Moving Office to Cloud Gradually or Making a Big Leap?
Doug and Sherrill Sleeter The Sleeter Group
When does one consider moving office to cloud?
Business owners and practice managers are all abuzz about moving their office to cloud computing as though one could just wiggle their nose (apologies to Samantha and Jeannie) and instantly switch from software to paperless workflow systems. However the reality for most businesses and practices is that moving office to cloud, regardless of how motivated, will take some strategic planning.
Doug Sleeter of The Sleeter Group offers his insights in a recent article at Accounting Today. The Sleeter Group oversees a network of 700+ financial and accounting software consultants worldwide, and not long ago his firm made the leap from local (on premise) office servers to cloud-based IT.
See also – The Sleeter Group Transitions to Cloud9
and – Ditch that old office server for good!
“For one, there is lots of fear to overcome, when moving office to cloud, plus there are several embedded processes and staff training that must change as we move to the cloud. And if moving office to cloud means having to retrain the staff and switch to a complete new set of workflows it gets even worse.
“Then there is the fear of whether moving office to cloud will really work “for me.” Many owners and managers don’t perceive pain with their current systems and there is a fear that by moving office to cloud systems, they might not like the result so there is a general feeling of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
“At the same time, people are beginning to see the benefits of anytime, anywhere, remote access, and professional management of their computers, operating systems, and networks.”
Many business owners are pondering the question of either replacing or upgrading their office servers, or to finally remove them, moving office to cloud. Sleeter says that while it may feel good to own equipment and “touch it” every day, it’s clear that continuing to invest in on-premises IT and hardware will have diminishing returns in the coming years and there are a few reasons why:
Some Principal Advantages of Moving Office to Cloud –
1. On premises equipment needs babysitting. This is expensive, so the idea that you can “buy it once” doesn’t quite tell the whole story.
2. Providing quality “offsite access” to your on-premises equipment is difficult and expensive. When you first look at it, it looks Free, but like most things, free doesn’t usually mean free. Businesses are increasingly hiring staff who need to do some or all of their work remotely. When all of the systems are located inside an office, providing our offsite workers Fast internet access to these systems is often impossible. Although it can be accomplished, it sure is expensive!
3. Security of on-premises data is very hard to guarantee. In most small businesses there is almost no real security for your data. In a typical office there are many devices with USB connections (easy to quickly insert a thumb drive, copy data and slip out the door), open wireless access to the network (easy to sit just outside the door and jump onto the network), unattended screens when someone goes on break but forgets to lock or log out of the machine, and much more. All of these are serious risks to the security of your important business data.
While this isn’t anything new, many small businesses and firms are still not aware of the costs and risks they take every day by using desktop software with local on premise hardware.
A great option for those who plan moving office to the cloud, but don’t want to change everything all at once, is to move at least some of the desktop applications to a reputable hosting company. This is a gradual transition rather than going “cold turkey” and changing everything in one big step.
Additional points addressed by Sleeter –
You may not move All of your data and computing to a hosting company, but by at least moving your accounting and business processes to a hosting company you can be assured of 24/7/365 access, professionally managed servers, industrial strength security, and reliable remote access for your staff.
If you business is still wedded to sully functioned desktop versions of QuickBooks and Sage accounting software, a great solution for getting them into to the cloud is to keep your desktop versions, but get them hosted by an award-winning Intuit or Sage authorized hosting company, like Cloud9.
Sleeter ultimately selected Cloud9’s “private virtual server,” for moving office to cloud, rather than using one of the many shared server solutions available in the market. Cloud9’s private virtual server solution is a virtual Windows Server, completely dedicated to his firm and hosted in one of the top enterprise-class data centers in the nation.
“You can think of it as the server in your back room, but instead of being in your office, it’s hosted in a secure data center, and you can access it from anywhere.
“One of the most compelling benefits of getting your systems hosted is the speed with which you can be up and running. Once you settle on the plan you want, you put your order in and within a few days (often sooner), you can log into your new server, upload your data, and within hours you can be up and running with your accounting and business process software and all of your add-ons.
“When it comes to the speed of the system, you would think it would slow things down to move office to cloud (or to anything “cloudy”) but because the hosting companies generally use much faster hardware, more RAM, and the fastest possible Internet connections, your overall performance on a hosted solution is likely to be even faster that you’re experiencing with your local hardware and LANs. Plus all the backups are now handled for us by the vendor, and keeping the hardware up and running is now their responsibility.
“As for support, we found our provider to be outstanding. They have been available by telephone, email, and online chat with very short turnaround times and their support people are knowledgeable, courteous, and responsive. This is probably the most important thing to investigate before selecting a hosting provider, because if you can’t get to your systems, you’ll really need the support people to help you resolve your issue.
“Having your Windows applications hosted with a professional hosting company will also reduce costs, improve performance, enhance your security and I bet your staff will love the experience.”
>> Read Doug Sleeter’s full review at Accounting Today
If you’re interested in moving office to cloud, remember us: Cloud9 Real Time was the hands down multiple award winner in 2012 for best QuickBooks, Sage, and other Cloud-hosted server solutions. Get our demo or take a 7-day test drive and find out what all the hubbub is about!
subject: moving office to cloud
