5 reasons why moving your business to the cloud is a good idea

More and more cloud services get launched every week which means businesses have never had so many to choose from. You’ve heard a lot about the benefits of the cloud, but do you know why or how it can help your business? View our latest SlideShare to find out 5 reasons why moving your business to the clod is a good idea…

Did you know businesses that embrace cloud services grow 19.6% faster?

From speeding up traditional workflows to challenging your team to work together in new ways, cloud based tools can boost collaboration and drive innovation.

• Access files & tools anywhere
• Secure data backups
• Real-time collaboration
• Business intelligence

What you need to know before making the switch to the cloud.

Cloud based applications are here to stay.

• Cloud Adoption is growing 88% of UK businesses are using cloud services
• 67% expect their use of cloud services to grow in the next year
• 93% of UK businesses have at least one cloud service

Top 5 Cloud Services & Application Types

1. Web hosting
2. Platform-as-a-Service
3. Office productivity tools
4. Video Conferencing
5. Communications & collaboration

Security comes as standard

As cloud technology improves, security fears lessen.

• Only 35% of Enterprise IT managers in 2017 rated cloud security as a significant challenge compared with 41% in 2015.
• 56% of businesses are storing sensitive or confidential data in the cloud in 2016
• 18% of files in the cloud contain sensitive or confidential data

Move at your own pace

You don’t have to move everything at once, it’s recommended to migrate to the cloud over time – start simple and gain valuable experience. 78% of UK businesses trial cloud services before committing to purchase.

1. Learn – Understand the cloud – how it works and how it will impact your business. Identify key areas where the cloud will benefit your business the most.
2. Evaluate Assess and identify applications and services you would like to move to the cloud and what you want to achieve.
3. Plan Decide when to make the move and develop a detailed migration timeline. Schedule all events, resources and actionable items.
4. Adopt Roll out cloud services in phases. Move one area of your business over, make sure it’s stable and effective. Then, make your next move.
5. Optimise Once implemented you will want to ensure you are successfully taking advantage of the cloud’s performance, scalability & cost- saving benefits.

Using the cloud doesn’t mean new tools. Moving to a cloud-based solution doesn’t have to mean retraining employees. Many solutions allow you to use the same applications your employees are used to, with access to files anywhere online.

The sky’s the limit

Businesses who have made the switch to the cloud see various benefits, these include:

• 76% of businesses have reduced the risk of lost data
• 43% of businesses have seen cost savings over on-premise solutions
• 28% of businesses, with cloud services have seen enhanced productivity
• 1 out of 2 businesses utilising cloud services see a competitive advantage
• 3 out of 10 have seen improvements in team communication & collaboration
• 1 out of 5 see improvements in customer service and engagement

Sources
[1] Cloud Market Cap to Pass $500 Billion by 2020, Forbes, Alex Konrad
[2] White Paper Twenty Cloud: Driving Business Transformation
[3] March 2017 RightScale 2017: State of the cloud report
[4] 2016 Global Encryption Trends Study
[5] The Ponemon Institute and Thales e-Security Vanson Bourne “The Business Impact of the Cloud”
[6] Skyhigh: Cloud Adoption & Risk, 2016 ,Q4
[7] Cloud UK, Paper fifteen, UK Cloud adoption snapshot & trends for 2016