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Benefits of Moving to the Cloud

Written by Stephen M. Yoss Wednesday, August 24 2011 14:05

cloud question Moving to the cloud has many benefits for a firm. It is one of the easiest ways to becoming more productive while saving money. Some of the major benefits are outlined below.

Cost Savings

Working in the cloud will help firms better control costs. Cloud technology allows existing production staff to be far more efficient.
Not as many support personnel will be needed and due to the synergy of the technology remaining support staff can service multiple locations.
Fixed & Utility Based Pricing will allow a firm to purchase only what they need and only when they need it. Additionally, a firm doesn't need to worry about a sudden increase in rates.

Accessibility

Information is available anywhere... if you want to prepare a financial statement while looking at the Eiffel Tower... you can.
If you want to see if an e-filed tax return was accepted before the parade at Carnival... you can.
Your work schedule can fit your life schedule.

Security

Virtual Private Network between your data center and branch office. Allows both facilities to act if they are in the same building. Completely secure endpoint to endpoint.
Secure Shell Access (SSH) fully encrypts data endpoint to endpoint. Primarily used with Linux machines.
Security Socket Layer (SSL/TLS) encrypts data in transit and can be used in conjunction with Remote Desktop.

Benefits & Risks of Moving to the Cloud Slide Show

Backup

Backups are going to be following best practices for data retention.
Automated, Secured, and Enforced...
For example, Amazon S3 is designed to provide 99.999999999% durability of data.
For example, if you store 10,000 objects with Amazon S3, you can on average expect to incur a loss of a single object once every 10,000,000 years.
In addition, Amazon S3 is designed to sustain the concurrent loss of data in two facilities.

Minimal Equipment Investment

Almost all equipment is maintained by the cloud provider. You are only responsible for the equipment in your office (e.g. employee’s computers, your routers, etc.)
You never have to purchase another physical server or pay for its maintenance.
As upgrades are made available you can easily migrate to newer technology.

Scalability

Cloud services are designed for EXPLOSIVE GROWTH.
Cloud services will allow your company to grow at exponential rates without exponential cost.

Configuration, User, and Update Control

All users work from the same application base. This ensures all users are using the data set, the correct version of applications with the right permissions.
As application updates are released you only have to update a very limited number of machines. You don’t have to run around the office working on every machine. You also control when updates are applied.
You can enforce user privileges to ensure correct access.