5 Ways To Get The Most Out Of Your Cloud Solution

Featured article by Billy Lance, IT Expert

Migrating to the cloud is currently the talk of the town. For one, many businesses are abandoning their on-premise systems and moving their data and software to cloud platforms. Also, you can now find businesses storing most of their files on cloud storage platforms, such as Google Drive or Dropbox. Moreover, many people nowadays prefer using the online versions of software, such as word processors or image editors, instead of downloading and installing them on their PCs.

Perhaps your business has more advanced applications of cloud computing. If you approach cloud computing in the right way, you’ll surely reap its benefits. But if it’s not executed well, it can turn out to be a regrettable move.

In this article, you’ll learn five ways to get the most out of your cloud solution.

1. Work With A Managed IT Services Provider

You understand that cloud computing is such a broad field that you can’t be an expert in all its aspects. It includes software engineering, security management, cloud sales, automation, system administration, network engineering, app development, infrastructure management, DevOps, and cloud architecture. Couple that with its constant evolution, and you’ll see why you need a helping hand.

If you decide to get into cloud computing all by yourself, there’s a possibility you’ll either spend more time than is necessary on simple things or get confused totally. To save yourself from such torment, you’d want to delegate your cloud computing needs to a managed IT service provider at a small monthly fee.

A good company should have the expertise to handle every cloud computing issue. So, suppose your business is in a populous hub like Ontario. In that case, you’d want to work with Toronto IT services providers or others within the city, given that you may need to hold one-on-one meetings with them once in a while at your business premises.

2. Beef your Security

Hackers are on the rise globally. Should they brute force their way into your cloud databases, you risk losing all your precious business data. Some are also after money, and they can hijack your cloud systems until you pay them some ransom, which you can be sure will amount to thousands or millions of dollars. Additionally, you risk hefty government fines and public disapproval once they realize that hackers got hold of sensitive customer information.

For this reason, you’d want to provide extra layers of security to the ones already provided by your cloud vendors. Invest in some effective cloud security services to safeguard your files from theft and corruption by cyber criminals.

One way they ensure data security is by encrypting all information you upload to the cloud. That is, the software converts the files into a format that the human mind and eyes can’t read nor understand.

3. Automate Cloud Processes

In cloud computing, automation refers to ‘automatically’ provision of resources without manual intervention. In essence, sophisticated software interacts with various hardware to allocate resources and balance workloads.

For instance, you can set your development environment to remain powered only during your daytime operating hours. This way, you don’t pay for the resources when they’re not in use. Another example is setting your system up for continuous delivery, deployment, and testing of apps, which is the norm in the Agile methodology.

Such automation saves time and energy. This is because you only have to give instructions to the system, then sit back and observe as it runs on its own.

4. Train Your Staff

Cloud computing is a relatively new technology, so don’t expect your staff to be well versed with it without professional training. Adopting cloud solutions without first thoroughly training users might be pointless, given that the technology is a bit complex in nature, hence ordinary people may not learn the ins and outs by themselves.

So, make a point of training the concerned departments in your business on how to use the cloud solutions you’ve adopted. And, let it not be just a once-in-a-lifetime training; they’ll need to upgrade their skills now and then as cloud technologies are always evolving.

5. Review Performance Metrics

Once you start using your cloud solutions, the next thing to do is to put in place systems so you can track some critical metrics that show whether or not the cloud migration is beneficial to your company.

Consider tracking parameters like:

• * System availability
• * Mean time between failures
• * Mean time to repair after a failure
• * Average response time
• * The average number of security threats
• * Throughput or bandwidth
• * Capacity
• * Scalability
• * Latency
• * Cost per customer
• * Helpdesk response times

Knowing these numbers will help you know whether or not you’re achieving your business goals, helping you set new goals according to the analyses.

Conclusion

Cloud solutions are very beneficial to your business as they save time and costs. To get the most out of them, you’d want to work with managed IT services providers, beef up your cloud security, automate some of the processes, track key performance metrics, and ensure all your staff members are adequately trained. By doing these things, you’ll fully appreciate the advantage of cloud computing solutions of the on-premise alternatives.

About the Author

Billy Lance is an IT expert. He shares his knowledge through blogging. He has been a sports fan and music lover too. He writes songs during his free time. He loves traveling abroad.