Most organizations that choose to move to the cloud do so because they have decided they need it for business agility and want the cost savings that come with it. Cloud services like Office 365 and Azure create a collaborative and dynamic environment that fuels business growth.
To help in your decision on whether the cloud is right for your business, here are 5 myths and misconceptions about moving to Office 365 demystified.
Fact: You can move to the cloud at your own pace, or use a hybrid approach.
Most implementations start with a hybrid approach—moving a single workload, like email, and growing from there. The path for each workload is different, and the time it takes for those migrations varies.
iV4 can help you develop a plan to move initial workloads like file sync-and-share or email first, and then help you figure out the right long-term strategy for more difficult or larger databases.
Fact: With Office 365 you can work online or use traditional desktop applications.
Sitting at a desk in the office from 8 to 5 every day is becoming an outdated concept. With Office 365, you can free users from traditional device and location constraints with tools like Skype for Business, OneDrive for Business, and SharePoint.
Plus, with business and enterprise Office 365 plans (excluding Business Essentials and Enterprise E1), you can install the familiar desktop Office applications, Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Fact: You still have total control over technology. But your IT won't have to worry as much.
When you move to the cloud, time spent maintaining hardware and upgrading software is significantly reduced. Your IT team can focus on advancing your organization's technology, improving operations, and launching innovative initiatives.
Fact: Your decision to choose between Hosted Exchange and Office 365 really depends on your corporate culture and business needs.
Hosted Exchange is the appealing option for businesses that require strong data privacy and security. Although Exchange requires a large initial investment, once configured you control the changes, the options you want, and what version you use. Which also means you need staff that has advanced Exchange knowledge to maintain it.
With Office 365, you get updates delivered to you automatically which allows you to constantly refresh your business processes and use new tools. When it comes down to IT budgets, Office 365 is the more affordable choice.
Fact: Not necessarily.
Office 365 has numerous built-in security configurations and rules that your IT team or IT provider can set up. Secure Score actually gives you a numerical score demonstrating how aligned you are with security best practices and actions you can take to improve.
In addition, if disaster were to strike and your server goes down in flames, how long can you go without your data? Are you able to recover it? Utilizing the cloud for storage and backup will surely be worth it in the long run.
Managing Your Move to the Cloud
The cloud can offer dramatic cost and resource savings. But a mass migration of every IT function to the cloud can wreak havoc on your business. iV4 custom-builds a cloud infrastructure based on your unique application, storage, resource, and delivery needs.
