10 Reasons to Take the Leap into the Cloud

The transition to a new computing era has begun, with many companies shifting their IT strategies from on-premise solutions to the cloud. According to a report released by Gartner earlier this year, the amount of money IT will spend on cloud services for 2016 is $114 billion, and will grow to $216 billion in the year 2020 and represent 24% of the IT budget.

Cloud-based services can take much of the overload off the help desk, but there are many other benefits you may not have realized. Here are a few great reasons to move your IT operations to the cloud.

1. Leverage More Data for Less Money

As technology continues to rapidly advance and the use of smart phones sky rockets, IT is facing an overwhelming volume of data from multiple channels and devices. Managing that data means acquiring, installing, maintaining, and repairing all the equipment, plus taking on the tasks associated with processing and analyzing the data itself. But, it doesn’t have to be this way. Moving your IT service management into the cloud means transferring all of that responsibility for equipment and data management onto the cloud service provider.

2. Scaling Operations as Your Business Grows

Cloud resources are elastic, allowing companies to increase or decrease their IT needs when the business environment dictates, typically at minimal cost to the company itself. While companies will continue to predict their resource needs, they won’t be slave to those predictions. Instead, they can be more reactive as needs arise and utilize just enough of the resources to manage growth and improve efficiency.

3. Reducing Energy Costs

Remember the old data centers and IT rooms, where staff worked in parkas and the AC blew continually, January through December? Think about all those old mainframes and servers cranking out heat and running up power bills. Moving operations to the cloud means getting out from under those energy bills and going greener in the workplace.

4. Improving Access and Mobility

Today’s IT is managing a shift toward a mobile workforce and global operations. It’s vital for people to have access to the same information they would have if working at the office (think Google Drive, Google Docs, Slack). Not only have cloud services enabled workforce flexibility, they have improved communication and collaboration. In addition, the cloud allows a company’s help desk to easily offer 24/7 support for users in all time zones, and access via mobile devices without compatibility issues or having to staff the help desk around the clock.

5. Reducing Downtime

Nothing runs up a bill (or executives’ blood pressure) like downtime. When you carefully select a quality cloud service provider for help desk operations, as an example, your downtime plummets while user satisfaction goes up.

6. Enabling Easier Disaster Recovery

What happens to your users if your systems are disabled by a flood, hurricane, earthquake, or just a plain old system failure? When you move IT operations to the cloud, your users won’t miss a beat while you handle cleanup and recovery efforts. There is built-in redundancy across a number of different data centers, enabling no loss of data or productivity. All of your data and applications remain safely out of the line of fire, and you don’t have to worry about all the lost revenue adding up on top of the costs of restoration.

7. Access to Automatic Upgrades and Updates

Software upgrades and updates usually mean temporary downtime and overtime by IT staffers to get the upgrades or updates installed, tested, and running on all systems. But when you switch to the cloud, upgrades and updates are automatic. No downtime, no overtime — just a smooth, seamless transition. Plus, you are always working on the most current version of the software available. This means greater security, more features, and better stability.

8. Security, 24/7

Worried about a lost or stolen laptop and the data that might have been on it? Worry no more! Cloud computing allows all of your data to be stored on the cloud. If you have a stolen laptop, you still have access to the data and can remotely disable the computer.

9. Say Goodbye to On-Premise Infrastructure Needs

Cloud computing has removed the need from on-premise data centers and IT rooms. This not only brings cost savings, but office space is gained because there is no need to house the hardware and related components.

10. Better Integration

Are you thinking about enterprise service management? Cloud computing allows IT resources and services to be more streamlined across organizations than ever before. It provides the utilization of one central system and easy access to backend data sets for visibility, transparency, and cross-utilization of information.