5 good reasons to move your business to the cloud
5 reasons to be convinced
What is the best way to manage enterprise data? At a time when user experience (UX), data security and resilience matter more than ever, ALLONIA offers you a reflection on the solution of putting data in the cloud.
Through this article, discover the 5 good reasons to migrate your company to the cloud, and to gain efficiency on all your IT processes.
1. Flexibility is the main reason to move your business to the cloud
In the age of teleworking and work-life balance, companies need new flexibility. In particular, employees and managers are looking to access data from anywhere, at any time.
With their online sharing solutions, cloud computing solutions are like digital platforms. By centralising data in a cloud instead of storing it on a local hard drive, teams can access it freely (subject to various permissions).
“Extreme flexibility” is even an integral part of the definition of cloud computing given by the CNIL!
The advantage of such flexibility is twofold:
- Improve the daily life of employees, for example by allowing a sales person to access all the data needed for an external meeting. The data is automatically updated in real time, and available via PC, laptop, smartphone, tablet, etc.
- To help the company adapt quickly to changes in demand from its teams, partners and customers. Designed to be user-friendly according to the rules of user experience (UX), these online tools offer interfaces that are often intuitive and adapted to all.
Naturally, the flexibility offered by the cloud makes it possible to bypass practical problems linked to strikes or problems of accessibility to premises. The watchword: absolute agility.
Empower your teams to collaborate intelligently with online solutions tailored to your needs. This critical competitive advantage is one of the main reasons to move an organisation to the cloud.
2. Scalability, a proven benefit of putting data online
Being able to reduce or increase the number of data and digital resources according to growth needs and demand: this is the principle of scalability enabled by the cloud.
The company can adjust its online storage in a fluid, simple and intuitive way (thanks to the UX-based interface). Scalability and agility go hand in hand, and many companies are looking to modernise their management methods and digital accessibility.
If your team includes IT specialists, they will save time with the cloud.
Whether it’s adding new virtual machines (VMs) or changing the data storage infrastructure, everything is designed for optimal and intuitive user comfort. Your employees can concentrate on their other tasks.
Thanks to rapid upgrades, obsolescence is becoming less and less of an issue for companies. As a result, even the smallest companies have the means to react to a sudden increase in demand or the number of users. The scalability offered by the cloud also means resilience in intensive periods.
Finally, the cloud makes it possible to avoid the purchase of fixed hardware that is destined to undergo changes in the market and in demand.
In other words, you can save money by investing in resources that will last over time. This is especially true since cloud providers offer packages tailored to all sizes of business. Companies can therefore only buy the service they really need.
3. Economies of scale due to cloud computing
Adopting a cloud and digital storage solution also allows for significant economies of scale. The hardware provided by the service provider is optimised according to the peaks in traffic of the various users, thus rationalising the use of servers.
Putting data online also means saving energy. Since storage centres are not always used at 100% capacity, idle servers are managed to optimise the electricity resource.
The shared resources of cloud providers save time for internal IT teams, especially through scalability… While you relieve your employees of these specific tasks, part of the cloud tariff is spent on the salaries of the provider’s operators.
In the absence of a cloud-based solution, a company must provide replacement hardware in the event of system damage, theft or cyberattack.
These unused spare IT tools are a waste of money, easily avoided with cloud computing. User and customer data is secured with safeguards and expert retention methods.
Good to know: a public cloud will be particularly interesting in terms of achieving economies of scale. These infrastructures and systems as a service (IaaS) involve a contract with a service provider such as Microsoft Azure.
4. Data availability through online storage
In connection with flexibility, the data contained in the cloud is available from anywhere and at any time. The cloud provider manages a sharing system that must be optimal and efficient.
This availability is accompanied by two complementary dimensions:
- An authorisation system, useful in particular for limiting access to the most confidential data and those requiring specific processing. In concrete terms, this means limiting cases of data theft, corruption or inaccuracy.
- An effective backup and recovery mechanism, identifying the data to be protected and retained as a priority.
In addition, the cloud computing system allows permanent recovery of the organisation’s data. The aim is to keep the system in working order at all times, always consistent with the associated access and security mechanisms.
It is in the company’s interest to identify which services and functionalities need optimal availability, and when. Why? To enable the cloud to adapt to peaks in usage and to anticipate the amount of resources to be allocated to a given sector.
5. Data security with cloud computing
Cloud computing ensures that all data is backed up regularly and automatically, with a view to security.
In the field, data centres and storage areas are particularly well-protected and monitored environments:
- A team of specialists is dedicated to the upkeep, maintenance and monitoring of the infrastructure.
- The computer rooms that physically house the storage centres have back-up and security systems to deal with unforeseen events. The most serious risks, such as a power failure or weather disaster, are also anticipated.
- The applications and data located in these spaces benefit from redundancy systems that guarantee their availability and security at all times.
- The buildings concerned are like digital and physical bunkers, with limited and controlled access.
Again, the price of a cloud solution, whether public, private or hybrid, includes this maintenance of security systems. In the absence of a cloud solution, these costs must be borne directly by the company, as well as the management of secure rooms.
Do you want to ensure the optimal security of your data? Then choose a private cloud, which will allow you to manage this infrastructure yourself (or via a service provider), tailor-made for your company.
Only your company can access your various applications and information, protected behind your own firewall.
In contrast, a public cloud has a lower level of security, because of the complete automation of these systems. You will not have control over all the processes, and will not be aware of geographical restrictions for example.
This distinction between public, private and hybrid clouds is imperative when it comes to cloud security, because of the potential risks.
Conclusion
These 5 reasons to move your business to the cloud mean that it is gradually becoming the norm.
Aleia uses OVHCloud, Scaleway, Azure but we can also adapt our platform to your own cloud.
And, with the multitude of data available to businesses, if you need to deploy a series of data projects, you can contact our experts to help you identify the best solution for your purpose.