The cloud presents the perfect opportunity for businesses to increase scalability and take advantage of the latest technology while also keeping costs under control. There’s no doubt that cloud computing has become the defining trend in the world of enterprise IT, but identifying the best workloads to outsource to the cloud is not always simple. While not every computing application is suitable for shifting to the cloud, there are many everyday business processes that are, such as the following:
#1. Infrastructure
Building your own infrastructure, including all the workstations, servers and other hardware, can be expensive. What’s more, you’ll have to constantly maintain and regularly upgrade your hardware to be able to enjoy the best performance and highest level of security.
For many smaller businesses, maintaining your own infrastructure is neither desirable nor affordable. The infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) model, by contrast, allows you to outsource your entire computing infrastructure, whereby you effectively rent your hardware.
#2. Cloud Hosting
Larger companies can often afford to have their own private clouds hosted by their own data centers, but this is rarely a practical option for SMBs. A private cloud allows businesses to securely access their information no matter where they are, but hosting a cloud solution in-house can get extremely costly, and using outdated technology can pose serious cybersecurity risks. By outsourcing your cloud hosting to off-site servers operated by a reputable provider, you’ll be able to enjoy most of the benefits of having an on-site private cloud but without any of the drawbacks.
#3. Disaster Recovery
If you’re entirely reliant on an on-premises data center, you’ll have nothing to fall back on if disaster befalls your business. With cybersecurity threats on the rise, you must have an identical set of computing resources available in multiple locations. Maintaining an exact duplicate of your systems in a different location, however, is enormously expensive. Fortunately, many cloud providers offer disaster recovery services where your data is securely hosted on multiple off-site servers, ready for access should disaster strike.
#4. Cybersecurity
While there’s no substitute for adequate staff training and on-premises security systems, you can never go overboard with cybersecurity. By outsourcing additional cybersecurity, you’ll have an invaluable extra layer of protection. At the very least, managed services providers offer round-the-clock monitoring by way of automated solutions that constantly scan incoming and outgoing traffic and alert you of any suspicious activity. Unlike IT vendors, cybersecurity services ultimately allow your business to isolate and mitigate threats as soon as they arise.
#5. Scalable Web Apps
Many web-based apps can become erratic or unresponsive whenever they have to handle unexpected spikes in traffic. If you’re running such apps from an on-premises data center with limited capabilities, you likely won’t be able to provision fast enough for the increased workloads. However, cloud computing provides practically unlimited resources on demand with virtualized hardware and software resources that you can access from anywhere. Any extra capacity costs extra money, but only when you actually need it.
#6. Batch Processing
Batch processing refers to the automation of everyday tasks, such as data backup, archiving, migration and encryption. These processes tend to use a great deal of computing bandwidth, potentially causing your whole system to suffer a bottleneck in performance. Since the need for such tasks isn’t constant, it rarely makes sense to invest in dedicated hardware for handling these tasks. The cloud allows you to outsource the workloads needed to complete these jobs using reliable, automated solutions that also negate the risk of human error.
Here at Dyrand Systems, our comprehensive, tailor-made solutions allow businesses with limited financial and human resources to take advantage of cloud-based resources. Call us today for a free assessment.