Cloud IT Services

Frequently Asked Questions

• What should be considered when choosing new Managed Cloud Services?

  Firstly you need to be able to validate that any cloud services proposed will actually work for your business. Some managed cloud service providers love to pitch their solution and tell you it’ll do everything you want, but the reality is often very different. Failing to have the right team and lead can result in a disastrous migration. One of the biggest red flags is MSP’s not offering new clients the chance to test proposed solutions through a fully functional demo. Without this you can’t test the major and minor features your company relies on to function, meaning you’ll potentially end up with a worse solution that slows your team down and costs you even more money over the long term. You also want to double check whether or not they will provide support in migrating data from your existing IT system to the newly proposed one. Not all of them do, or they introduce hefty surprise fees for something you thought you were already getting. Some services like cloud hosted servers or storage can have very complicated pricing and fluctuate based on processing cores, ingress and egress data rates. Not all MSP’s guide you through this properly with foresight, so make sure to check what the exact costs are now and at what point you will face your sharpest price increases. We’d also definitely recommend asking new IT service providers whether you can talk to existing clients, it’s one of the easiest ways to verify if they’re any good or not.
• What are the main benefits of adopting cloud services?

  By far one of those most loved features of cloud systems is its ability to deliver frictionless remote access to your network. Staff can truly work from anywhere without suffering frustrating stop-gap solutions like VPN solutions. Additional benefits include less down-time, long term cost savings, fewer IT issues and generally more flexibility in giving you a system that does what you actually need it to.
• What challenges do companies face when trying to migrate to the cloud?

  Mainly it’s an issue of not testing proposed solutions enough before initiating the migration to verify whether user expectations will actually be met. Inexperienced cloud service providers have a habit of botching the migration or taking 2-3 months longer than initially promised, leaving staff within the client’s organization frustrated and unable to do their jobs. Without the right experience, it’s easy to make the wrong decisions and end up regretting it after wasting substantial time and money by trying to make decisions on your own instead of having an experienced cloud service provider guide you through the process. Finally, many frustrations arise from poor communication between staff, management and the IT team implementing the new system. Be sure to make sure everyone knows what’s going on, and that everyone has had a chance to understand what the new normal will look like before you get too far into it all.
• Are cloud solutions safer than on-prem solutions?

  Yes they are. Especially for smaller, non-enterprise businesses who cannot afford to implement layered physical and cyber security measures to older on-prem solutions.
• Are there any other major drawbacks to cloud vs on-prem solutions?

  The biggest issues usually revolve around older apps, systems and softwares being built in a way that makes it either difficult or impossible for them to run properly in the cloud. For example large format, rendering or CAD type documents will likely struggle. For these, and other complex environments, we can give you a hybrid cloud solution so that everything capable of running on the more secure cloud infrastructure can do so without affecting those that can’t.