Moving to the Cloud

For the past few decades, businesses and enterprises have had to rely on their networks and servers to access corporate applications and data. This setup has allowed business users to communicate efficiently, access data quickly, and work within their office environments.

Business users primarily worked inside the office during this time, so this configuration worked very well. However, businesses have recently adopted hybrid models, allowing users to work from home and in the office. A hybrid model allows some applications or data in the cloud and some applications/data in the office. To accomplish the hybrid business model, IT departments needed to begin exploring cloud-hosted options outside their organizations. A very common example of a hybrid setup would look something like this:

• Emails are hosted through Microsoft 365 (cloud)
• Files/storage are located on a server in the office
• Computers are “controlled” by the server in the office
• 3rd party software is in the cloud and/or on the server

What is the Cloud?

The cloud is a ubiquitous term used in most business and IT circles, but what exactly is the cloud?

To keep it brief, the cloud is a subscription model in which a business rents a server instead of buying and maintaining its server. Instead of the capital expense of a server, the cloud provides a low-cost operational cost that is infinitely scalable.

Advantages

• Control capital expenses
• Pay only for what is needed
• Scale up or down when needed
• Leave updating/patching to the cloud provider
• 99.99% uptime SLA
• Remote access to data and applications on any device

Disadvantages

• Increase in operational expenses (monthly subscription)
• Data and security in the hands of others
• Higher cost over lifetime vs. on-prem variant

Conclusion

Overall, migrating to the cloud tends to be more expensive over 8 years (average server lifespan). While cost is important in the business decision-making process, lower capital expenditure should not be the primary impetus for a cloud migration as the lifetime cost of the cloud is higher. When deciding to migrate to the cloud or not, determine if the advantages are worth the added cost. Does your business have remote workers? Will you be growing your organization over the next five years? Do you need almost 100% uptime? How is your security posture?

If you need any assistance in starting this discussion or evaluating what works best for you, please get in touch with James Haywood with Intrada Technologies.