Have You Outgrown Your IT Setup? Why Cloud Hosting Might Be the Answer
Have you considered cloud hosting as an alternative to your on-premises IT set up? For growing businesses with stability and cyber security at the front of mind, cloud hosting is a scalable and flexible solution that can easily adapt to your company’s needs.
If you’re experiencing limitations in storage and processing power, or if your system can’t handle increased traffic, this is a sure sign that you’ve outgrown your current IT infrastructure. Cloud hosting, with its expansive cloud computing and cloud storage capacities, provides a powerful alternative to traditional on-premise servers and hardware, so you can benefit from the latest technology without footing substantial upfront costs.
Signs You’ve Outgrown Your IT Setup
Frequent Downtime and Performance Issues
If your network is frequently down or performing poorly, it’s a clear indicator that your IT setup may no longer be fit for purpose. Issues such as choppy VoIP, freezing video calls, and general slowness in network and application performance can affect your business productivity. Additionally, high CPU usage suggests that your network is overwhelmed by traffic, leading to slowness, stutter and data packet loss, all of which cause headaches for you and your employees.
Increasing Costs and Maintenance
Soaring maintenance costs are often a telltale sign that your IT infrastructure is struggling to keep up with demand. With maintenance costs rising significantly and unplanned downtime causing costly delays, it’s clear that the current IT setup is becoming financially unviable. This is exacerbated by the high costs associated with downtime, which can reach up to £4000 per minute according to Gartner.
Difficulty in Scaling Operations
As your business grows, so does the complexity of your IT needs. If your current IT infrastructure cannot handle increased workloads or if network performance worsens during peak hours, it suggests there is a scaling issue. Moving your business to cloud hosting provides the scalability and flexibility you need to grow your business without splashing out on expensive physical hardware.
Challenges with Remote Work and Flexibility
The shift towards remote work has highlighted the limitations of traditional IT setups. Does your team experience connectivity issues, slow application performance, or other challenges while working remotely? These are signs that your IT infrastructure cannot handle the demands of a flexible work environment. Cloud hosting solutions can support the demands of a flexibly working team far more easily than traditional on-premise IT setups.
Benefits of Cloud Hosting for Growing Businesses
Better Performance and Reliability
Cloud hosting significantly boosts performance and reliability for growing businesses. With cloud-based server hosting, your websites and applications benefit from increased uptime, ensuring they are accessible for longer periods. The network of servers in cloud hosting can quickly compensate if one server fails, maintaining continuous availability and minimising downtime. Cloud hosting services are also designed with various failure scenarios in mind, to ensure that there is minimal disruption to your business operations.
Cost-Effective Solutions
Cloud hosting is often more cost-effective for a small business as it reduces the overhead and maintenance expenses associated with traditional on-premise servers. It eliminates the need for substantial upfront investments in hardware and reduces ongoing operational costs like power, cooling, and space.
On top of that, the pay-as-you-go pricing model of cloud services allows you to only pay for the resources you use, so you can better manage your IT budget and avoid waste.
Scalable Infrastructure
The scalability of cloud hosting is one of its most appealing factors. You can easily adjust the resources needed whether your business is experiencing a surge in demand or a slow period, without having to wait for physical changes to be made. This ability to scale resources on-demand not only supports business growth but also enhances agility and flexibility.
Improved Remote Work Capabilities
Cloud hosting enables remote work capabilities by providing robust platforms that support diverse work environments and enable seamless collaboration. It allows employees to access data and applications from anywhere, promoting productivity and flexibility.
Moving to Cloud Hosting
Assessing Your Current IT Setup
To ensure a successful transition to cloud hosting, start by conducting a comprehensive inventory of your servers, applications, and users. This step is crucial for understanding the scale of your environment and identifying any potential issues such as unsupported operating systems or incompatible software.
Choosing the Right Cloud Provider
Finding the right cloud hosting partner is important. You’ll need to find a provider that can cater to any specific requirements you have including storage, computing power, scalability, security and budget.
You should also look at the reputation of potential providers and their compliance with industry standards like ISO 27001 or Cyber Esentials. You can also evaluate things like the provider’s customer reviews, support times, and the range of services on offer.
Planning the Migration Process
Work with your new cloud hosting provider to develop a detailed migration plan that outlines the transition phases: prepare, plan, migrate, operate, and optimise. This plan should specify which workloads to migrate, in what order, and any necessary changes to your applications or data.
Training Your Team and Managing Change
For effective migration and adoption of new technology it’s important to get your team on board. Train your employees on cloud technology and the specific platforms you will be using. You can use a variety of educational resources such as videos, FAQs, and in-person sessions to cater to different learning styles.
Are you ready to reap the benefits of cloud hosting for your small business? Softext is a cyber essentials certified IT service provider offering flexible cloud hosting options. Speak to us today and start your transition from an outdated, on-premises IT setup to a scalable and secure cloud setup.
