As more technologies become available for businesses of all sizes, it’s important to keep an eye out on what could be used for your business in order to improve efficiencies or save on initial costs that could otherwise be spent elsewhere. Server infrastructure can be a costly initial investment, especially for a small business, and it may be in your best interest to start a search for a cloud service for your small business if you are just starting out, or are looking for different ways to improve your core infrastructure for your employees and clients.
Cloud services are becoming more popular amongst companies of all sizes, so it is worth the time to research whether it is going to be right for your company. Cloud services do come with pros and cons, though, and no one solution is perfect for every company, so continually evaluating your options is often a good idea. What doesn’t work for you today may be a good solution down the road.
Pros and Cons of In-House Servers
In terms of pros, choosing in-house servers over cloud service for small business means that you have physical control over all of your servers, and you get to keep critical data in-house. Access to your data isn’t reliant on an external internet connection, and the infrastructure can be more cost-efficient if you aren’t concerned about uptime.
For the cons, you do require a certain level of capital to purchase your servers and infrastructure up front. You’ll also require the space to place your servers and infrastructure as well as a dedicated in-house IT support team. With strictly in-house servers and data, you’ll also be more vulnerable to data loss at that location, depending on how often to copy data offsite. You have no uptime guarantees.
Pros and Cons of Cloud Services
When looking at the pros of cloud service for small business, you’ll find that you don’t need to do the initial investment of implementing in-house servers and infrastructure, and you don’t have to worry about outgrowing your infrastructure too fast because cloud services can be easily scaled to meet your growing needs. If you end up with a lull, you can also scale back your services just as easily to save money. You only pay for what you need. Cloud services allow your employees to connect to needed services from anywhere in the world, and they can access data on the fly from anywhere and from any device that is allowed to connect. Finally, cloud services are known for their strict backup policies, so your data may be backed up as often as every 15 minutes for easy disaster recovery.
If you choose to use cloud services, some of the cons may include the requirement of having high-speed internet at your business So your employees can access data at acceptable speeds. Third party cloud services may have direct access to your data as well, creating security or legal issues (some data cannot legally be stored on cloud services.) If your internet or the service’s internet goes down, you lose access to your data temporarily. If you don’t require really high uptime, the cost of the service may not be beneficial to you.
As mentioned before, there is no one solution that fits every company. You may find that, in the end, you actually need a hybrid solution, a mix of in-house servers and cloud services. If you have data that is highly sensitive, you may not legally be able to store it on cloud services, but for your other non-sensitive data, it could be beneficial for your employees to be able to access it from anywhere.
If you are interested in learning whether cloud services for small business are right for you, contact 3T Pro today for our expert insights and our assistance with the modernization of your infrastructure, whether in-house, or in the cloud.