Businesses that want to stay competitive or relevant don’t have a choice anymore when it comes to deciding whether to switch from an on-premise infrastructure to cloud computing. The cloud is too cost-effective, dynamic, and optimizing a technology to pass up, as our recent blog posts have shown. The authoritative David Linthicum of InfoWorld wrote a column last month in which he stated, “Small businesses really have no choice but to use the cloud. A traditional approach to IT typically means a high overhead cost. Saddled with such costs, small businesses wouldn’t be able to compete in a market where their counterparts are paying half as much on IT to chase [the] same amount of revenue.”
Linthicum’s focus on small businesses brings up an interesting point: cloud migration benefits some companies more than others. An organization’s development status or market conditions can make a switch to the cloud more urgent and/or advantageous. Businesses with a greater incentive to switch to the cloud include:
-Start-ups. It takes several months for a company to design, build, and configure the average on-site IT infrastructure. A cloud-based infrastructure, on the other hand, can be deployed in seconds. It lets start-up companies formulate and organize themselves faster. It also allows them to be productive from day one (“hit the ground running”). Even better, cloud-based infrastructures have the stability, flexibility, and reliability to support an organization in the long run.
-Businesses with multiple locations. Cloud computing offers the advantages of a consolidated infrastructure and lower overhead costs for companies with a dispersed workforce. A cloud-based infrastructure lets everyone in an organization, no matter where they are located, access the same files and applications. With the cloud, businesses can even sell off some of their offices and let employees or contractors work from home.
-Rapidly-growing businesses. With the cloud, rapidly-growing businesses can acquire computing resources quickly and cost-effectively. For example, companies with an increasingly popular website can add new processing power, storage, and bandwidth to support a larger amount of activity and orders. The cloud, not requiring any hardware purchases or other long-term investments, also protects an organization from losses due to drops in demand.
-Organizations in highly-competitive markets. The cloud gives companies in a tight market an added edge. It increases their productivity and lowers their costs without causing any disruptions or unpleasant changes to a business or its infrastructure.
-Companies at the end of their current on-site infrastructure’s lifecycle. A business has to replace its on-site IT infrastructure approximately every 3-5 years. Switching to the cloud during the replacement process ensures that all the company’s investments in on-premise hardware and software have been maximized. Companies that have just reached the end of their current infrastructure’s lifecycle will be hurting themselves in the short term as well as the long term if they don’t switch to cloud computing: they won’t be able to migrate to the cloud for another 3 years at least. In addition, businesses are mostly freed from ever having to worry about an infrastructure lifecycle again when they switch to the cloud; their cloud-based infrastructure will be managed, repaired, and upgraded by their hosting provider.
Regardless of their current situation, businesses should always select IronOrbit when migrating to the cloud. IronOrbit, a leading Cloud Services Provider, offers the widest variety of Private Cloud Solutions—such as Hosted Desktops, Hosted Applications, and Managed Hosted Servers—combined with the industry’s best features, services, and payment terms—including 24x7x365 technical support, Orbital Security System, Atomic Speed Technology, and flat monthly fees. We also make cloud migration easy with a no-cost setup, a hassle-free data transfer process, and (for new customers signing up between now and March 31) the inclusion of free hardware such as thin clients, monitors, and peripheral devices. Just because switching to the cloud is a no-brainer doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make the smart choice of IronOrbit as your hosting provider!