Microsoft recently produced a handy whitepaper aimed at dispelling the many myths that surround moving your business IT products on to a cloud computing platform.
Below we have summarised the main points for you:
Myth number 1 – Office 365 is just Office tools online and you have to be connected to the internet to use them.
No you don’t. Yes Office 365 allows you to activate and deploy your regular applications like Excel and Word via the cloud but you can still use them offline. It adds cloud storage and other options to the regular Office suite depending on the package you buy.
Myth Number 2 – If we move our data to the cloud we will lose control of our technology
Actually a lot of the costly and time consuming tasks like upgrading hardware and software go away. By using cloud based solutions you don’t have to worry about servers, storage capacity and so on. You can simply adjust your requirements as needed and don’t have to wait for the necessary hardware to be in place.
Myth Number 3 – On site data storage is safer than the cloud
Sadly many companies are hacked into and don’t even realise it has happened. Microsoft has a dedicated security team that few businesses and particularly SMEs can ever hope to match. Their global knowledge is applied to your system security, far outweighing what you can hope to achieve with your own team.
Myth Number 4 – Everything has to be in the cloud if I decide to go that route
Most businesses operate a mixed system, partly cloud based for applications such as email and then with other functions based on their own IT infrastructure. Moving a system can be a complex process so starting simply and transferring elements in a controlled manner is what everyone bar the crazy would advocate.
Myth Number 5 – Migrating to the cloud is just too much for our organisation
If you try to do it all in one go then this may be true, but an organised approach starting with applications like email, office productivity tools and some storage is within the scope of all companies however big or small they are.
Myth Number 6 – My data will be accessible by spies, the Government and thieves
You retain the full ownership rights and title to your data, Microsoft do not set up the access, your IT team does. The Microsoft data team do not have access and if you leave your data goes with you.
Myth Number 7 – Continuous updates will break my applications
If you have applications that pre-date Office 2010 added to your system there might be a one-off pain barrier to go through but once migrated to the cloud, Microsoft work closely with all leading software suppliers to ensure their updates work seamlessly.
No one should tell you migrating is going to be totally painless but the benefits far outweigh the likely issues you may face. Hundreds of thousands of users have moved already or have started the process. We have helped many businesses do the same, so please give us a call and we can advise you on how you can begin the process yourselves.
