As businesses continue to adapt to the rapid pace of digitisation and more permanent hybrid ways of working, many of the answers lie in the cloud.

You can’t argue with the stats. According to recent research from Sydney firm Gartner, spending on public cloud services in Australia looks set to hit $18.7 billion this year alone. That’s a 31.8 per cent growth compared to 2021’s $14.2 billion.

The pandemic only accelerated the trend of businesses moving to the cloud (or more technically, migrating to the cloud). The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports that 55 per cent of all Australian businesses used cloud services in 2019-2020, compared with 42 per cent in 2017-2018. Small businesses with five to 19 staff increased their cloud usage by 15 per cent, while those with 20-199 employees upped theirs by 10 per cent. Meanwhile, 81 per cent of companies with more than 200 staff made use of cloud computing.

Greater flexibility and security, along with saving money by only paying for resources you use, are among the key benefits of moving to the cloud. If you’re just starting out on your cloud journey or need a refresher, here’s what’s most important to move first.

Disaster recovery

Whether it’s a system crash, a program freezing or an all-out cyber attack on your company’s computers, disaster recovery is one of the most important activities to move to the cloud.

One of the main benefits of the cloud is that you only pay for what you use. “Your resources are secure and safe from threats and you only pay for disaster recovery if you need it,” says James.

Data storage

Whether you’re backing your data up onto external physical hard drives or other off-site storage, you may only be using a fraction of the space available. This often means you’re paying over the odds for what you need.

Cloud storage allows you to keep archived material as well as everyday data safe and secure, while only paying for what you need.

“There’s a lot more responsibility required if you’re using on-premises storage,” says James. “Businesses have to manage everything themselves, whereas in the cloud, it’s taken care of automatically.”

SoftwareONE’s Azure Simple service will help you back up your data onto a redundant site (off-site storage), then set up your cloud to mirror the redundant site and transfer the data.

“Our PyraCloud platform monitors your storage, allowing you to save money and allocate it elsewhere,” says James.

Batch processing

Batch processing is where software programs run a bunch of jobs in sequential order – for example to process credit card transactions.

When these are done on-premises, they have to be set to take place at certain times and often eat up computer resources. Moving these to the cloud allows them to be carried out on demand, in real time.

“It’s a great way to leverage the cloud because if something isn’t required to be used in that same sequence of events yet, they won’t be processed,” says James. “This means that, again, you only pay for what you consume.”

Emails and software programs

Moving your company’s email and Office programs including Word, Excel and Powerpoint to the cloud can help reduce costs and boost security.

“Using a cloud-based subscription model will save a business money as you can get rid of a lot of capital outlay that you’d have with on-premises programs,” says James. “With user-based licences, you can convert what you spend to a monthly or annual operational expense.”

Another benefit is the improvement on uptime. “Because the data is stored in the cloud, you’ll have less downtime and better disaster recovery responses compared to an on-premises option,” says James.

With hybrid working here to stay, cloud-based solutions allow employees to safely access their email and software programs remotely on various devices. “The cloud makes this a lot more secure,” says James.

Using SoftwareONE’s Azure Simple and 365Simple services allows you to migrate to the cloud and scale as you need to, by using the PyraCloud dashboard to monitor your software licences.

“You’ve got the simplicity of adjusting users’ licences to make sure you’re not paying to give them access to programs or features they don’t need,” says James.

Lower costs, greater flexibility, scalability and security make moving to the cloud a no-brainer.

More info on SoftwareONE’s Azure Simple here.

This article is brought to you by Kochie’s Business Builders in partnership with SoftwareONE.

Feature image: AdobeStock