Cutting Costs With Cloud Migration
Migrating from physical servers to the cloud brings plenty of benefits to your business. Know how to make cloud migration successful on our blog.
Published on: October 26th, 2021
Last edited: May 24th, 2023
Cutting Costs With Cloud Migration
More businesses are digitizing their operations, and understandably so. With the ever-rising competition, it’s only wise to adopt new and efficient ways to meet current demands. One of the most popular modern business strategies is cloud migration. Among the main reasons this change is picking up momentum is its benefits which include scalability and top-notch security. (2)
Another factor that seems appealing to many businesses is the cost-effectiveness of operating on the cloud. While the idea can be complex for those who are not well versed in new technology, there is no denying the fact that it saves the users a lot of money. So how exactly does cloud migration help in cutting related costs? Let’s have a look.
1. Scalable hardware
One of the main economic advantages of migrating to the cloud is the use of scalable hardware. In traditional setups, every business was expected to build their dedicated server, maintain, and be ready to incur any other related costs regardless of demand. The fact that it’s not easy to downgrade this server without affecting operations means you might end up spending a significant percentage of your budget on it without any sustainable returns. (1)
However, with cloud computing, you only pay for what you need at any given point and time. Rather than using a dedicated server, which is generally expensive, you will share server infrastructure with other organizations looking for the same services. This enhances the optimization of hardware needs at any data center, hence eliminating any idle infrastructure which would have, otherwise, increased the overall operating costs.
2. Reduced energy costs
Energy is one factor that’s often ignored when it comes to total business expenses. Having a lot of hardware systems in your office means high energy consumption, which translates to increased operating costs. It’s worth noting that when you have your private data center, you’ll rarely utilize all your servers, which means you’ll waste even more energy.
Migrating to the cloud can help cut these costs significantly. For one, you’ll only need to run a few hardware systems during operations. Also, cloud service providers tend to charge you a lot less on energy regardless of your demands.
3. Streamlined workforce
Another thing that you get from cloud migration is a streamlined workforce. The staffing budget often makes up at least half of the operational cost for most businesses. In fact, when analyzing a company’s computing costs, this is one of the main items considered by the experts.
So why is the staffing budget always high? For one, experienced professionals in the IT industry are very expensive. The salaries and other employment-related costs spent on these people can outweigh hardware and software costs. The amount may rise even higher when you include the recruitment process.
Rather than hiring a number of IT professionals to work for you, you can opt for a cloud-computing service provider and pay for everything as a package. The total amount you pay in such a case is much smaller than what you would spend if you had an internal team of IT experts.
Of course, you can use this opportunity to downsize your staff and save more on wages. However, it would be wise to deploy the current IT team to other areas within the department and streamline your operations even further.
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4. No upfront costs
Running your own servers means you’ll need upfront capital to set up your servers. First, you have to purchase the right hardware and corresponding software to operate the server. Hiring and training IT experts will also be part of your responsibilities. However, in a cloud-based model, these costs are incurred by the service provider. All you need to do as a business is present your demands to the cloud-computing firm and only pay for the services you need.
5. No need for redundancy
When you have a local data center, it might be wise to have extra hardware on standby to cover you in case of failure. In most cases, you’ll need to duplicate all servers to ensure that you don’t suffer any significant downtime. While this is an effective way of maximizing your uptime, it’s quite expensive since you’ll have idle hardware lying around.
Hiring a cloud-computing agency takes the issue of redundancy off your budget. These service providers have their data centers set up to prevent any inconvenience to your operations. In fact, most agencies have servers in different locations to avoid being affected by power or network issues within a given locality. All things considered, this is a less expensive way of minimizing downtime in your business.
Conclusion
Migrating to the cloud comes with a lot of benefits, including scalability and high data security. Cost-effectiveness is another advantage that comes as a result of low energy consumption, scalable hardware, and a streamlined workforce. Also, the fact that the cloud-computing service provider takes care of upfront costs and any redundancy needed means more cost reduction for you as an organization looking to embrace the digital world.
References
- “Why Migrate To The Cloud: The Basics, Benefits And Real-Life Examples”, Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/03/12/why-migrate-to-the-cloud-the-basics-benefits-and-real-life-examples/
- “The Advantages of Cloud Computing for Business”, Source: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-cloud-computing-business-21914.html
