In such highly competitive waters, businesses across the UK are regularly searching for new ways to cut operational costs while improving efficiency and workforce productivity. One of these methods is growing in popularity amongst IT services in London and can help your business reduce the strain on its resources while simultaneously promoting success: cloud services.
Compared to the costly investment traditional servers provide, cloud services offer efficient and increased storage capabilities while reducing overall costs. If your business is contemplating making the switch to this new digital tool, be sure to follow these methods to help you make the right decision.
The Benefits
If you currently have a managed services provider in London overseeing your business’s IT, then you probably know how critical it is to research every potential change beforehand. As such, it’s useful to know a bit about what cloud solutions can offer early on. While there is a diverse array of options available on the market, many of them will provide these primary benefits to your workforce:
- Improved options for collaboration
- Robust protection against cybersecurity threats
- Ability to let employees work remotely
- Diminished strain on resources with reduced costs
- Growth that changes and adapts to new technologies
As you examine the features a cloud service can provide, your business should start kicking around ideas and answers to some crucial questions: How will your workforce primarily utilise cloud computing? Can your managed IT services provider assist you with the switch?
Once you have a better idea of where cloud computing will operate within your business, it’s time to start your search.
The Offerings
Cloud computing can come in all shapes and sizes, but there are three main options your business will face.
- Public Platform
With this option, your company purchases storage on a shared server. These benefit from being relatively quick and straightforward to use, with scalable features that can grow with your needs.
- Private Platform
The need for comprehensive data protection is only growing in importance, making this new option an attractive choice. If your company relies on complying with GDPR guidelines, you may want to choose the paramount security this provides.
- Duo Platforms
If you’re having trouble deciding, don’t fear; you can still have the best of both worlds. By combining private and public cloud platforms, you can enjoy ultimate flexibility and options when it comes to handling your confidential data.
If you already have a managed services provider handling your IT in London, they can best help you complete the process of figuring out which cloud service meets your needs most.
Finding Your Best Fit
The three options listed above are excellent in their own right, but your business should always focus on what meets its specific requirements before anything else. As you continue your research, you’ll discover the differences between each, and better understand where they might fit into your operations.
- Public Cloud Services
Overall, public cloud solutions are most efficient in establishing resources for your servers and data as quickly as possible. Additionally, they will provide you with comprehensive security features, flexibility, scalable offerings and improvements to your workforce’s collaborative capabilities.
- Private Cloud Services
This option is better known for landing on the pricey side, but it offers much in return to sweeten the deal. IT service providers in London who utilise this tool can enjoy unparalleled, robust control and monitoring over their IT infrastructure, upgraded storage capabilities, compliance with data law and enhanced productivity.
- Hybrid Cloud Services
While it is a tricker option to the previous two, adopting a hybrid approach to your IT configuration for your firm is a proven way to ensure your success — however, you should still make sure it’s right for your business.
Since it combines two different approaches, you’ll need to figure which elements of your IT infrastructure are to remain in-house, and which ones will be transferred to the cloud — and who’ll be tasked with overseeing each.
Businesses usually don’t respond well to a one-size-fits-all approach. As such, you should consistently ask these questions when deciding on your final choice of cloud service:
- Does it meet my current requirements? Could it grow to meet my future needs?
- Are its price and ROI a worthwhile use of my resources?
- Will migrating data to the cloud be a seamless transition, or will it put a temporary stop to my operations?
- Do I currently have suitable support from a reliable London based managed IT services provider who could help me transition?
Ultimately, finding the best cloud service for your business isn’t a quick process — nor should it be treated as one. By taking your time, following the proper guidelines and ensuring you choose what’s best for your workforce, you can finally acquire the next tool that’ll propel your business into the future.