Facing the Future - Is the cloud right for you?
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The document explores whether the cloud is suitable for businesses by outlining its definitions, types, perceived risks, and benefits. It highlights the growing acceptance and security of cloud solutions, while detailing concerns that businesses may have regarding data protection and provider reliability. The report encourages businesses to consider specific questions to determine their cloud needs and emphasizes the importance of careful selection of cloud strategies and providers.
Facing the Future - Is the cloud right for you?
- 1. FACING THE FUTURE www.advancedcomputersoftware.com/facingthefuture Is the cloud right for you? Trend Report
- 2. FACING THE FUTURE Is the cloud right for you? CONTENTS Introduction 2 What Is The Cloud And How Does It Work? 2 The Different Types Of Cloud 3 Top Terms To Understand 3 Perceived Risks 4 Key Business Benefits 5 Cloud For Organisations’ Back Office 6 Is The Cloud Right For You? Top Ten Questions To Ask… 8 Making The Move To The Cloud - Not All Cloud Solutions Are Created Equal 9 1
- 3. INTRODUCTION In a recent survey of 250 senior IT & business decision makers by Cloud Industry Forum, 61% expressed concerns over data security in the cloud, despite the fact only 2% have ever experienced a cloud-related security breach. Talk of the cloud and cloud technology has been rife for a long time now, yet there are still many businesses that subscribe to out-dated myths, such as data security. The last few years have seen a marked increase in the popularity of the cloud but for many it’s another tech innovation that everyone tells them they need but that they don’t fully understand. There’s a distinct hype surrounding discussions on the cloud, but for the most part, they come across as semi-intelligible fog, full of jargon filled tech- speak, with a lack of clarity about the business advantages. In this whitepaper, we’ll lift the haze around the cloud and take a straight-forward approach to explore the benefits, making it easy to determine if the cloud is right for you. We’ll clearly state the benefits of using the cloud as well as give an overview of the perceived risks and remove some of the common misconceptions. WHAT IS THE CLOUD AND HOW DOES IT WORK? Although often shrouded in tech-speak and jargon, the cloud is actually very simple; it is a modern way of accessing and storing data, programmes and applications using the internet. It removes the need for businesses to have their own servers, often saving thousands of pounds, and provides fast, reliable and scalable computing power without the need for hardware. Once upon a time, if you had written a piece of work on your computer at home and forgotten to email it to yourself or transfer it to a memory stick, you wouldn’t have been able to access the document from your work computer. By removing internal servers and utilising the servers of cloud providers, businesses and their employees are able to access their documents, data and applications from wherever they may be. This has very obvious implications when it comes to things like remote working, or simply sharing files and applications across offices within the same business. FACING THE FUTURE Is the cloud right for you? 2
- 4. THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CLOUD There are two different types of cloud, the public cloud and the private cloud. Both have very similar benefits but offer slightly different things to businesses in terms of configuration. Despite what the name may infer, the public cloud isn’t simply open to everyone! Public clouds are the most common occurrence of the cloud, whereby a provider makes applications and storage available to users via the internet. Private clouds offer the same benefits as public ones, the primary difference is that they are dedicated to a single organisation rather than shared between many. This means they offer more control and often include bespoke features to meet specific requirements, however they can be more expensive. The middle ground is the hybrid cloud, which is simply a mix of the two. Companies may store highly sensitive data or business critical apps in the private cloud, but utilise the public cloud for marketing software, like image editors, for example. There’s a lot of terminology surrounding the cloud and how it’s delivered, it doesn’t need to be over complicated though… SAAS (SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE) Software that is fully hosted and web-based, rather than bought in a physical form (like a CD) or downloaded. IAAS (INFRASTRUCTURE AS A SERVICE) Where a third-party provider hosts hardware, software, servers, storage and other infrastructure components on behalf of its users. PAAS (PLATFORM AS A SERVICE) Where a cloud provider delivers both hardware and software tools to its users as a service. VIRTUALISATION The process that makes the cloud possible, taking a copy of an entire computer or server and putting it onto another server, allowing you to use a copy of your computer as if it was the original. FACING THE FUTURE Is the cloud right for you? xxxx xxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxx xxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx TOP TERMS TO UNDERSTAND 3
