Organizations of all sizes are perpetually looking for ways to improve operations in an effort to most effectively fulfill their mission. For many, technology is a tool to increase efficiency and provide analytics into meaningful data sources. Public cloud services offer organizations a comprehensive toolset aimed at increasing efficiency, streamlining operations, reducing risks and increasing value. The Microsoft Azure cloud solution is a multi-faceted resource stack that every organization should be critically considering.
While many view the cloud as a hosted server environment that is owned and operated by another organization, the Azure cloud solution is so much more. By now, most people are familiar with Microsoft Office365, which is a component of the Azure stack. But Azure is so much more than a productivity platform; in fact, there are more than 100 specific tools inside of the Azure stack to help your organization meet business challenges. Some of the core underlying benefits that many organizations recognize when moving to the public cloud include:
#1 Reduced IT Costs
Transferring your IT infrastructure to the Cloud can alleviate the costs of managing and maintaining your technology systems. There is no longer a need to purchase expensive equipment or hardware and costs shift from a capital endeavor to an operating model. Many public cloud solutions are priced on what is known as a consumption model; so organizations only pay for the resources that they need to consume as they consume them. Consumption can be measured on things like processor cycles, memory utilization, disk utilization and bandwidth. Many cloud solutions will dynamically power down or scale back resources when they are not being used, which can save organizations money.
#2 Security
Cyber security criminals are always on the prowl looking at ways they can steal valuable data; tarnishing the reputation of any reputable organization. Hackers thrive on the vulnerability of IT systems. In order to eliminate the risk, public cloud platforms have invested billions of dollars into research, development, cyber tools and even real-time global cybersecurity intelligence to ensure that information and resources are kept secure. The key to a strong cybersecurity posture is having multiple layers of security controls in place as well as real-time threat intelligence, and that is something that large public cloud solution providers take very seriously and can provide more efficiently using economies of scale.
#3 Scalability
Organizations of different sizes have different IT needs. A Fortune 500 company will not need the same IT solutions as a Small Business. Government agencies have totally different demands on technology than non-profit organizations do. Since the complexity of the IT environment can differ from one organization to another, using a public cloud solution enables incredible on-demand scalability. Cloud capacity is so versatile that it can increase or decrease depending on your business growth or fluctuating bandwidth demands.
#4 Disaster Recovery
The one terrifying thought that keeps executives up at night is effective backup and disaster recovery efforts for sensitive and valuable organization information. There are natural disasters, fires, power outages and even computer malfunctions that can cause data destruction, leaving organizations in disarray. Public cloud solutions have dedicated disaster recovery solutions to help organizations achieve a low recovery point object (RPO) and recovery time object (RTO) for every major system hosted in the cloud. The scalability of public cloud solutions allow organizations to failover applications, or even entire datacenters, in a matter of hours instead days.
#5 Mobility
Over the last two decades the business landscape has immensely changed. Associates and customers are constantly on the go and need to be able to access data virtually anywhere. The addition of smart phones and tablets has made it possible for staff to access email, files, enterprise applications, and even analytics on-the-go. Public cloud solutions make it possible for businesses to stay connected with the mobile device of their choosing. Furthermore, there are mobile device management solutions available inside of cloud solutions to help organizations manage mobile devices.
#6 Industry Specific Solutions
Public Cloud solutions offer industry specific solutions that enable interoperability, regulatory compliance, or analytic solutions that most organizations struggle to implement on their own. Take healthcare for example: providers from around the world are leveraging the power of AI in the cloud. All of this while maintaining HIPAA and HITRUST compliance to protect patient information and working to mitigate cybersecurity threats.
Uploading IT infrastructure to the Cloud can give any organization an advantage over its competitors. Public cloud adoption is on the rise because many businesses are acknowledging the numerous benefits that it has to offer.
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