Making the business case for cloud hosting

Are you building a cloud business case?

Many organisations are currently looking ahead and defining their IT business needs for the coming months and years – and that often means finally moving to the cloud. In this article, we look at why cloud computing is important for business as we all adjust to the new normal; we also provide some key points to include in your cloud business case. 

Migrating your IT to the cloud needs a strategic alignment between IT and business stakeholders, and take into consideration the needs and concerns of anyone who will be impacted by such a transformation.

1. Moving to the cloud: The cost perspective

If you’re currently reviewing your on-premise infrastructure and evaluating software options, then the cost involved up front – and over the longer term – will be key. There are multiple factors to take into account when considering the financial perspective, including the following:

• How much time do your IT staff spend managing on premise software, hardware and its environment? Moving to the cloud removes the need for in-house or third-party IT teams to support your software or hardware. Depending on the age of what is currently used, these savings could be amount to thousands of pounds.
  
  
• How much does day-to-day management and maintenance of IT software and systems distract your IT staff? Through cloud migration, you would free up time to allow your IT specialists to focus on value adding projects that would improve efficiency and productivity in your core business and potentially drive revenue.
• How often are you having to update your in-house infrastructure/hardware, storage capacity and back-up systems? Moving to the cloud takes away the headache caused by running on out-of-date systems and keeping them patched and up to date with the latest versions.
  
  
• How secure is your current infrastructure? Consider how much it costs to keep your software and systems secure, particularly in a world where cyberattacks are becoming more sophisticated. If your software and systems are approaching end of life, you need to bear in mind that they may no longer be supported with updates and patches essential to keeping them secure.
  
  
• How much does it cost to run your systems on-premise? Your business will also be incurring costs for heating, air-conditioning, insurances and digital security too – all of which will be alleviated or removed by moving to the cloud.

With cloud-based systems, upfront costs are often lower, and it cuts out capital expenditure such as servers and hardware.

A cloud solution from a reputable provider means that many of the maintenance and upgrade requirements are not only done for you but also included in the pricing which helps with budgeting and cashflow. You can also discount any costs associated with security and back-up as modern cloud solutions are built using the latest world class technology, providing the highest levels of performance and security.

By paying only for what you use, cloud avoids bloated internal costs, leaving more working capital to spend on attracting new customers or serving your existing customers better and gaining a competitive edge.

2. Moving to the cloud: The employee perspective

It’s well documented that using the latest cloud software improves efficiency and productivity. It also makes it much easier to facilitate remote working safely and securely, even for traditionally office-based workers who need to access your sensitive data and systems such as finance, HR, and customer data. Consider the following employee efficiency and productively reasons when building your business case for moving to the cloud:

• How easy is it currently to provide 24/7 remote access for all of your desk-based employees? And how much time does it take to complete tasks – including paper-based ones? Cloud based software is faster, more intuitive and more efficient, including for home workers. And it makes sharing data and information seamless and more secure.
  
  
• Are business decisions being made quickly enough? You can improve access to live data and reports enabling time-sensitive decisions to be made in real time using current information by moving to the cloud.
  
  
• Does IT problem-solving hold employees up? Remove the risk of hardware and environment failure as well as software patching and upgrade issues – all of which can bring work to a standstill and waste hours of employee and IT time.

3. Moving to the cloud: The security perspective

Keeping up to date with operating systems and software updates can be time consuming and costly – the problem is that out-of-date or end-of-life software and hardware pose an increased risk of security breaches. In fact, according to the latest Accenture report on cyber security, “Indirect attacks against weak links in the supply chain now account for 40% of security breaches.”

Clearly malicious threats are a problem, but consider too that security breaches (unintentional as well as intentional) can also originate from inside your business.

• Are employees transferring files between work and personal computers or using their company device for personal business? With a cloud infrastructure in place, losing data is no longer a problem as, even when an individual laptop or device is lost or breached, the data itself is still safely stored in the cloud. Sharing information within the business – either between colleagues or with customers and suppliers – becomes more secure as it eliminates the need to share via email.
  
  
• How secure are your systems? Effective physical security of individual company data and facilities is difficult, time-consuming and expensive to address sufficiently – particularly as technology continues to change at such a breakneck speed. Cloud providers have far more resources and employ the most robust physical security measures at their facilities to ensure complete data safety – is one of the fundamental foundations of their business. They also have the very best protection, back-up and recovery plans in place against power outages and other disasters: it’s their job to protect their customers’ businesses after all.

4. Moving to the cloud: The IT resources perspective

IT resources are stretched enough as it is, particularly with the shift to remote working and the additional requirements required for keeping the workforce productive and secure. Your IT team can benefit significantly by moving to the cloud, and will help make their role more effective and enable them to achieve more for the business. And while there may be a concern amongst your IT team that moving to the cloud could negatively affect their roles, it can in fact empower them to take on projects and innovations they may not have had time to deliver or develop.

• Does IT need to work more flexibly? Cloud-based software ensures your IT team can offer support remotely. From queries to collaboration on projects to accessing real-time data on the go, location is no longer a barrier as IT can access systems remotely. Even new employees who are working remotely can get up and running more quickly – their IT equipment can be made ready “out of the box” as the systems, software and protocols are deployed remotely.

• Is IT adequately protecting your business? Whether from a security breach or a technical hiccup, having solid disaster recovery (DR) and security in place can ensure your data stays protected and any business disruption is kept to a minimum.

• Is IT able to cope with future growth? That can mean putting new systems and support in place for additional staff, products or services, or integrating newly acquired businesses. With the right cloud-based infrastructure and software, growth can be facilitated easily and staff quickly mobilised in any location.

• Is software kept up to date? Cloud software is updated automatically – including regular new features and functionality – without your IT team having to lift a finger. This leaves more time to focus on reaching organisational goals and growing the business.
  
  

Our cloud technology experts can provide the support your business needs – find out more about our Cloud Hosting services or for the latest expert views on moving to the cloud – get in touch.