Covid-19 and lockdown forced companies to make a rapid change to how their staff are using their IT, with more people remotely connecting to an IT system that might not be setup for it. Talking to businesses, we’ve seen that companies with legacy systems stored in their (now empty) offices have been particularly struggling with slow or unreliable connections, and are experiencing a drop in productivity as a result. Upgrading to a private cloud allows a company to completely get rid of their in-office servers, and solve a lot of the problems they’ve been struggling with.
Why you should consider a private cloud
While some applications are ideal to be hosted in a public cloud environment (like email), business-critical systems are too valuable for this and need a higher level of security and performance. Thanks to the way they’re built and operated, private clouds can be designed bespoke for your company and offer increased reliability and security to the level your business requires.
Here are the three key benefits that a private cloud solution can offer your business:
1. Hosted within a resilient data centre
Your private cloud provider will host your cloud within a data centre, providing a high level of reliability since you will be able to take advantage of the cooling and power redundancies they have in place, reducing downtime.
Data centre – A facility designed to be the ideal environment for hosting computer systems, equipped with power, cooling, and connectivity infrastructure beyond what most companies can manage themselves.
This data centre will also be a highly secure facility with physical protection like locked doors and controlled access, as well as carefully curated cyber security protections. 24 hour on-site staff is also common place at a data centre, but very expensive to operate in-house, adding an extra level of security.
2. Network resilience
You will also have your private cloud connected to the data centre’s super-fast internet connection. This will increase connection speeds for all of your remote workers and make your system much more reliable, something that is especially useful now that working from home is so much more common.
Additionally, the data centre will have geographically diverse internet lines, as well as being carrier neutral (meaning they are not locked in to one internet service provider). This will significantly reduce the risk of network downtime, keeping your employees online and connected more consistently than your in-house severs might currently be doing.
3. Convert Capex into flexible Opex
Hosting your IT system within a private cloud means that you are no longer responsible for purchasing, maintaining or upgrading the hardware and infrastructure needed to run a computer system. This turns the operation of your computer system from a capital expenditure to an operational cost, giving you more financial flexibility.
It also increases the flexibility of your IT system, since your capacity can be scaled up and scaled down without you having to purchase additional hardware. This lets you adapt to sudden changes in demand quickly, without over investing in resources you might not need in the future.
It also frees up your IT team to focus on other elements of your digital transformation strategy, helping you maintain a competitive digital edge.
Is private cloud the right solution for you?
If you’ve been struggling with a slow, unreliable, insecure or expensive IT system, then you need to upgrade your IT system and should consider private cloud for the next step of your digital transformation journey.
Private cloud allows you to quickly optimise your system around changing demand, and always prioritise workloads above the logistical deployment of services and applications. You will also have a high level of reliability and security alongside this flexibility, so private cloud is likely the best solution for your company if these are your priorities.