply fill out a form online without ever leaving your house.
With cloud computing, your datacenter follows you everywhere you go. And every hardware maintenance task either gets automated or replaced with a software process.
Backup, recovery, mirroring and emergency migration are also much easier in the cloud than they would be with a physical box. In most cases, these processes can either be completely automated or reduced to a few mouse clicks.
But one of the best things about cloud computing is the fact that you get access to highly trained IT support staff… usually at no extra charge. And especially with SaaS, you can offload many of your technical support calls to the SaaS host.
If you’re looking to manage your IT infrastructure in a simpler, more flexible and more cost-efficient manner, you’ll want to look into what the cloud has to offer.
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