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Decisions, Decisions. Cloud Checklist Inside.

Ever wonder if the cloud is for you? If you answer NO to any of the following questions, it may be time to give the cloud a try. 

  • My hardware is nearing the end of its life. Do I need to invest in costly new capital equipment?
  • Is my data secure? Is it encrypted at rest?
  • Do I have the resources and the budget for the ongoing maintenance of my server? Do I know all the costs involved of managing and procuring an on-premise server?
  • Do I want to continue to maintain my server in-house?
  • Can I afford downtime?
  • Are my backups secure and can I easily access them?

Considering the cloud but not sure if it’s the right choice for your PICK/MultiValue company? We’ve put together the checklist below to help you because the decision to move to the cloud can be overwhelming. Included are some things to take into consideration if you ultimately move forward with the cloud.

COSTS

CAPex vs OPex
On-premise servers are subject to depreciation over time whereas cloud server expenses are considered operating expenses that are deducted as costs. Capital and operating expenditures are treated quite differently for accounting and tax purposes. The benefits of the cloud demonstrate the value as a long-term solution to support the future needs of your organization.

Upfront initial costs vs small monthly payments.
Instead of investing heavily in on-premise servers that require hefty upfront costs for equipment you are forecasting for the future, you can pay small monthly payments and get going straight away for what you need.

Pay only for what you use
You can increase and decrease resources on a server at any time so you are not stuck paying for something that you aren’t using. Pay only for what you use in a predictable monthly fee. On-premise scaling up requires additional equipment and you cannot reduce costs if scaling down is needed.

HIDDEN COSTS

How much are you paying to power and cool that server? An average in-house server in the US (accounting for both direct IT power and cooling) absorbs about $731.94 per year in electricity.

You also have to take into consideration manpower. Someone on your team likely uses a portion of their time to maintain your server(s). For more information on hidden costs, see our What is the True Cost of Being On-Premise blog. 

Unwritten 5-year rule
Don’t forget the hidden cost of the unwritten five-year rule. This is when you need to replace your on-premise server and the process starts all over again. Most people don’t take that into consideration.

On average on-premise servers are replaced at least every 5 years. This means you start the process of ordering, configuring, installing, setting up and paying for OS licenses all over again, and more than likely paying for space and resources you think you will need in the future. And much more likely resources you may never use. With the cloud,  you pay only for what you use when you use it.

In the cloud, if Google needs to upgrade its servers or the operating system, it’s not your problem and you don’t have to pay any extra. It is all included.

SECURITY

On-premise security is typically provided by a single or a few employees who are not 100% dedicated to security and possibly not trained in security. Google has a global team of more than 900 security experts around the globe who monitor the system 24 hours a day to detect and respond to attacks or issues. 

Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. No one at Google or Pick Cloud has access to your data unless you allow them to for support purposes.

BACKUPS

Worried about having access to your backups in the cloud? You have access to your backups and can download them at any time. Since they are in Google cloud, they are also encrypted at rest and in transit at no additional charge to you.

DOWNTIME

Can you afford to be down? If so, for how long? Time is money and according to Gartner, the average cost of IT downtime is $5,600 per minute. This amount can vary, due to the differences in how businesses operate. On the low end, downtime can be as much as $140,000 per hour, or on average as much as $300,000 per hour or on the high end, $540,000 according to Gartner analyst, Andrew Lerner. Gartner also states that as many as 43% of SMBs shut their doors after a major data loss and 51% go out of business within two years.

Google has 99.999% uptime which equates to just 5 minutes of downtime per year. We can provision a server quickly compared to the amount of time it takes to procure and provision an on-premise server – which can take weeks to do!!

BOTTOM LINE

Ready to begin your cloud journey right away? Click here to get started for FREE. With our combined decades of PICK/MultiValue experience as well as our Google certifications and experience with navigating the GCP environment, we are the perfect partners to help MV clients navigate their cloud journey with a secure, compliant, low latency, global, lower-cost solution.

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