- 5. PERCEIVED RISKS Fear and uncertainty comes as standard with all new technology and the cloud is no exception. There are a number of perceived risks which are attributed to the cloud, most of which are over exaggerated. SECURITY One of the primary reasons businesses are wary of the cloud is due to the perceived security risks. The recent media focus on data breaches and leaks has done little to quash fears, but there are plenty of statistics that paint a very different picture. Simply taking company data and applications outside of the business premises is often enough for panic to set in, but often cloud providers offer a significantly higher level of both virtual and physical security. Trust in the cloud is growing though; over half of businesses say they currently transfer sensitive or confidential data to the cloud – an increase of about 10% compared with last year. And 70% are so confident in their cloud provider that they’re planning to migrate more business applications to it. If we look to the IT department, more than half of professionals rank security as one of the top reasons for migrating applications to the cloud. IT outsourcing is not a new concept and there are various levels of cloud technology that offer different benefits when it comes to security. Therefore it’s important not only to understand what level of security you require, but also the benefits you will gain, which will likely outweigh any perceived risks. DATA PROTECTION Before choosing to migrate data to the cloud, it’s important to understand the legal responsibilities you have regarding the information. Not only do general Data Protection laws apply, but newer rules such as the European Union’s Network and Information Security (NIS) Directive may also have an impact. These need not prevent the move to the cloud though; any reputable cloud provider will understand the rules and be able to provide a suitable solution, likely a private cloud hosted in a European Economic area. MULTI-TENANCY In the public cloud, multiple enterprises use the same server and architecture, often leading businesses to be concerned about the risk of data exposure - whether inadvertently, for example a software bug or system malfunction gives access to a user of another system on the same shared infrastructure, or maliciously, when someone exploits some weakness in the architecture to gain illicit access to data. In practice this is simply not the case though, with reputation at risk public cloud providers put every possible security procedure in place to ensure this cannot happen. Often multi- tenant systems are more secure than single tenant systems. FACING THE FUTURE Is the cloud right for you? 4
- 6. AVAILABILITY With cloud servers no longer residing in house, many companies have concerns that should downtime occur they’re not in control of when issues are resolved. Many cloud providers now offer high availability service level agreements, with the promise of 99%+ uptime. The ability to have this sort of reliability in house is simply not feasible for the majority of enterprise companies, as it requires both server and energy source back- ups, making it prohibitively expensive. TOP THREE THINGS TO CONSIDER: 1. How sensitive is the data you plan to migrate? 2. What level of security are you likely to need? 3. How would downtime affect your business? FACING THE FUTURE Is the cloud right for you? KEY BUSINESS BENEFITS The reason so many businesses have adopted the cloud is due to the sheer amount of business benefits. We’ll start with the obvious cost efficiencies, but we’ve broken down some of the other major advantages… COST SAVINGS A major benefit is affordability and cost savings. The up-front costs of purchasing and maintaining a full traditional IT infrastructure are not insignificant and you also have to deal with the depreciation of the equipment over time. Cloud computing can offer a great benefit in avoiding these costs and even be used to share and split the cost of running machines, dependent on the setup. Without the need for large server rooms, companies also benefit on their payroll costs as they need fewer staff to upkeep and maintain the physical systems. Another important point about software provided as a service is that the cost of purchase is spread over the term of the contract removing the need to purchase up front as a capital expenditure item – great news for the balance sheet! FLEXIBILITY & SCALABILITY One of the biggest reasons that organisations choose to take up a cloud platform is for performance reasons – the flexibility and scalability of resources. Traditional IT infrastructure tends to be quite rigid, meaning it doesn’t respond well to the peaks and troughs of the business, but a cloud has the ability to dynamically allocate resources based on performance needs. SECURITY There are a number of security benefits for companies using the cloud as opposed to a traditional server. With an employee’s workstation virtualised and stored in the cloud, it backs up and protects the information against everything from an attack on the company server to physical threats such as fire or a water leak in the office. Data, when remotely stored, is also much easier to retrieve meaning disaster recovery times are much quicker. xxxx xxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx 5
