FEATURED ARTICLE

Why It’s Time to Move to the Cloud

While the cloud is often discussed as one of several options for software deployment, we believe a move to the cloud has become critical. Here’s why we think transitioning to the cloud is such an important step and why we recommend cloud hosting for our customers using Cargas Energy.

The Risks of On-Premise Deployment

While on-premise deployment has traditionally been the preferred option for businesses, today, ever-evolving cybersecurity threats make on-premise deployment a risky venture. Here are some of the risks of keeping your data in-house.

A security breach or ransomware attack. The number one risk of keeping your business data and systems on internal servers is a security breach or ransomware attack. During the past 5 years, nearly 15% of our on-premise customers have been impacted by a ransomware attack or virus.

Protecting your on-premise data requires a significant investment in IT resources to constantly monitor security threats and keep your systems up to date, and it’s often not enough. No matter how well-trained or well-intentioned your team is, it only takes one person to click a link that impacts your whole network.

Complete data loss. Without proper backups in place, you risk losing all of your data in the case of an extreme weather event or hardware failure. Even with a backup system in place, you may lose days or weeks of critical information if your backups aren’t continuous.

Time and money. It’s costly to purchase and maintain all of the hardware, software, and licenses necessary to support an on-premise infrastructure. And once your system’s in place, it’s an ongoing battle to keep everything up to date in a timely manner. If you don’t install updates promptly, you’re more at risk for a security breach. You also assume the responsibility of applying bug fixes and patches to keep your system running smoothly.

While many businesses are prepared to pay the initial setup costs for an on-premise system, they may not consider the ongoing operating expenses.

Limited growth. On-premise systems are not flexible enough to adapt quickly to the changes your business may experience. Seasonal demand may overwhelm your system’s bandwidth and lead to slow speeds or outages. Increasing your server space to accommodate increased volume is not a simple process. And ultimately, while bandwidth may be a problem during the heating season, you may be left supporting extra infrastructure that you don’t need during the slower months.

The Benefits of Cloud Deployment

While on-premise deployment has become riskier, cloud deployment has become the safer bet. In addition to being more secure, cloud environments have numerous benefits to offer modern businesses. Here’s what you stand to gain from moving your business to the cloud.

Better security and failsafes. Security is paramount to cloud service providers, and they invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep their clients’ data safe—Microsoft invests about $1 billion in cloud security every year. With their businesses riding on the safety and security of their networks, cloud providers do more to protect your data than you can on your own. In addition to cybersecurity, cloud providers offer failsafes like continuous backups and disaster recovery to prevent data loss.

Anytime access to your business. A cloud platform gives you and your team a quick and easy way to access your business systems anytime, anywhere. This anytime access gives you more flexibility and helps teams distributed across multiple locations and states work in sync. For executives and managers, it means you can always keep a pulse on your organization, no matter if you’re in the office, around the corner, or around the world. You can always be connected to the information that’s important to you.

Better flexibility, scalability, and reliability. Cloud servers offer better uptime than on-premise servers, making them more reliable for your team. With a redundant server infrastructure and multiple power sources, cloud platforms can easily flex, spreading high-volume activity out across the cloud so you don’t see a drop in performance speed. This flexibility also means it’s easy for you to grow your business. Add users and expand your systems when you need to without having to worry about whether or not your infrastructure can handle the change.

Reduced costs. While you will have to pay a cloud service provider for access to your data, security, and maintenance, you’re sharing that cost with many other clients, making the total cost of ownership for a cloud server much less than an on-premise server. Plus, you eliminate the need to manage security and maintenance yourself.

Quick and easy upgrades. Updates can be pushed to software on cloud servers automatically, making it easy to keep your systems up to date and secure. Access to updates also means access to the latest features as soon as they’re released. Better yet, you don’t have to do any of the work. It’s all handled by the software provider or cloud service provider.