Many small to midsize businesses today are already taking advantage of business technology solutions that are a built on cloud computing platforms. Benefits that these businesses enjoy include increased productivity due to workforce mobility, reduced software costs with subscription pricing and software maintenance costs.
Most businesses look into selecting a cloud software solution during the evaluation process for a new software package. On the other hand, what do you do, if you realize that your business could benefit from a cloud-hosted solution but you already have a well-functioning on-premise software solution?
Businesses that have on-premise software solutions can opt to host their solutions in a cloud-hosted environment with a secure cloud-hosting provider such as CompuData. This option allows businesses to move to the cloud without having to change their pre-existing software solution.
Here are few signs to help you identify if it’s time to take the plunge and move your onsite software solutions to the cloud.
- You are spending a lot on IT server and Infrastructure maintenance
The dying server conundrums – fix it, or get a new one?
When you find that you are spending your IT resources – monetary or in time, fixing or maintaining an old server – you may be faced with the decision of either buying a new one, or continuing to swallow the bitter bill of rising costs. You have a third option, move your business applications to the cloud. With a secure cloud hosting environment you can let go of the IT headaches that come with routine IT server maintenance tasks, troubleshooting server downtimes, and make more room for strategic business decision making.
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- You don’t have a full disaster recovery plan
A full disaster recovery and business continuity plan goes beyond regular tape backups, it is created looking at the full landscape of a business’ current operations, then a determination is made as to how to have the business up-and-running with little to no disruption in the case of a disaster – either man made or natural. Most cloud hosting solutions come with a backup and disaster recovery options to ensure that your business is runs with minimum disruptions as possible even in the event of an emergency. Be sure to ask about recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs) to help you gain more understanding on how long your business could be down and how much of your data can be recovered if you have an outage. With CompuData our standard SLA comes an RTO and RPO of an hour, meaning we strive to recover your business within an hour or less, and backup your data every hour. This is standardized but can be customized based on your specific business needs.
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- You don’t remember the last time you tested your backup if ever at all
Many businesses using tape backups, fail to test the backups for reliability regularly. Or worse, they fail to test the backup at all. Without regular backup tests, you run a high chance of not having the ability to restore valuable business data when needed. With a virtualized backup solution, backup tests are conducted automatically without you ever having to worry about them.
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- You have a mobile workforce or multiple offices
Businesses with a mobile workforce that are constantly on the road interacting or that have multiple business locations can benefit from the cloud by providing anywhere, anytime access to all employees. Equipping your workforce with the ability to make more informative decisions and improve productivity all the time.