When Miami-based law firm, delancyhill decided to downsize and work remotely from home, client locations, and satellite offices instead of their overpriced downtown office, they realized that they would need to move their servers to the cloud. They hired Invizio, a managed IT services provider, that helped them to work more flexible by giving them access to emails, documents, case files, and partners’ calendars from their iPhones and laptops. But before they made the transition, Invisio’s cofounder Kevin Michael showed them some of the advantages of moving to the cloud. Listed are a couple below.
For delancyhill’s complete story, pick up a copy of the June 2011 issue of Black Enterprise Magazine.
- 1) Get Access to Your Data & Applications from Everywhere
Whether you find yourself in or out of the office, your data and applications are always available to you via the cloud. A computer (or tablet) and Internet access is all you’ll need in order to plug and play.
- 2) Skip the Price Tag on Technology Investment
You can put your cash towards more creative endeavors by avoiding the upfront investment in hardware and software. Being in the cloud allows you to purchase the systems and services you need in a pay-as-you-go fashion.
- 3) Protect Your Business from Disaster
Seventy percent of small businesses that experience a data loss go out of business in a year, according to a report entitled Contingency Planning by the Strategic Research Corp and DTI/PWC. With all your important company data and business applications residing in the cloud, you’ll stand a better chance of making it through the unexpected.
- 4) Focus on Your Business and not the Tech
In the cloud, the underlying systems are handled by your cloud services provider. There’s less need to factor in upgrades, maintenance and management of the infrastructure as something that needs to be done by your team or an outside consultant.
- 5) Benefit from On-Demand Scalability
Getting more capacity in the cloud is as easy as flipping a switch. You won’t have to worry about the lead time to purchase a new server or install more storage because you can ramp up or downsize as needed to meet demand.