An increasing number of enterprises are shifting their workloads to the cloud. It hasn’t been an overnight migration, and there are still quite a few laggards.
Often, this is because these organizations haven’t yet had to replace their servers once they’ve come out of warranty, which can take up to seven years. While the warranty is still in place, it might not make sense to waste the investment and shift to the cloud.
However, statistics show that 83% of enterprise workloads will have migrated to the cloud by 2020. Much of this shift is due to digital transformation, but also because companies want to be more digitally agile.
Going with the flow might not be reason enough for you to migrate your operations, though. So, here are a few reasons why you should consider making the shift.
Improved Cost Efficiency
Cloud computing is far more cost-efficient than trying to set up your own data center. In the latter case, you must pay for the equipment, which isn’t cheap. You also have to employ people to run the place, pay for the space itself, and many other related costs.
However, when you rely on cloud computing, you only pay for the service. Furthermore, you don’t have to worry about downtime, upgrades, patches, fixes, and so on. In the cloud, someone else is responsible for all the nitty-gritty of keeping everything running effectively.
So, not only will you save money, but also a lot of aggravation.
Increased Flexibility
When your business runs in the cloud, your employees can work from anywhere. This increased level of flexibility can be incredibly beneficial for a number of reasons.
First of all, you can monitor business operations from anywhere without having to be in the office. You can also check on anything and everything whenever you want.
Furthermore, offering increased flexibility means that you are in a far better position to attract great talent. Considering the shortage of labor, this is definitely a positive aspect, especially since many people are happy to switch jobs if they are offered flexible working conditions.
More Effective Scalability
Traditionally, if you wanted to scale up, you had to invest in more servers. Many organizations would invest ahead of time and wait years before they had to use these resources when that money could have been used for initiatives with much quicker returns.
With cloud computing, though, scaling is simply a matter of contacting your provider to expand storage or provide the additional features you need. It will take a few minutes for you to gain access to what you need to expand your business without investing a fortune in hardware.
Improved Security
Storing data in the cloud is far safer than having it on your premises. First of all, your provider specializes in cloud computing, meaning that they will keep your data safe. They have far more experience than you in such matters.
While you can certainly have your own outstanding security team, if this isn’t your core business, it shouldn’t be investing in data security.
Improved Productivity
As previously stated, migrating to the cloud results in increased flexibility, which means that your employees can work remotely. However, what you might not realize is that working remotely has been shown to increase productivity significantly.
When companies like Dow Chemical, British Telecom, and Best Buy shifted to the cloud, they discovered that remote workers were up to 40% more productive than their counterparts. Furthermore, Sun Microsystems discovered that 60% of the time employees would normally spend commuting was used to perform work for the company.
This increase in productivity is owed to fewer distractions and interruptions, reduced travel time, lower stress levels, and a decrease in the number of sick days taken.
Companies in the IT sector, for example, are so happy with the results that they plan to boost the number of remote workers they have. Dell, for example, has 25% of employees working remotely, but the plan is to increase this figure by 2020 to 50%.
Migrating to the cloud will positively impact your bottom line by helping to cut costs, which is certainly a great reason to make the shift. However, the flexibility, scalability, and boost in productivity will have even further-reaching benefits that can’t be ignored.