- 7. LOCATION Another great benefit of a cloud solution is its multi-location functionality – by allowing employees to work on a virtualised copy of their own machine, it frees them from being desk-based and even office-based and greatly increases their productivity. DEVICE MANAGEMENT For employees who are field-based, the ability to work while on the road can be invaluable and the cloud will also allow them to be freed from their laptops and work on any number of devices. Cloud services can allow employees to step up their time management and work whenever they have time. FACING THE FUTURE Is the cloud right for you? Back office systems are the backbone of business, though often overlooked in terms of infrastructure as they’re not customer facing. Be it finance or HR, all applications house a significant amount of sensitive data, making many of the benefits of cloud hosting directly applicable for the back office. DATA SECURITY The security of such data is of utmost importance, without it business back offices simply cannot function. Security is often the one sticking point when it comes to cloud migration, as companies are nervous of housing data such as employee and finance records with a third party. However the level of security offered by cloud providers is much greater than that of an in-house infrastructure, as well as being much more cost effective. All data security measures, including disaster recovery and physical on-site security are taken care of by the cloud provider. As their reputation relies on security, they will already have the most robust procedures in place. Not only that, but the larger providers will use the data they collect to monitor trends, identifying weaknesses or patterns in security breaches to be one step ahead, something that is beyond the capability of an in-house IT team. Although a high percentage uptime is often guaranteed, rigid fall-back and disaster recovery procedures will be in place, meaning should an attack or breach occur disruption to your business is minimal and data can be recovered rapidly. CONNECTED, MODERN INFRASTRUCTURE A single view of all that data is the holy grail of the back office, ensuring that every department can view all information about a contact, regardless of whether that data is from HR, finance or marketing. In order to achieve this, integration between all systems is essential; it eliminates the issue of data silos and allows for a more streamlined and communicative back office. Cloud hosted applications are more easily integrated, be it through one, multi-functional application or a variety of applications with an integration system layered over them. This is because the applications are hosted in the CLOUD FOR ORGANISATIONS’ BACK OFFICE 6
- 8. cloud rather than on individual computers or servers. Previously, when applications were bought in physical form (on a CD for example) or even downloaded to one computer, the information they dealt with could rarely be shared beyond other users of the same system. By hosting applications in the cloud, data from all applications can be stored and accessed centrally creating a connected back office. So, if HR updates the address information of an employee, payroll and finances information will also be updated, ensuring there’s no issues with regular salary or benefits. The resulting streamlining of operations is an additional benefit. Constant reliability is key for back office systems to ensure the smooth running of any company; having a connected, modern infrastructure, like the one the cloud offers, is crucial. Uptime guarantees and greater performance speeds not only allow employees to do their job more efficiently, they prevent the use of offline or unapproved applications, which often cause data silos, as employees trust that the system can do the job that they need it to do. SCALABILITY Scalability benefits the back office of any business. Take the end of the tax year as an example, the finance department will likely be putting more pressure on their systems, requiring faster processing and more data storage than at other time of year. They may also employ temps to assist them, which makes the systems HR and payroll use busier than usual too. All of this can overload an internal server, but with the scalability of the cloud, services can be expanded as and when necessary. THE MOST COST EFFECTIVE ROUTE Cost is a driving factor for all businesses and in order to maintain such a modern infrastructure using in-house servers would undoubtedly be impossible. The cost of regular upgrades, on top of general maintenance and security as well as ‘spare’ servers to allow for scalable performance is prohibitive. This is where the pay-as-you- go, flexible nature of the cloud comes into its own; businesses only pay for what they use making the cloud an exceptionally cost effective option. To return to the previous example, a company may find that their cloud costs increase at the end of the tax year, but for the remainder of the year the costs are steady. There’s no need to pay for the maintenance and repair of a ‘spare’ server that will only be used for two weeks in a year. FACING THE FUTURE Is the cloud right for you? 7
