Businesses today need to constantly stay one move ahead of their competitors, showing that they are the most innovative in the market. But it’s challenging to stay ahead while reducing costs to your business and to your time. With running a business comes upholding and managing your IT infrastructure, so that your team can access the resources they need, when and where they need them. This is where migrating your business to the cloud comes in – cloud computing takes your business to new heights by moving your information to on-demand cloud servers. 

Imagine, you’re meeting a prospective client out of the office – it's going so well you’d love to show them some of your valuable data to prove to them that you are the best option. But if your data and documents are only housed in your local server, there’s no way to access them. Plus, when you get back to the office, you discover that your existing platform is no longer going to be supported, leaving you wide open to the costly risk of cyber-attacks and increasing the burden on your team. This is the kind of conundrum you might be faced with if you don’t consider cloud migration for your business. 

If my business is operating fine using the onsite, local server to store information and I’ve had no complaints from employees, should I still switch to the cloud? 

Yes! While you may be running your business fine, continuing to use on-premises hardware and infrastructure can prove very costly. One of the major reasons businesses choose to switch to cloud computing is the cost savings it presents through its pay-as-you-go model, rather than paying to maintain pricey on-premises hardware that cannot be scaled up and down so easily. 

Cloud migration sounds complicated to me – how do I know it won’t go wrong? How do I migrate to the cloud successfully?

With security concerns and the risk of downtime hot on a business owner’s mind, considering cloud migration can feel like a huge hassle. But with a specialised IT partner like Netmatters, you can be sure that we have the skills to transition you smoothly and reliably.  

The cloud migration process in simple terms generally consists of: 

1. Developing a cloud migration strategy: deciding which applications should be migrated to the cloud and what this should look like. 
2. Preparing a cloud migration plan: considering how risk might be managed through assessing infrastructure and coming up with your disaster recovery plan for any mishaps. 
3. Proceeding with the cloud migration: through migration tools and the skills of your IT partner, your applications will be transitioned and modernised to the cloud. 

I keep being told to migrate to Azure. Why should I do this for my business? 

Microsoft Azure is a cloud application that is built to make you more productive and adaptable, while saving cost, time and giving you complete security. If you’re using on-premises solutions currently, you might be finding these slow and difficult to scale up – but with Azure, you can scale up automatically to meet your business needs.  

Moreover, you might assume that hosting your data locally is more secure, however with Azure Directory, you have access to features like multi-factor authentication and role-based access control, meaning you cand delegate access only to the users that need it. Add this to the elimination of physical risks of hosting locally and it’s clear to see that Azure is much more secure on both fronts. 

There’s also an element of removing maintenance that often comes with local solutions – Microsoft will handle this automatically, leaving you to run your business. 

If technology is moving on so quickly, how do I know migrating to the cloud is truly worth it? 

Migrating your business to the cloud will: 

• Save you time in maintenance, upkeep and worrying about your data. 
• Reduce your costs from constantly upgrading your hardware due to the need to upscale. 
• Give you peace of mind over your security. 

An IT partner like Netmatters can help you with your cloud migration. We have a full range of expertise on cloud computing and will work with your business to ensure the process is smoothly and everything is accounted for. With offices in Norfolk & Cambridge, book your free IT consultation with our experts today to find out more.