REDUCE YOUR HARDWARE COSTS WHILE EXPANDING YOUR RESOURCES.
Get The Solutions That Are Right For You
You might hear everyone saying that total cloud computing consulting services are the answer to all of your issues.
While they may not solve every single problem your IT department faces, they can be a great solution to many issues.
Cloud solutions offer a wide variety of benefits and can be effective in many different situations. They’re also incredibly secure. In fact, many experts recognize that cloud servers are actually more secure than private on-site servers.
There are outsourced tech support providers that will try to sell you on comprehensive cloud services, which sometimes is the right fit, but Be Structured Technology Group Inc. is interested in the cloud solutions that are right for your business and the work you perform.
We gear all of our services and solutions around your unique needs because this is the best way to support your success and provide you with the right foundation to grow from.
We know you’re not going to have the same cloud needs as another company, and you shouldn’t pay for “solutions” that don’t truly offer you anything.
What Exactly Is The Cloud?
If you are a business owner, you have probably heard about the cloud by now, but you might not know all of its advantages.
The cloud is a pool of resources that you and your employees can access from nearly anywhere with an internet connection. The actual hardware that supports your operations can be your own hardware in an offsite data center where you pay a monthly fee for your own dedicated hosting unlike conventional “full cloud” solutions like Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to name a few.
There are advantages to each method, but the key is designing the solution that works best for your company’s needs and budget.
Hosting your own cloud servers in our hybrid cloud data center gives you total control over the hardware. You can decide when to upgrade and how often maintenance is performed.
All of the decisions are yours to make.
You also know that the servers are physically secure since they are in a Tier 3 data center.
The downside is exactly the same—you have to make all of the decisions. That puts more pressure on you and your IT staff if you don’t have a technology partner like Be Structured. It also means you have to budget for the upgrades, maintenance costs, and security.
On the other hand, renting a cloud server from an offsite data center means you don’t have to deal with any of those costs or decisions. The data center team takes care of maintaining the cloud server and upgrading it when needed.
The trade-off is that you don’t have control over any of this, nor do you have control of the physical security of the server.
Having a backup off-site, though, can be very useful at times, especially if there’s a natural disaster that destroys your office and your equipment. You would be able to get up and running again very quickly because all of your data would be safe at the data center.
Benefits of a Private Cloud Environment
Using a cloud server has more advantages than simply having your data stored off-site and letting others maintain it.
This strategy offers several benefits:
- Easy scalability – Your cloud solution grows or shrinks depending on your needs. We can dedicate more cloud server space to your company when you need it, then reduce that space when you don’t. Cloud-based programs can be added or removed as needed as well without the need to purchase the software itself.
- Pay-for-what-you-use payment models – You’re only paying for the cloud server space you’re using. This helps reduce your overall IT budget and direct your hard-earned money to where it really needs to go.
- Mobility with access – Access the cloud from anywhere you can connect to the internet. Your team will never be without the resources they need regardless of where they are. This allows your team to work off-site, at satellite offices, and from home while still having access to everything they need.
- High-volume data availability – If your company takes in a large amount of data on a daily basis, it can quickly overrun your storage solutions. Cloud servers offer high-volume data storage so you can capture and analyze all of the data you need.
- Customizable environments – Private cloud environments give you the most customizable environments possible that the public cloud environments (Like Azure and AWS) can’t match. Many clients with legacy software or other factors that don’t fit in the public cloud environment can work in our private cloud.
A private cloud environment is engineered specifically for your business and its operations. Be Structured, your go-to local IT support solution, is prepared to build your dedicated cloud environment to boost your productivity and reduce your hardware costs.
Be Structured Takes Personal Solutions Seriously
We deliver custom services and multiple hosting options for all of our clients. Migrating to a hosted private cloud server can transform how your team functions.
It does more than simply provide you with an off-site location to store all of your data. It can also serve as a solution for a number of other needs.
Using a cloud solution takes some stress off of your own in-house IT support team. They no longer need to worry about maintaining and upgrading your server hardware.
This leaves them free to focus on solutions that only they can develop. They can work on developing new custom applications for your company or simply maintaining your current level of technology.
The cloud can also remove any need to purchase additional software or update current software.
By migrating your applications to the cloud, you gain two major benefits. First, if an employee needs access to an application, you simply purchase an additional license for that application. They can immediately access the app via the cloud, so there’s no software to install on their computer. They can then access this application from any computer as long as they can log into your network.
