3 Ways Cloud Servers Benefit Your Business
3 Ways Cloud Servers Benefit Your BusinessSmall to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) often have trouble balancing their IT needs with infrastructure they can actually afford.
We see it time and time again… businesses trying to get 5 -7 years out of equipment that was only built to last 3 – 4, or neglecting servers that is actually still within its lifecycle because the upfront costs of buying servers are so high that it turns them off from investing further in proper maintenance.
Such neglect will always come back to bite you. Outdated hardware will eventually fail, resulting in costly downtime.
Also, you need to proactively protect yourself from cybercriminals because you’re only one attack from being forced out of business. 55% of SMBs close within just 6 months of an online security breach due to the financial consequences of data loss (about $150 per compromised file, with thousands of files lost in the average attack) often being too much to bear.
You know you could really use an upgrade, but how are you supposed to actually afford it?
Have no fear, the cloud is here. Cloud servers allow you to have your cake and eat it too, offering access to properly maintained servers at a price you can actually afford.
But the benefits of virtualization aren’t limited to the savings: here are 3 ways switching from in-house equipment to cloud servers will benefit your business.
- Cut Costs
While the benefits of virtualization aren’t limited to savings, it’s hard to say that cost-cutting isn’t chief among those benefits.
With in-house servers, the costs extend well beyond the thousands you’ll have to put down upfront just to get and install the equipment itself. It also takes a lot of electricity to run your own equipment, so you have to consider what it will contribute to your power bill. Oh, and don’t forget about maintenance, which also requires a significant ongoing investment.
The cloud allows you remote access to someone else’s server, and that someone else will be the one responsible for those upfront, electricity, and maintenance expenses. All you have to do is pay a small monthly access fee.
- Mobilize Your Workforce
Trimming your IT budget helps, but IT isn’t exactly the largest piece of your overall budget. The wages and benefits you’ve invested in your employees are a far greatest expense.
Considering how much you’ve invested in your employees, why not get more bang for your buck and give them tools they need to be more productive.
The cloud allows your employees to access business data from anywhere they can find an internet connection. Projects will be completed much faster when your workforce is able to share files and collaborate from home or in the field instead of being limited to the office.
More efficient employees will allow you to more easily reach (and even outperform) your revenue targets.
- Recover from On-Site Disaster
Are you still using tape drives?
If so, you need to upgrade.
Tape drives will protect you from a lot of disaster scenarios, but not all. If your office is struck by a fire or flood, your on-site backups are going to be destroyed along with the original files they were designed to protect.
Store your backups on a remote server via the cloud and your office could be completely leveled and your data would still be fine, with all your files waiting in the cloud to be restored whenever you’re ready.
- (BONUS) Save Space
You only expected us to give you 3 reasons to migrate… but Compunet InfoTech is always going above and beyond, aren’t we?
Anyways, one of the other benefits is that with cloud servers you’ll be able to save physical space. If you and all your in-house employees are crammed in a little office, removing bulky servers and other IT equipment will give you more room to breathe.
Contact us at (604) 986-8170 or info@compunet.ca for more information about our IT services.
