Cloud Source

Business Agility Is a Necessity for Your Company

by

The business world of communications technology never slows down, and neither should your company. This can be seen from the increasing popularity of cloud operations within companies. As a result of technological advances, the future holds uncertainty and sudden changes will likely transform the business environment. There is a critical call for all companies to stay up to speed on these evolutions. Companies must react to new changes in both cloud and operational processes so that company-wide business agility is successful long-term.

Today’s companies utilize cloud operations – especially the public cloud – for cost-effectiveness and many communication, performance, reliability, and virtualization benefits. With these changes, companies must be swiftly prepared for innovation and development in their market. There are a few key aspects for companies to consider with regard to business agility:

Cloud Benefits

Companies migrate toward cloud services because of the need for reliability and availability. Hosted services across different applications, systems, and platforms also obtain more immediacy, reliability and availability for internal and external audiences of the company. Cloud services allow companies to adapt and respond faster to the evolving changes. Instead of anticipating preparations for future arrangements, companies now utilize better flexibility for any situation. Computerization and automation facilitate disaster recovery capabilities and simplify operational processes. 

Adjustment and Change

In addition to Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), cloud providers include the supplementation of Platform as a Service (PaaS) features. Companies can optimize the amount of time it takes to execute a process and also optimize cost-efficiency.  Applying business agility to uncertainties in the future will quicken their adjustment to change.

Challenges

A significant challenge that all companies must consider is security. More virtualization means more concerns with secure connectivity and data breaches. Additionally, having sufficient capacity and managing different systems or databases is also no easy task. Regarding system management configuration, it can be hard to maintain dependable availability and capacity, adjustment to more demands, and security. The cloud’s technological advancements also bring newer obstacles, forcing companies to consider different factors that may not have existed before.

With business agility, companies can keep up with additional features and overcome the challenge of maintaining consistent interconnection of multiple platforms and systems. Business agility helps companies facilitate their operational and computational processes as well as remain scalable to the unpredictability of the business environment.

When you need assistance with cloud services, contact us at Cloud Source. Cloud Source can help your business with its agility and the latest telecommunication processes.

Managing Cloud Data to Maximize Agility

by

Most enterprises are sitting on a technology stack with layer upon layer spanning physical servers, virtual machines and proprietary hardware. Some even liken the complexity to less of a stack and more of a hairball, full of a tangled mess. The answer to harnessing this complexity and making it contribute to better business agility is cloud data.

Every answer adds to the problem. Each new technology that emerges promises to be the answer to the growing complexity problem. In reality, each innovation adds more complexity to the enterprise IT environment. It is increasingly difficult to manage, secure and make sense of the technology stack.

Some of the effects of this increasing technology complexity include the threat of vendor lock-in, costs that spin out of control, and difficulty maintaining business agility. Enterprises may recognize the importance of making quick decisions in order to meet customer expectations or improve productivity, but the reality is that change is slower in an overly complex environment.

Own the complexity. Enterprises should stop lamenting the technology hairball and learn to love it. It’s a necessary evil because each new layer of technology does add value and has a specific purpose for the business. The question is how to innovate effectively and prioritize agility within the complex environment.

Cloud data is the answer. Cloud applications aren’t the answer to complexity because they add yet more layers in the stack, but the applications also handle existing workloads and make it easier to launch new services in the cloud. At the core of this capability is data.

Cloud data is the clear way for companies to differentiate themselves from the competition. The collection, safe management, and analysis of data all require companies to move toward the appropriate processing of that data. From customer experience to process improvement, harnessing the flood of data to improve practices is key.

It’s a mistake to view data management as just another expense rather than as the power behind the opportunity to grow and innovate. Without the right perspective on the data strategy, it simply becomes more costly and time-intensive to manage. In order to make the most of data, it must be housed in the cloud and accessible for applications without risking a compromise in areas of data integrity or security.

The virtualization of the data layer maximizes its accessibility and makes it adaptable for a multi-cloud environment. Real-time management of data allows companies to integrate Internet of Things (IoT) and quickly innovate with the construction of hybrid cloud solutions. Cloud data is the answer to modern business agility.

Do you need assistance harnessing data to fuel your business? Contact us at Cloud Source, and let’s explore the potential cloud data has for growth and innovation in your organization.

Four Applications for Hybrid Cloud Solutions in Your Enterprise

by

Enterprises looking for a complete digital transformation often unexpectedly find themselves in a hybrid cloud environment. By accessing both private and public cloud technology, enterprises are able to optimize their workloads and make adjustments as necessary. The management of a hybrid cloud environment is controlled using a virtualized orchestration level, making it convenient to move workloads as business needs dictate.

The benefits of hybrid cloud solutions include cost savings, the ability to “burst” to additional public clouds when needed, and a disaster recovery platform that’s fully redundant. You also have flexibility to shift workloads between public and private cloud solutions as business needs or costs dictate.

Even so, it may be challenging to envision how hybrid cloud solutions might work in practical terms in your own enterprise. Consider these examples:

Managing cash flow: Despite the increased demand for implementing digital transformation strategies, many enterprise IT departments are watching their budgets either shrink or remain flat. Hybrid cloud solutions allow you to control costs by only using as much capacity as you require, renting it from a cloud provider, rather than through the physical expansion of your data center.

Protect your most private data: While there are clear benefits to public cloud, many enterprises prefer to keep certain sensitive data such as customer and pricing records close to home. That’s where the hybrid cloud environment demonstrates its advantages; you can house critical data in a private cloud solution while using more affordable public cloud for less-critical data.

