More and more companies and organizations are migrating their infrastructure (IaaS) and applications (SaaS) to the cloud. And that makes perfect sense! Because the cloud offers a lot of important benefits. Not just in terms of security, but also financially. Curious about how your organization can fully benefit from it? We'll lay everything out for you.
Tue, 21 January 2020
When you move your IT environment to the cloud, you enjoy a lot of additional financial flexibility. Because with most cloud platforms, including Microsoft Azure, the cost structure follows a pay-per-use model (PPU). This means: you only pay for the operational costs (OpEx) of the services you use from your Cloud Service Provider (CSP). And so you no longer need to invest long-term in physical resources (CapEx).
But does that really make the cloud cheaper? It depends on a number of factors. When you make the financial comparison, it's best to look at the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). And consider both the direct and indirect costs of your environment.
If you take into account the management, security, downtime, and consumption of your infrastructure, you can come out significantly cheaper with the cloud. Additionally, through the cloud, you always have a clear overview of the entire cost structure of your IT infrastructure. And you can make quick adjustments if necessary. Ready to optimally manage your cloud costs? We'll help you get started with a few practical tips!
Is your organization growing rapidly? In the cloud, you can scale up or down the number of users, storage capacity, and computing power of your IT infrastructure with just a few simple clicks – or even fully automatically – without any downtime. Thanks to the cloud, your environment is thus adapted to your needs at any moment.
For instance, you can easily add extra servers when your business grows. Or additional capacity during peak moments. And afterwards, you can effortlessly scale down your infrastructure.
And your costs scale as well! The less you need, the less you pay.
In the cloud, you have better guarantees in terms of availability, uptime, and Business Continuity Management. If something goes wrong on a certain server? Then another one in your cloud environment takes over seamlessly.
In this way, you can more easily carry out (maintenance) updates or make backups. All with minimal – or even no – downtime.
This allows you and your colleagues to make optimal use of your most important applications and data. And keeps your organization always up and running.
The cloud also has a significant advantage in terms of Disaster Recovery: the time it takes to restore your servers and data after an incident is very short. This way, you can get back to work in no time.
Servers that you manage on-premise (at your company site) may seem safer. However, in the cloud, you have many more options in terms of security, privacy, and compliance. And as a Cloud Service Provider (CSP), we are intensely focused on that. Thus, we provide security measures in multiple layers, ensuring that your infrastructure is thoroughly protected against potential dangers.
But what makes the cloud so much safer? You can compare it to a safe. Naturally, it's much safer in a bank than in your office. Because banks can implement far more security measures than you can. Does that mean the cloud is completely foolproof? Of course not. Even a bank can be robbed. But it takes a lot more effort than breaking into your office.
Since Cloud Service Providers (CSP) strongly focus on consumption and resource management, including virtualization and containerization, the cloud is also a relatively sustainable solution. For instance, there is less hardware required than with a physical infrastructure. And in this way, there is also less industrial production and transport, which only reduces the ecological footprint of your IT environment.
The greatest challenge in sustainability is renewable energy. Meanwhile, Cloud Service Providers operate servers that achieve a power efficiency of over 90%. And in combination with green energy, the cloud offers a more sustainable IT approach.
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Curious about all the advantages you can get from Microsoft's cloud? We'll give you a small taste:
You get instant access to powerful Microsoft applications like Active Directory, Office 365 and SharePoint, which can be seamlessly managed from within Azure.
With Azure, you can build your cloud infrastructure as you like it: completely public or in combination with on-prem servers or other clouds.
Our Azure experts are more than happy to assist you on your journey to the cloud. Feel free to get in touch with us for a non-committal initial consultation.
Migrating to the cloud is a big step. Choosing the right platform? That's a whole different issue. For us, it's simple: we are completely convinced by Microsoft Azure. Why? Because it offers a tremendous amount of impressive benefits for your business. Let's go over them together.
At everyoneINVESTED, it's all about one thing: helping banks and financial organizations to evolve their customers from savers to loyal investors. And to achieve that, they focus primarily on online banking. But of course, this brings its own set of challenges, especially in terms of IT. That's why we worked together with Flowfactor to find an optimal cost solution for their Azure environment.
Does your IT infrastructure consist of various cloud platforms? Or do you still have some on-prem servers running? Then Azure Arc is the perfect tool for you! Because with it, you can manage your entire hybrid or multi-cloud environment in a snap, from one central location. Curious about how exactly that works? Thijs Hereygers, our Azure Arc specialist, outlines all the benefits for your business.
