Why are so many small and medium-sized business’ flocking to the cloud.

Do you know why so many small and medium-sized business (SMBs) entities are flocking to the cloud? The impetus behind this move to the cloud is a simple one, relevant to all profit-making organizations – cost!

Costs Are Lower in the Cloud

Running an internal IT department is expensive. There are hardware costs, software costs, maintenance costs, and personnel costs.

Instead of amortizing hardware and software expensed, it is included in their monthly subscription price. This monthly cost is immediately expensed as a monthly operating expense. Moreover, subscription costs are mostly agreed to without a contract so either party can terminate the agreement. Also, by outsourcing IT, IT salaries are eliminated, or IT staff can be allocated to more productive IT work. Estimates are that cloud-based computer services are about 35% to 50% less than keeping IT as an in-house service.

Have There Advantages Other Than Cost?

When an SMB outsources its IT to a managed services provider (MSP), they gain more than lower costs. You also gain:

Data Analysis

Even if you are classified as a small or medium-sized business, you are like most other businesses and have more data than you know what to do with – your IT is not equipped to perform meaningful data analysis. Cloud providers of managed services can perform data analysis to your specifications for less than you can do in-house.

Collaboration

When you have your software and data in the cloud, anyone authorized can access it from any device at any time. This makes collaboration on documents and presentations easier.

Speed

When projects are developed in the cloud, they are completed more quickly than on location with meetings, minutes, and delays. Easier collaboration means that work is completed faster.

Measurable Cloud Benefits

Improved productivity, no infrastructure costs, are all measurable and support a business case for taking your IT to the cloud.

Better Customer Service

According to the Harvard Business Review, companies that use the cloud reported better customer service achievements than companies not on the cloud for all or part of their customer service.

However, jumping to the cloud without planning can result in a disaster. Here are some tips for making your SMB’s trip to the cloud go smoothly.

1. Have clear objectives for what you want and expect from transitioning to the cloud. Let them serve as your basis for a Request for Proposal.
2. Decide if you want to integrate existing data and legacy systems to the cloud. Many experts believe that it is best not to try and move legacy systems to the cloud and instead use it only for new IT projects and data storage.
3. Take advantage of free trial offers from cloud providers. This lets you compare the features of various companies before moving to a single vendor.
4. Make sure that when you make a comparison, you compare the same features among services – otherwise, you may be shocked as your reliance on the cloud increases.

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