Moving to the cloud is the key to succeeding in the digital era. Many business leaders are making this move to improve security, flexibility, and agility whilst others are doing it to keep relevant and productive, ultimately with the bottom line in mind.
By Garry Ackerman, director of Argantic
Before the lockdowns, businesses were at different stages of their cloud strategies, whether that meant moving their email server to the cloud or upgrading to Microsoft 365. This process has been accelerated as many workers were forced to work remotely.
According to a Synergy Research Group survey, spending on cloud infrastructure bypassed spending on data centre hardware and software for the first time in 2020. This study shows that spending on cloud infrastructure services (PaaS, IaaS, and hosted private cloud combined) grew by 35% to reach almost $130-billion in 2020, while spending on data centre hardware and software dropped more than 5% to less than $90-billion over the same period.
Transforming digitally with Microsoft 365
An increasing number of businesses are reaching a pinnacle of their digital transformation journeys with most of their IT already running in the cloud. However, it’s not only about having a cloud strategy but rather knowing how to use the cloud to its full extent to propel a business into the future.
Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 provide powerful IT infrastructure and software to run any business applications from the cloud. They are designed to help businesses achieve more through innovative apps, intelligent cloud services and world-class security.
Azure makes sense
Cloud computing with Azure is not only a far cheaper option, but more secure, reliable, and flexible than on-premises servers. With an ever-expanding set of cloud services, businesses can now experience the benefits of increased productivity, enhanced security, and competitive pricing.
Businesses can rest assured that their sensitive data is stored in highly secure, state-of-the-art data centres – owned and managed by Microsoft. The data is always available with 99,9% uptime guaranteed.
Simplifying the move
Microsoft 365 provides the perfect balance between enabling productivity from anywhere and advanced always-on security. It is designed for modern businesses that have remote and on-site teams working from all types of different devices, offering simultaneous collaboration across multiple projects and time zones.
More importantly, it provides an integrated solution that combines the productivity of Office applications and device management capabilities.
Saving costs
Since it runs entirely in the cloud, migrating to Microsoft 365 will reduce costs, challenges, and risks. Businesses no longer need to allocate time and resources to managing local email servers or network drives. Instead, remote workers can connect to Office 365 for email and OneDrive for file storage. They also have instant access to all other apps including Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Scalability
With Microsoft 365, businesses can scale their cloud usage and subscription to align with their growth. There is no need to acquire extra servers or networking equipment when new staff or teams are added. They simply need to adjust their subscription plans according to the number of users and the services required.
Collaboration
Everybody working on a project can now chat, meet, and collaborate with Microsoft Teams, it brings together people and information in a shared workspace with group chat, calling and online meetings. Furthermore, everyone has access to built-in Office apps, so they can review and edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files within Teams.
Staff can also stay connected to the team from almost anywhere using Teams apps for mobile devices. One can also interact with over 250 business apps within Teams, these include Adobe, Trello, Zendesk, Evernote and Github.
Security
Microsoft 365 is built with enterprise grade security in mind, with automatic updates so one never has to worry about end of support. Each user automatically receives the latest security updates from Microsoft 365 and Windows 10 to protect their business’ data against emerging threats, from malware to phishing to ransomware.
Cloud is the only option
Cloud has become the preferred platform for modern businesses to store data and run apps, and many businesses that still have their data on-premise are already planning to migrate to cloud. Companies across all industries are modernising their data platforms to leverage innovative apps and advanced analytics whilst moving their data to cloud.