What every CEO needs to know about the Cloud

Moving to the cloud? What to know before the move

More and more businesses are moving to the cloud for the promise of agility, efficiency, innovation and cost reduction. The cloud can be extremely transformative for your business. However, migrating applications to the cloud doesn’t happen overnight. Before making the move to the cloud, it is important to first understand a few key concepts surrounding cloud solutions.

Security is Everything

For many businesses, the security of the cloud is a huge concern. CEOs are worried their organization’s data will never be as secure as it would be on a computer they can see with their own eyes. However, this is a huge misconception. Your office and security set up will not be as reliable as engineers working 24/7 to make sure your data is safe. The cloud offers the best-in-class infrastructure on your side. You can rest assured that your business’s information will be maintained by providers who have built their businesses around protecting data.

Choosing the right Cloud Provider

Your cloud provider can determine your cloud strategy success. Look for a provider that is aligned to your business’s expertise and goals. For example, if you’re a healthcare company look for a provider that specializes in clinical IT. This is so your provider will be able to best advise you on practices, tools and workflows that companies similar to yours have used and found successful. Choosing a provider that is aligned with your business goals and understands your environment will enable your cloud strategy to be highly successful.

Know your Cloud Strategy

Before making the move, it is imperative you know your cloud strategy. What are you hoping to gain from the cloud? What are your biggest business drivers? These drivers will help you understand what you need from your cloud solution. The key is to know your business drivers first, then build an appropriate cloud strategy to support these drivers. In addition, cloud services only require you to pay for the resources you actually use, so make sure you know what we you need from the cloud and are not overpaying for services your business doesn’t need.

Having one vendor makes everything more simple

IT covers a vast range of responsibilities. Everything from hardware purchases to implementing storage infrastructures. The right cloud partner can serve your business with an extensive range of expertise. Having multiple vendors manage every single facet of an IT department can get complicated. One single vendor means less confusion and more enjoying the benefits of a productive cloud IT environment.

Using the cloud correctly can transform your business. Using it incorrectly can do more harm than good, and even drive costs up. Do your research up front to make sure your cloud initiative gets off on the right foot.

Contact Plow today to learn how to get to most out of your cloud transformation.