Most companies would like to benefit from the business agility and cost savings that result from a move to the cloud. But with the bewildering amount of contradictory information floating around on the Internet, there is always room for confusion.
Take Microsoft Office 365, for example. Many businesses are looking to embrace this software suite as a first step in their journey to the cloud. Many think of it merely as a version of Office that is accessible from a browser but, of course, there is much more to it than that, which is why Microsoft recently produced a myth-busting guide to correct some of the most common misconceptions.
So here are the top five Office 365 business cloud myths from Microsoft – things you may have thought were true – but which aren’t!
Office 365 is just Office tools in the cloud, and I can only use it online
No, Office 365 is a suite of cloud-based productivity services, which can include Office 365 ProPlus or Office 365 Business installed on your desktop. It can also include Exchange Online for email and calendaring, SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business for collaboration, Skype for Business for voice, IM, meetings, and presence as well as Yammer for social collaboration.
If our data moves to the cloud, our business will no longer have control over its technology
Actually, when you move to the cloud, headaches and time spent maintaining hardware and upgrading software can be significantly reduced. Now you and your team can focus on your work rather than acting as a repair or IT support service. You have more time to spend improving business operations and launching agile initiatives.
Keeping data on-premises is safer than in the cloud
In fact, it is becoming increasingly clear that your on-premises systems aren’t inherently more secure than they’d be in the cloud, says Mark Anderson, founder of the INVNT/IP Global Consortium, a group of governments and security experts solving the growing cybertheft problem. Many companies are routinely hacked and don’t know it, says Anderson, a tech visionary and founder of Strategic News Service.
Security has grown into a full-time job, one requiring a team of experts, and the few experts available require hefty salaries. Microsoft hires the best and brightest when it comes to thwarting security breaches, with the scale most companies can only dream about. What’s more, Microsoft Office 365 has a 99.9 percent financially backed uptime guarantee.
I have to move everything to the cloud – it is an all-or-nothing scenario
Not true. While early cloud supporters proclaimed the cloud as the Holy Grail, it is rare for businesses to migrate their entire enterprise to the cloud over the weekend. Most implementations begin with a hybrid approach, moving a single application, like email, and growing from there.
The hybrid cloud creates a consistent platform that spans data centres and the cloud, simplifying IT and delivering apps and data to users on virtually any device, anywhere. It gives you control to deliver the computing power and capabilities that business demands, and to scale up or down as needed, without wasting your onsite technology investments.
Cloud migration is too much for my business to handle
That’s what we’re here for. If you read articles about companies moving petabytes of data to hosted locations, you could soon begin to feel that “going cloud” is too big a challenge. Of course, your journey to the cloud needs to be properly planned with integrated IT support and it is not something to be taken lightly. So we’ll help you every step of the way with information and tips on firewall configurations, reverse proxy requirements, identity options, migration possibilities, and a phased approach for hybrid setups.
