The big trend in IT from the do-it-yourself business owner to the enterprise is cloud-based IT management. It’s not just because “the cloud” is the big buzzword and no one wants to be left behind. It’s because cloud-based IT management makes sense. It can save you money, save you time, and provide you with access to software that would otherwise be out of reach. Let’s take a look at some of the things that make cloud-based IT management the next big thing for IT teams.
No Up-front capital investment
Imaging deploying a complete solution to monitor your critical systems, maintain antivirus, keep business applications up-to-date, provide remote access, or track your IT assets without paying a dime up front; no capital expenditures, no need to look at a diminishing pool of capital to try and figure out which systems can go just one more year before you can upgrade them. For many businesses, the biggest benefit of using a cloud-based IT management solution is really the smallest part of it…the price to get started. Cloud-based IT management solutions have all the infrastructure in place, so you don’t have to buy anything. Low cost subscriptions are the way to go, and many companies can treat these as operational expenses, rather than capital expenditures.
No infrastructure
Imagine deploying a new service without having to build servers, provision storage, obtain licenses or configure databases and scripts. Whether you are looking to a cloud-based IT management solution for patching your software, monitoring servers, maintaining antivirus, or managing IT assets, there’s no infrastructure to build out.
No administrative overhead
When you go with a cloud-based IT management solution, you get access to all of the software, with none of the servicing. You don’t have to task your team to perform backups, arrange maintenance windows for patching, or ensure your team is cross-trained in the setup and configuration. Your vendor has all that covered, so you can just consume the software services you need.
24/7/365 availability
One of the big advantages of going with a cloud-based IT management provider is that they scale. They have already covered the investments and infrastructure necessary to ensure that the software services they offer are redundant and highly available. You get an SLA without having to worry about server clusters, multiple datacenters, backups, redundant Internet connections, and all the other things that go into ensuring a service is ready.
Focus on the what, not the how
Too many times, companies spend more energy in trying to figure out how to do something, than in actually doing it. Cloud-based IT management has the how covered. Whether you are looking at patching, antivirus, system monitoring, or remote management, your vendor of choice has taken care of the how so that you can focus on the what-as in, what software do you need. What systems do you want to monitor. What actions or alerts do you want to trigger if a threshold is crossed. Rather than spending months on the planning and deployment, you can be up and running in hours, managing and securing your company’s IT.
Pay for what you need
Most cloud-based IT management services charge on a per user, or per machine, basis. Since the services are cloud based, you don’t have to worry about capacity. As your company grows, you can add more devices to your software service based on just what you need. It’s the perfect solutions for companies that aren’t frozen in time, or size.
With all the benefits that cloud-based IT management offers to business from sole proprietorships to enterprises, it’s no wonder that so many are moving to these cloud services as the perfect solution for their IT management needs. The best ones offer free trials, so you know it’s going to be easy for you to test them out for yourself, in your own environment. Once you see what cloud-based IT management can do for you, it will be an even easier decision for you to make. Check out cloud-based IT management today, to help you maintain your company’s systems, your budget, and your sanity.