Caspar Herzberg |
This article first appeared in the Winter issue of The Record.
Over the past few years, there’s a good chance you’ve moved or began planning to move at least a piece of your business operations into the cloud. If so, you’re not alone – 17% of enterprise-level companies have more than 1,000 virtual machines in the public cloud and 31% in the private cloud. These numbers continue to increase rapidly year on year.
While the benefits of migrating to the cloud distinctly outweigh the drawbacks, there are still some nuances of operating in the cloud that some of these companies are yet to master.
In previous years, the top concern for many companies when migrating to the cloud has been security. But in 2016, that concern has shifted. Now companies are finding it difficult to find the resources and expertise within their teams to help them manage these new environments. In fact, 32% of enterprise companies cite this as their number one concern.
So how do we mitigate this concern? Easy – cloud management services. This is a term you’ve probably heard of, as most cloud companies offer some sort of managed cloud service. The beauty of adding outsourced managed services to your cloud environment is that your company no longer has to be concerned with locating the resources and expertise needed to manage your network effectively.
But what else can adding managed services do for your company’s cloud management? The simple answer is: a lot! You’ll safeguard and optimise your cloud environment with enhanced security, which is cited as the second most important concern for enterprise companies. As a true extension of your company’s IT team, a managed services provider should monitor and proactively manage your entire cloud-based ecosystem on a 24/7 basis and provide instant access to a dedicated support team. This will help you save time and money, and, most importantly, will keep your data safe and secure in your new environment.
However, keep in mind that not all managed services providers are created equal. Make sure you do your research in terms of cost, benefits and expertise – specifically around the cloud platform that your organisation is using and, of course, overall credibility – before you hand over the keys to your kingdom.
Emily Murphy is director of marketing and communications at Hanu