- 9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Do you operate a multi-location business? How disparate is your workforce and how important is secure remote access to data? Would the ability to work securely on any device improve employee productivity? Where are you in your IT lifecycle; when will your existing on-premise servers be coming to end of life? How strained is your current IT infrastructure? How do you report back on IT costs and how important is planning ahead for budgeting purposes? Does your business experience significant peaks and troughs in activity? Is it an important consideration for your IT to be seen at the fore-front of your industry? Is your internal IT infrastructure proving costly to maintain, or even worse, old and in need of replacing? Do you have legacy software in the business on-premise that you don’t have the the capital expenditure to replace in order to achieve greater efficiencies and control of the business? IS THE CLOUD RIGHT FOR YOU? TOP TEN QUESTIONS TO ASK… FACING THE FUTURE Is the cloud right for you? 8
- 10. Once you’ve decided that the cloud IS right for you, there are a number of key areas to consider, both in terms of the technology and the provider. Although there are huge benefits to choosing a cloud platform, it’s important to remember that not all cloud solutions are created equal. WHICH ASSETS TO MOVE? One common misconception is that companies must move everything to the cloud in one migration. Not only can this cause interruption to business, it’s not always necessary. The reasons for moving to the cloud will likely dictate which assets to move initially. WHAT TYPE OF CLOUD DO WE NEED? Once you understand the assets which you’d like to move to the cloud and the reasons for doing so, it will probably be fairly clear which type of cloud is required. It’s important to weigh up the cost benefits next to the other benefits, as leading with a purely financial mind-set can lead to issues at a later stage. WHICH PROVIDER TO CHOOSE? While you should always fully research your options, there are a number of questions to ask potential cloud providers, namely identifying what services they provide, the pricing structure, security, their physical capabilities and what happens if something should go wrong, such as a severe technical failure or data loss. It’s also important to identify what sort of customer service they offer, not only during the transition but on an on-going basis. FACING THE FUTURE Is the cloud right for you? xxxx xxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx MAKING THE MOVE TO THE CLOUD - NOT ALL CLOUD SOLUTIONS ARE CREATED EQUAL 9 FIND OUT MORE For more information on the cloud and to find out how your organisation could benefit, contact Advanced on any of the details below: TELEPHONE: 01582 714 810 EMAIL: marketing@advancedcomputersoftware.com WEBSITE: www.advancedcomputersoftware.com/abs
- 11. About Advanced Business Solutions Advanced Business Solutions (Advanced) provides leading integrated business applications and services that enable public, private and third sector organisations to retain control, improve visibility and gain efficiencies whilst continually improving corporate performance. Advanced prides itself on getting close to its customers by understanding their businesses and responding to their evolving needs. Advanced’s software systems comprise core accounting/financial management, procurement, supply chain management, human resource and payroll systems, integrated with a range of collaborative, document management and business intelligence solutions to extend the value and effectiveness of the finance, human resource and payroll departments. Management information systems for school and academies are provided through Advanced’s subsidiary, Advanced Learning. Advanced also provides specialist vertical solutions for the not-for-profit and legal markets. All solutions can be delivered as a managed or bureau service. Customers are from both the public and private sectors and include Companies House, Newcastle City Council, NHSScotland, Norfolk Constabulary, Edge Hill University, WH Smith, Royal Bank of Scotland, Aer Lingus, National Express Group, DFS and RSPB. Advanced Business Solutions is a division of Advanced Computer Software Group Limited, a leading supplier of software and IT services to the health, care and business services sectors. In 2014, the Group won Tech Company of the Year in PwC’s UK Tech Awards. Advanced was also ranked in the Deloitte UK Fast 50, which recognises the 50 fastest growing technology companies in the UK and ranked in the top 300 technology companies in Deloitte’s EMEA rankings. For more information Advanced Business Software and Solutions Limited, trading as Advanced Business Solutions, part of the Advanced Computer Software Group Limited. Registered in England. Company number 03214465. Registered office: Ditton Park I Riding Court Road I Datchet I Berkshire I SL3 9LL. t: +44 (0) 0845 160 6162 f: +44 (0) 1932 584 001 e: marketing@advancedcomputersoftware.com www.advancedcomputersoftware.com/abs Advanced Business Software and Solutions Limited recognises the trademarks of other companies and their respective products in this document.