Why Cloud Solutions Are Crucial For Business Continuity

To mitigate the risks of future disruptions and disasters, companies need to assess the weaknesses of their current operating model and build a cloud-ready operation.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses went into survival mode, taking rapid actions to keep their operations running. The pandemic shed new light on the importance of cloud computing and business continuity planning (BCP) and organisations that harnessed cloud solutions were more prepared to stay operational.

Even though the pandemic might be a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, companies should always be concerned about business continuity. Organisations must deal with natural calamities like fires, floods, storms, etc., or human disruptions like cyber-attacks and market volatility. For over a decade, forward-thinking companies have experimented with the cloud to establish operations that are resilient, scalable, and cost-effective, even in disaster scenarios. Cloud solutions provide invaluable tools to keep organisations functioning even in dire situations.

Risks of On-Premise Operations

Before the evolution of the cloud, setting on-premise solutions was the only available option for organisations. When businesses maintain applications and services on their on-premise computers and servers, they face many challenges. Here are some of the critical issues with on-premise services:

• Lack of Scalability: Expanding or contracting services is not an easy task. IT teams have to spend large amounts of time installing and maintaining applications on desktops and servers. Keeping track of software and hardware installations becomes complicated.
• Lack of Mobility: On-premise applications services are hard to access from external networks. It is not a remote-friendly work environment. Organisations have to spend large IT budgets to design networks that can handle remote access.
• Costly to Maintain: On-premise servers require a significant IT presence to maintain the software and hardware. Skilled IT talent is expensive.
• Security Risks: Companies need cybersecurity experts to keep the infrastructure secure. Most businesses lack the security expertise and resources to update their infrastructure against the latest threats.
• Minimal Disaster Recovery: Infrastructure backups create redundancy and help with disaster recovery efforts. But implementing backup solutions from scratch is expensive and time-consuming. So, companies end up with minimum coverage for their systems and data.

Leveraging the Cloud to Prepare for Disasters and Maintain Business Continuity

During disaster situations, weaknesses of on-premise applications and services can cripple an organisation’s ability to function. The adoption of cloud services can help companies stay agile, lean, and adaptable. Transitioning your applications and services to the cloud can help mitigate the risks associated with inflexible on-premise services.

Here are some ways cloud adoption can ensure business continuity during times of crisis:

Improve the Resiliency of Your Systems

Cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions like Office 365 have built-in redundancy. Due to the economies of scale, large companies like Microsoft can afford to deploy thousands of cloud servers to keep services running under any disaster situation. When your company uses cloud-based applications, you benefit from the resiliency of these systems. Furthermore, if you need more control, you could use Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) or Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) to build your custom software on the cloud. IaaS and PaaS can provide redundancy without heavy investments in software and hardware.

Stay Agile and Competitive With Cloud Elasticity

Today the cloud provides multiple ways to support fast growth. You can provision resources on-demand and grow your business quickly. You also have the option to release unused resources and cut costs. Cloud elasticity provides you the flexibility to expand and contract your business operations as necessary. During economic turmoil or natural calamities, you can quickly decrease your resource usage. The resultant cost savings can help you stay afloat during troubling times.

Empower Your Remote Workers With Cloud-based Resources

In the post-pandemic world, 74% of professionals and 76% of entrepreneurs expect remote work to be the norm. Remote work requires access to secure, reliable, and highly-available resources. You can use hosted or virtual desktops to support your employees with cloud solutions. As more companies use contractors and temporary workers, cloud-based resources can be easily scaled up or down to support temp workers efficiently. Because virtual desktops are not tied to a location, they are always available to remote workers, even during natural calamities.

Improve Your Security Through Zero-Trust Access

Over the years, cloud-based security has evolved to provide maximum protection for your data. Today, there is the possibility to use zero trust access to authenticate and verify users interacting with your cloud-based data. Zero trust access prevents attackers from moving across your network if you have a cybersecurity breach. So, you can recover faster from cyberattacks with cloud-based solutions.

Use Cloud AI for Rapid Customer Response During Crisis

Customer relationships get tested during times of crisis. Your customers want answers if your services are down due to a natural calamity or a business process failure. Increased inquiry traffic can clog your lines of communication. Cloud-based businesses can use AI-powered virtual assistants to keep communication flowing when disaster strikes. It helps you build trust with your customers by keeping them informed and providing fast feedback to their concerns. You can train your virtual assistant for disaster scenarios as part of your business continuity planning.

Don’t Wait – Invest In Cloud Solutions Today

An immutable law of business is that disasters and disruptions will happen. Organisations that use the latest available tools and strategies have a better chance of surviving downturns and reaping benefits from upturns. Cloud solutions can help your business survive and thrive. In the post-pandemic world, another natural or economic calamity might be around the corner. Companies need to accelerate cloud adoption to avoid getting blindsided by the next disaster. Being prepared is the only way to ensure business continuity.

Why Resolution IT

Resolution IT is a trusted IT service provider based in Guernsey. Founded in 2007, our company provides managed IT services, security products, cloud solutions, digital transformation solutions, and IT training. Our services are designed to fit your organisation’s objectives. We work with your team to understand the risks to your business operations and design solutions to meet your technology and security challenges. We help you build a resilient organisation that can succeed in any circumstances. Contact our team today to learn more about our services and how we can help your business.