It is a question that is posed time and again – should I move my applications and data to the cloud? And what are the benefits of doing so?

Cloud deployment comes with several key advantages. The first of these is the reduction of implementation costs. It eradicates the need to contend with the expense of purchasing and maintaining servers, storage and necessary infrastructure to run on-premise. Furthermore, cloud-based systems can be deployed more simply and more quickly than their on-premise counterparts.

A particularly pertinent aspect of this is that remote working is only growing as a trend, due to the pandemic and the need for social distancing. In the wake of the pandemic, several companies globally, such as Microsoft and Twitter, are realizing they can bypass their office setup, if not entirely then certainly to a greater degree than before.

The remote working trend makes utilising the cloud more relevant than ever. Having a dispersed workforce that is able to access the applications and data they need from wherever they are has become the new normal, not just for progressive companies, but for most businesses whose operations have been digitised.

This brings with it a dramatic lowering of overheads, and a viable way to reduce operating costs, while leveraging cloud to ensure business continuity.

That is not the only cost-saving inherent in moving to the cloud. Because one’s information technology becomes an operating expense, rather than an investment in hardware that needs to be replaced over time, this expense becomes predictable. Further, it is cheaper to scale up as the business grows. Should you need to accommodate more users, the cloud allows you to scale up with the press of a button, often by simply moving to a slightly high-tiered payment plan that delivers greater value, while remaining affordable. It is a great deal less cumbersome, and time-consuming, than having to add more infrastructure.

More easily dealing with cyberthreats

Cost-effectiveness is not the only major reason why cloud is better – cybersecurity is another one. The reality is that as long as companies and individuals are connected, there are online threats, such as ransomware, that can be severely detrimental to a business. However, cloud providers often have considerably more robust solutions baked into their platform that protect businesses on their cloud from the outset.

Contrast that to on-premise solutions, where organisations must contend with the complexity of choosing and deploying the right security measures for their business, and shoulder that expense as well, and the next big advantage of moving to the cloud becomes clear.

Saving time

Time, it has been said, is the most valuable commodity, because once it is lost it can never be recovered. Moving to the cloud frees up a considerable amount of time otherwise spent on ensuring that the applications one depends on are up to date. However, when an application is cloud based, updates and security patches are installed seamlessly. This frees up an organisation’s personnel to concentrate on other, more valuable things – like innovating and responding to a rapidly changing marketplace.

Admittedly, adopting cloud-based solutions is not a panacea, but it is a viable and important tool in the modern business’s toolchest, enabling them to cut unnecessary expenditures while remaining agile and adaptable.