This also removes the need to update or patch applications on individual machines. Instead, the software on the server will be patched, and anyone who uses it will immediately have access to the updated version.
In addition to applications, you can also run a number of services from the cloud. This includes antivirus and antimalware programs.
Using the cloud for these business IT services and security measures provides the same benefits as using it for software. The only software that needs to update is what’s saved on the cloud. There’s also no need to make certain every computer receives the latest virus definitions and other patches.
Cloud server hosts also provide backups for all of your data. Even if your main cloud server was to go down due to unexpected drive failure, there’s a backup. This alleviates the need for you to maintain your own backup server, although you certainly can since redundant backups are never a bad idea. Knowing your data is backed up and will always be available can be very reassuring.
Cloud servers are also designed to be incredibly secure. You won’t need to worry about someone stealing your data.
In fact, cloud servers are actually more secure than having the data on your own network. Everything is stored in one area, so all of the security can be focused on the cloud server.
There are many pros and cons to hiring an IT support company that maintains your cloud server. Make sure they are highly experienced in security measures, and they deploy the best cybersecurity possible. The servers themselves are physically secured, and the entire premises is under video surveillance and guarded around the clock.
In short, data centers actually have fewer vulnerabilities than most offices, so your data is actually quite safe.
Private Cloud Hosting Solutions
Be Structured will implement your private cloud with space and equipment from our partner provider Coresite. The company has 23 data centers located across the United States, including major locations in Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, New York, Boston, and Miami.
All of these centers are connected by high count dark fiber that provides stable, reliable, and fast data transfer. Each data center has security personnel on site around the clock every day of the year, top of the line surveillance systems, and biometrics-restricted access to all servers. Their security complies with a wide range of regulations, including HIPAA, ISO 27001, and PCI DSS.
Through our partners, we have direct access to high-performance applications like AWS, Microsoft Azure, Rackspace, Google Cloud, and other domestic and international carriers. Be Structured is agnostic towards a single private cloud hosting company because we only recommend the service that is right for you and your needs.
We will help you evaluate each hosting option and determine which one best meets your needs now and for future growth. With our help and the help of our partners, you can quickly configure your new server to meet your needs and migrate your data to it.
One of the biggest advantages of the cloud is the number of options that come with migrating your services to one. A hosted private cloud can be your goal or just a stepping stone to a public cloud computing solution.
Public cloud servers such as Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud offer less management options but usually greater power and storage options. There is also a hybrid cloud option which is a mix of the public and private cloud services. You can choose which operations go where depending on your needs.
Migrating to the Cloud Is Simple
Moving to a cloud server isn’t as difficult as it may sound like.
The first step is to determine what data and applications you need to move to the cloud. In some instances, you may not want to move all of your data to the cloud right away. You may also not need all of your applications to be cloud-based services.
In fact, if you use older software or very specialized software, you may need to continue running it from a local computer. Older apps may not be able to be ported to the cloud, while some apps that are very resource-intensive may not run as smoothly.
The next step is to determine your cloud server needs. We will help you find the right cloud option for your current needs that also allows you room to grow.
This is especially important if you’re not planning on migrating everything to the cloud right away but may want to move more data or apps to it in the future.
Preparing to migrate your data can take some planning. You want to make certain that the migration is done as quickly as possible to minimize the amount of time your system is down.
You’ll want to plan out the order you migrate applications and make certain everything is moved correctly. We will assist you in planning your server migration so it goes smoothly.
Once everything is planned, it’s time to migrate your data. You absolutely want to have a full backup of everything you’re moving to the cloud. While it’s rare something goes drastically wrong, you never want to leave anything to chance.
Back up your data so it’s safe. Even if you don’t need it here, it’s always good to have a backup.
After the migration is complete, you’ll want to do some testing to make certain everyone can access all of the apps and data they need.
If there’s no problems, congratulations!
You’ve successfully migrated to the cloud.
The Cloud Can Be Part Of A Larger Strategy
Private cloud solutions offer the opportunity to layer your services into a more efficient strategy. Your dedicated environment can be incorporated into data backup or disaster recovery and business continuity planning. Your virtual private cloud easily combines with hosted VoIP phone systems solutions or Office 365 migrations as well.
Cloud solutions can be a powerful tool for your business, but the best solutions are tailored and selected for your success.
Contact Be Structured to find the best answers for you today.