Accommodate seasonality or fluctuating workloads: If you’re a retailer, you know the demand on your data center during the holidays. Hybrid cloud solutions solve this challenge by providing the option to add extra capacity through the public cloud. You could run your applications in the private cloud and then expand out to the public cloud when your busy season hits.

Manage the flow of data: Enterprises are just beginning to recognize the massive flow of data coming not just from what’s gathered by their systems, but also through Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and the online behaviors of visitors to their websites. Hybrid cloud solutions allow you to store this data in your private cloud environment and then use the public cloud to make sense of the data.

Augment IT staff with hybrid cloud specialists: When you enlist private or public cloud solutions, you also tap into the talent of the specialists that work for your cloud provider. They are often able to offer insights into your configuration and help you understand how to troubleshoot certain situations.

To learn more about the role that hybrid cloud solutions might play in your organization, contact us at Cloud Source. From Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to data center services, Cloud Source has the options for successful hybrid cloud deployment.

Small Businesses Reap Benefits From Digital Transformation

by

In many ways, digital transformation has leveled the playing field between small businesses and large enterprises. While in the past, only the biggest corporations could invest in the latest software solutions, the subscription-based scalability of cloud solutions has made the best technology available to even the smallest companies.

Many small businesses wonder if digital transformation is a good investment. While enterprises may see large-scale savings and impact on their bottom line, a small business may struggle to see those same benefits. But can a small business absorb the impact if an investment in technology doesn’t deliver the results they’d hoped to experience?

Small businesses can see those benefits, and they should invest in digital solutions. In fact, it’s advantageous to be on the front side of digital transformation, to gain significant advantage over competitors, rather than taking a wait-and-see approach and then playing catch-up later.

Considerations for technology investment: Small businesses need to make some decisions about the type of investments they want to make in digital solutions. Some possibilities include:

  • Improving the customer experience
  • Reducing operational expenses
  • Better analytics for informed decision-making
  • Agility and innovation
  • Implementing a digital ecosystem with partners and vendors

These considerations should be evaluated alongside the company’s strategic goals. Looking at where the company plans to be in five or 10 years, the solutions chosen for organizational efficiency will be a different investment than one that supports goals for customer engagement.

Short-term versus long-term investment: It’s also important to make decisions with a timeline in mind for the kind of digital transformation investments you’ll be making. A short-term investment is one that can be implemented right away without waiting for partners or particular market conditions. These should be planned with a specific timeline and return on investment metrics.

A middle term investment is planned for one to five years in the future, and will likely require hiring new talent and acquiring outside contractors. This looks more like a brainstorming of possibilities. Long-term projects are broader, with the assumption that they may involve a completely new business model or the expansion into other industries, taking the company in an entirely new direction.

Growth versus profit: Before making any decisions for digital investments, small business owners must have a grasp on whether they are prioritizing the growth of the business or increasing profits. This will have a heavy influence on how resources should be allocated for technology investments. It’s usually a good idea to invest in a solution that is expected to have a quick return on investment payoff and can fuel the adoption of another digital solution. This also has the effect of increasing employee buy-in on digital transformation.

Cloud Source is a leading technology services company that assists companies of all sizes with their digital transformation goals. Contact us to discuss your goals and we’ll help you identify the best solutions to achieve them.

UCaaS Makes Its Biggest Impact With Small- and Mid-Size Businesses

by

The push to move technology to the cloud is being experienced all over the market and in every industry. While companies of all sizes are prioritizing digital transformation, the organizations that have the most to gain are small- and mid-size businesses (SMBs). In particular, the shift to Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) levels the playing field and helps SMBs make significant gains in productivity and cost savings.

Until relatively recently, SMBs had only one viable option for communications: the private branch exchange (PBX). These systems required a sizable capital investment in addition to high monthly costs.

Enter UCaaS: Nearly every feature of UCaaS is a win for SMBs. The implementation of UCaaS doesn’t require a major capital investment, and the reduction of monthly charges helps control the costs of communication. In addition, cloud services’ subscription-based pay model is ideal for SMBs as they grow or experience seasonality in their markets.

Instead of new technology being only available to the biggest enterprises, UCaaS makes it possible for SMBs to access the same level of communication that bigger organizations use. When it comes to communications, SMBs can offer their customers a seamless experience, in which their entire history with the company is accessible through a single application. Whether customers call, email, instant message, or a combination of the three, the customer service representative can view the contact history in its entirety.

Equipping innovation: In an SMB environment, employees each wear a number of hats, with PBX system manager likely to be one of those in the past. There’s a need for the outsourcing of management for communications tools. UCaaS frees up employees from managing a PBX. It also creates the ability for remote and field employees to seamlessly collaborate through video conferencing, instant messaging (IM), and shared workspaces, allowing them to focus on bigger goals and objectives.

In addition, obsolescence is no longer a problem. UCaaS providers regularly roll out updates, and their focus is on innovation and performance improvement, passed along to customers without a big capital outlay.

Another benefit to SMBs is the business continuity inherent with cloud services. While bigger enterprises likely have some type of disaster recovery or business continuity plan in place as part of a bigger security strategy, many SMBs find themselves at a stop in the case of a power outage, natural weather event, or other problem. UCaaS providers have multiple data centers that limit downtime and keep the SMB communicating with customers.

Cloud Source provides synchronicity across phone, email, mobile devices, and other formats. Contact us to find out more information about the competitive advantage UCaaS can offer your SMB.

Contact

328 S. Jefferson St. Suite 603
Chicago, IL 60661
Ph: 312.753.7880
E: info@CloudSourceServices.com

Newsletter Signup

Stay up-to-date on Cloud Source's news.

↑ Top of Page