For years, Information Technology (IT) focused on physical platforms and the computers and software that ran on them.
IT costs were capital expenditures that purchased these products initially, and as they reached the end of their lifespans, more capital expenditures were incurred to replace them.
This was the normal way to do business and this model was the standard for decades.
The rapid changes in physical platforms led to an undesirable result: companies found they had equipment that was considered obsolete more quickly than ever before, and that drove costs up to try and keep the infrastructure modernized.
Sometimes companies try and beat this trend by over-buying computing capacity in the hopes that a company could grow into it before the hardware became obsolete. As server virtualization became more common, and internet bandwidth came down in price. This opened up a new paradigm: buying IT capabilities as an ongoing service.
This had several appealing characteristics:
- Increased agility: it’s fast and easy to build out computing capacity in the cloud, and it’s easy to adjust that computing capacity, so companies can buy only what they need when they need it. Some services can be allocated dynamically, too.
- The shift of IT expenditures from capital expenditure to operational expenditure: this makes managing cash flow easier.
- Decreased consumption of space and power for physical servers in the office.
- Protection from hardware and software obsolescence: the cloud provider handles ensuring up-to-date versions of hardware and software are being used.
Does this mean companies should immediately put all their IT workloads in the cloud?
Of course not, for several reasons. First, your existing infrastructure could be a year or more away from obsolescence. Or your business may have specific applications that do not lend themselves well to cloud computing.
Many businesses opt for a hybrid infrastructure, with some services delivered by the as-a-service cloud subscription model, and others through on-premises infrastructure. Regardless, cloud services present a win-win scenario for businesses to utilize the best technologies to make their business run better and compete more effectively in their market. Clare Computer Solutions has been helping companies realize the power of technology for over 25 years and we can help your company, too. It all starts with a conversation: contact us to begin your transformation.
