Should you host your systems on premise or in the cloud?
It is becoming much more common, and indeed acceptable to move business systems to the cloud. Many MSP’s (managed service providers) provide ready-made applications that you can log into from anywhere in the world. There’s a vast range of services available to be accessed this way, from accountancy services and CRM systems through to data analytics or even antivirus management.
There are some limitations to these cloud-based SAAS providers. Generally, they aim to cater to the mass market and so their services will not replicate the experience of having a bespoke system that your company has used for many years. However, these bespoke systems will have been run on on-premise servers and now there is such a proliferation of cloud-based options it’s natural to look at ways to get rid of the on-premise servers and move wholly to the cloud.
Moving to the cloud has many advantages
Moving to the cloud offers many advantages and un-surprisingly there are a few different ways of doing it. The big providers of cloud-based hosting are companies like Microsoft with Azure, and Amazon with AWS. You also have the option of going with smaller providers – these often provide a more economical solution and quite often offer better support than the larger companies, so don’t be fooled into thinking Amazon and Microsoft are the only way to go.
There are many benefits of moving your on-premise load to the cloud. Hosted servers are located in data centres that are specifically designed to provide secure, reliable power 24 hours a day, come what may. By contrast, an on-premise server will often be dependent on just one internet line and you will very rarely get such as ‘belt and braces’ approach as diesel power backups, for example, with an on premise option.
What services does a data centre provide?
To put some numbers on this, we host in a data centre in South London which boasts the following :
- 4MW of incoming power
- Redundant UPS capacity, standby power in 2N configuration, 100% renewable energy
- Fully redundant air-cooling systems
- Double-Knock IG-55 fire protection systems
- 24X7 environmental monitoring
- Multiple diverse-routed resilient Internet site backhaul, dark fibre, 1Mb – multi Gb trans
- Carriers with Virgin Media, BT, SSE, Vodafone, Colt, Megaport, Zayo
- Steel perimeter fencing – 24X7 manned security with CCTV
- Swipe card access control
As you can see, it is the perfect place to store business critical services. If you access it from the office and you have a power cut, you can still access these systems from another location. Cloud-based solutions can be accessed from anywhere, and can still be locked down with enterprise-level firewall security and can be linked to your on-premise domain.
Moving servers to the cloud can be quite a straightforward process, and once done, you don’t have any worries about security, availability whether by power or the internet, or spending on new hardware every 5 years or so. Hosting in the cloud therefore becomes the right way to do it, as long as the finances work out.
How Allware can help you
There are many advantages to moving to the cloud, but make sure as always you speak to an independent IT company about all the options. We have moved many servers to the cloud for customers, and will always offer independent advice on where to move these server loads to. Allware have been hosting servers since 2005, before even Office365. Talk to us today about your requirements.