“The Cloud” has become an overwhelming concept in the realm of IT. It seems like a million new cloud solutions appear on the market every day. At the user level, cloud storage has become almost mandatory, and if you are reading this article it’s very likely that you have a Dropbox, Google Drive or similar service. However, the cloud can also do a lot for a business; its reach goes far beyond just storage.
Cloud virtual servers essentially mean that most of your data processing needs can be outsourced to a remote location but what does this mean for a business?
Well, for starters it can allow you to increase your data processing capabilities, without a costly hardware upgrade.
The company that provides you with the server is in charge of keeping their equipment aligned with the needs of your business, and their equipment is the one doing the heavy lifting.
Not only does this eliminate the need for you to purchase hardware regularly, but it can also increase the life cycle of your current equipment, as daily operations are going to be less taxing on it.
Then there’s the matter of savings. The most obvious savings come in the form of space; if your servers are in a remote location you don’t need a server room on site and you have more space for whatever it is you need. Real estate is expensive, so any savings in this area are normally very welcome.
Then there’s the cost of running a service, which including power and maintenance, apps, etc. can cost over £400 per year. If you need more than one server, the cost increases exponentially.
Another thing to take into account is that having less stuff to maintain means you need less personnel in charge of looking after the equipment.
The downside to having your server in a remote location comes in the form of ease of access. If the server is not working and it’s on site, you can send someone from the IT team to fix it and that’s it- job done. If the server is offsite, however, then you can’t have that “hands on” experience and ease of access. To solve this, companies like UKhost4U offer customer service that’s readily available at any time of day or night.The moment you go onto the website you get a tab that gives you the option to chat with a representative.
If you’re with a provider that does not offer this kind of customer service, then you could be in trouble because you can’t fix or reallocate your server when it goes down or needs some form of maintenance. But, if you do have a good customer support platform, then you can trust that the downtime or any issue will be minimal or non-existent.
Any job is easier with the right tools, and a cloud server is flexible enough that it can be adapted to your particular needs. Think about implementing a cloud server for your company- it could change the shape of your business, help you grow and open up new opportunities.
