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Microsoft Azure Services

Are there benefits of moving your business to the Microsoft Azure Cloud?

You may not know this, but most businesses without even realising it, are already using technology that is cloud-based. Probably even your own! Nowadays, nearly all apps are being stored on cloud servers. In all likelihood, if your business has an active app you will find it is stored in the Cloud.

Greenfinch Technology has been certified by Microsoft as Gold Cloud partners with deep knowledge of the Cloud and how this applies to businesses like yours.

There are several reasons for moving your business to the cloud

Cost
Backups and Disaster
Better Security
Reliability
Easier Collaboration between employees
Ability to Work from Anywhere

What is the cost of moving your business to the Cloud?

By far the majority of businesses will save by moving to the Cloud. The reason for this is because the information generated by the business needs to be stored on expensive equipment. This equipment comes with certain requirements such as being kept up to date, software licences, and maintenance.

However in contrast, when using Cloud storage for your information you don’t require these devices. This saving alone drastically reduces your costs. Another saving is by not having to buy devices for storage that you may never use. One of the massive advantages of Cloud storage is the ease in which you can add or remove space. Your business will never need to pay for Just-In-Case storage again.

Backups and Disaster Recovery

We all know the story of vital information being lost due to a computer or server crashing. If youare lucky enough that a technician can eventually recover it, there is still a lot of time lost and unnecessary stress that could be easily avoided. There are other potential disasters that can cause similar problems. Imagine what would happen to your information if there was a fire or a flood, or even theft. By having your devices connected to the cloud with automatic backups, disaster recovery is as simple as logging in to your Cloud account with a new device. There is almost no delay before your business is back up and running.

Is there better security in the Cloud?

We all know the potential of a security leak exists for every device you have that stores sensitive information. We also know the stress that can be caused by the loss of any laptop, phone or tablet that has sensitive information stored upon it.This is not a problem when your information is stored in the Cloud.

By storing information in the Cloud it allows you to have complete control over who can access it. Maybe an employee has lost their tablet? This is not a problem! You can use Cloud-Based Technology to remotely delete all of the information before anybody can view it.

Another useful Cloud-Based Technology is the ability to allow certain levels of access to your information. Low-level employees normally don’t need to see all of the available information. Just enough to do their jobs correctly. With Cloud base storage you can set the amount of information that each employee has

Worried about the security of these Cloud Servers?

Microsoft Azure’s data centres are designed and staffed with security in mind. The data centres themselves are highly monitored and all staff is trained to be security conscious. Just to demonstrate how seriously Microsoft takes security, in the next 12 months Microsoft will invest $1 billion in their cybersecurity.

They are trusted by the American government to store highly sensitive data. This goes to show the trust the American government has in Microsoft Azure’s Cloud Storage.

Dependability

With the level of software and hardware redundancy as standard, you have a level of protection you just can’t get from owning your own equipment. If a failure is suffered the self-healing systems immediately start to work and your disaster recovery is managed by Cloud technology.

There is, of course, the functionality to do a test run before completing your move to the cloud.

Another plus is that contracts do not tend to be overly long allowing you to move to another provider if you wish.

All of this means that the Cloud solution is much more cost effective than if you were to buy up front or long-term licenses for software and had to invest in the hardware to run it.

How does Cloud storage compare for integrating with other services?

The ability to integrate with other services is a common one for Cloud services. This is a very cost effective solution when requiring these other services.

Examples of these would be :

Point of Sale systems:

With Azure Could you can easily set up an automatic synchronisation between your E-commerce shop and your products and stock.

A project management system:

You can have automatic synchronisation of projects and tasks into other tasks based systems and synchronisation using such apps as Google Calendar and Office 365 Calendar.

Social Media:

Automatically publish blogs to your social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook.

Online Web Forms:

Automatic synchronisation of sales leads into a CRM

Email & Marketing Systems:

Automatic synchronisation of contacts from and to CRMs.

These are just a few examples of a small section of the benefits of Cloud integration. Exploded to its full, there is the potential for huge savings.

Enables Easy Collaboration between Personnel

Collaboration between a company’s staff can be difficult due to different time zones and locations. Much of the time, employees are depending on emails or face to face programs. This is adequate for much of your company’s business, but in many cases, it can be a major loss of employee time. One of the great features of using a cloud program is the capability of many employees to be working on the same project/document at the same time in different locations. It is not even necessary for them to be on their work computer. Away from their desk , they can normally still access these documents on their mobile devices. This makes life much simpler and helps them to be more productive.

Ease of Access from any Device

We have already mentioned about how Azure Cloud provides improved capability for collaboration between your employees. We haven’t mentioned about how it enables management to keep track in real time about how a project is progressing. Another great feature is how it simplifies scheduling meetings, or asking or approving changes to the project in real time. But the main feature we should mention is that you can do all this from anywhere. You can keep track of the project or make changes while doing your shopping or attending a conference a continent away. Azure Cloud gives you a world of flexibility in your workplace.

In Conclusion

Presently, Microsoft Azure Cloud is a really secure environment for your business. By using Microsoft Azure Cloud company productivity can easily be increased, and costs reduced. Greenfinch Technology are experts in the field of Cloud Services and we can give you the necessary advice needed when moving to the Cloud. We can also provide any technical skills necessary for a smooth transfer.

At Greenfinch Technology we practise what we preach. We would never promote a technology we didn’t believe in ourselves. This is why everything we can move to Azure Cloud, we have. We have found it makes life so much simpler, it has reduced costs and improved our workflow.

If you would like to find out what advantages for your business there are, why not contact us at 01923 375 549 or use our enquiry form below.