If you’ve been following along (and we hope you have been), you’ve heard us talk about the Zero-Footprint Movement and how to plan for transitioning to a no-hardware IT environment. By now, you might be looking at how you can move to a hardware-free IT environment and what options are available to your organization.
In the third part of our hardware-free IT series, we’re looking at the benefits of combining private and public cloud offerings to create the best and most-efficient environment for your practice or firm.
For more than a decade, private cloud solutions have been the de facto answer for security, performance and availability concerns. Now, as public cloud evolves (Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, Google, etc.), migrating a private cloud into a public cloud infrastructure allows for significantly more flexibility and additional security without losing performance. Everybody wins.
- Hyperscale Resources
Microsoft Azure has revolutionized the cloud environment for practices and firms. Azure is providing a Windows-based platform and services that bring enterprise resources to businesses of all sizes and industries.Similarly, Amazon AWS has been a significant provider of public cloud resources, especially for web-based applications and specific backend computing.To capitalize on the best features of both private and public clouds, future-thinking private cloud providers like Netgain often partner with a public cloud provider like Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS to provide organizations with optimized hybrid cloud solutions that meet their unique needs. - Usage Like a Utility
Paying only for what you use is a primary reason why healthcare practices and financial firms are moving to a hardware-free model. In a traditional IT environment, your organization invests in large capital expenses like servers, storage, area networks and other costly IT equipment. You pay an upfront expense no matter how much you’re actually using. And often, you’ll need to anticipate how much equipment you’ll need during the life of the equipment. How many servers and storage will you need in three years?With cloud solutions, your organization only pays for the resources you’re using. When your organization grows, your expenses goes up proportionately. If your organization’s size contracts, so do your IT expenses. When you acquire another practice or firm, adding them is straightforward and cost-effective. Any seasonality in your user count can also be handled immediately. This flexibility to scale frees your capital to be deployed to other areas of the business that can drive growth. Selecting an IT service provider who has the capability to provide this for you is key. - Get Out of the IT Business
Being free to focus on your own organization is key to your business. When your IT is managed and taken care of by a trusted IT service partner, you’ll have time and attention to focus on other areas of the business. When you don’t need to worry about your IT, you can turn IT from a constant headache into a strategic business advantage.
The Zero-Footprint Movement is in full swing, and your organization needs to plan accordingly. How can you use the cloud—public and private—to optimize your business this year?
