What’s the Point of IT Support If We’re All in The Cloud?
There’s no doubt about it, storing data in the cloud with the help of a reliable Managed IT services provider brings a great number of benefits for businesses of all sizes.
Access instantly improves, users can get hold of their data and documents from any computer wherever they are, collaboration is easier and it is generally far more secure than saving your files on a hard drive.
So can it be beneficial? Absolutely. Is it completely failsafe? No.
The truth is, security can never be 100% guaranteed and businesses can and do still suffer from operational and security issues – things can go wrong in the world of IT whether you are operating in the cloud or not.
As a Managed IT Services provider we face regular issues while looking after our customers that can put systems at risk and cost businesses big money if left unmanaged:
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- Cyber threats – cyber attackers don’t just disappear the minute you move everything to the cloud. What’s more, they thrive on complacency. It only takes one clever scam to reveal confidential information or passwords and infiltrate your security systems. A Managed IT Service team can help ensure you have the right endpoint protection and antivirus software in place and keep it up to date, as well as consistently scanning your computers and systems for malware.
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- Productivity – it’s not uncommon for businesses to move all their data to the cloud only to find that their levels of productivity haven’t improved. Good, IT support will go beyond troubleshooting and help give guidance on your support strategy to boost productivity and improve collaboration. This may involve checking your IT infrastructure for incompatibility issues or identifying features of the cloud that aren’t being utilised as well as they could be, to simplify your processes further and make your workflows more efficient.
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- Service outages – even the most reliable cloud providers will suffer from service outages every now and again; in recent years we’ve seen some of the biggest providers experience significant ones. While for some businesses any downtime experienced can be frustrating, for others it can be mission-critical. For this reason, it’s imperative you have a strategy and plan in place in the event of a future outage. IT support can help detect and assess service outages as well as review and predict future ones so that they can be managed with minimal impact on your business.
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- Human error – as with any other part of the business, cloud platforms are not immune to human error even if they seem that bit less tangible. Things like poor security practices, time and work pressures and rushed programming can all increase the risk of user error occurring. It can result in any number of things; system failure, security breaches, service outages, and the list goes on. Having the right IT support in place will minimise the risk of human error at every stage while ensuring issues are resolved before they escalate.
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- Technical glitches – no matter the size, experience and reputation of the cloud service provider you use, technical issues will at times rear their ugly head. Often it can be the larger, more obvious issues that get dealt with quicker while it’s the smaller, more minor ones that can go unnoticed until they have caused a lot of damage. If you have an IT support team in place they will consistently monitor your computers and IT systems to identify any issues – no matter how big or small – and mitigate them before they snowball.
The world of IT is an ever-changing and ever-evolving space and guaranteed operational and security protection is never a given whether you are operating in the cloud or not.
The best way to arm yourself against any future errors, breaches or outages is to have the right Managed IT Services in place that will go the extra mile to ensure that your systems are operating at maximum efficiency, and that technical issues are detected and resolved as quickly as possible and that your IT security is kept resilient and up-to-date.
Of course, if and when things do go wrong, you’ll have a support team behind you ready to get your business back up and running before you bear the brunt.
To find out a bit more about the managed IT support we provide, and to hear about some of our clients’ previous experiences, feel free to get in touch. There’s no obligation to use our services but we’d be happy to pass on some tips and advice we’ve learnt along the way.