I just met with a potential client who shared a horror story about a server outage that locked them out of their data and kept them from accessing their X-rays for 7 full work days. Should they move to the cloud? Maybe.
A lot of people have been asking me about the cloud lately. They want to know if it’s right for them. It’s true, for some, the cloud can help you improve efficiency, save money, and create redundancy in your computer systems. But timing is the key to whether your business should make the switch or not. Let me share with you some of my findings over the last 6 months of helping customers navigate these changing times.
So, first, who is the Cloud wrong for?
1. Businesses without access to multiple sources of really fast internet
2. Businesses that just went through a big, expensive hardware upgrade
If 1 and 2 don’t apply to you, the three ways fitCloud can help your business are by; lowering hardware costs, creating redundancy, and serving multiple locations.
- Lower Hardware Cost: If you are preparing to purchase a new server, it’s a good time to consider the cloud. We recommend a couple options; Dynamic Edge can put a dedicated server at your office, fitCloud:Onsite, that will host your on-premise, private cloud. Or, Option 2, you can host your server(s) in one of our temperature controlled, secure data centers. With both options, you access your data and software the same way you always have. We own the servers and upgrade them every few years. You just pay a monthly fitCloud infrastructure fee on your Fixed IT bill. Oh, and you never have to buy a new server again!
- Redundancy and Disaster Recovery: fitCloud can be a great option to address redundancy, making sure your servers are always accessible. Can you currently do business during a power or internet outage? When your server is in our datacenter, your servers are always up. Even if your business burns to the ground, all you’ll need is a laptop and a cellular 4G hotspot to be back in business. We will help you navigate the decision between moving everything to the cloud and creating a mix of onsite and cloud hosted servers depending on your needs.
- Multiple Locations: If one of our offices is without power, we need to make sure our other offices and home users are still able to get work done. Recently, the Ann Arbor area had a Comcast internet outage that lasted 8 hours. Because we use a fitCloud phone server instead of a local phone server at our headquarters, Nashville and Southfield’s phones still worked. We didn’t miss a call.
If you are wondering if your business should move to fitCloud, give me a call today to schedule a Cloud Readiness Assessment!
~Bruce
