There are many environmental benefits for businesses to move to the cloud. If your company is interested in reducing its carbon footprint, here are a few ways to do just that while improving the quality and security of your internal network.
Switching To Cloud Hosting Reduces Your Energy Consumption
When you move your hosting off-site, say to something like IBM cloud hosting, you reduce the amount of energy you use to power your site, email, and DNS.
A study from Accenture, WSP Environment and Energy, and Microsoft show that a 100-employee company that uses the cloud can reduce energy consumption by about 90 percent over traditional hosting solutions.
Reason? Most of the expense of an on-site server setup lies in the climate control and security of the building. So, when you keep hosting in-house, you’re using a lot of air conditioning to keep the servers cool 24/7.
And, a dedicated hosting provider is always working to improve efficiencies since this is their core competency. Your business isn’t hosting – that’s an ancillary service you provide to yourself to support your core competency.
Cloud Hosting Saves You Money On IT Costs
IT personnel are expensive. Just to maintain your servers, you’re spending thousands per month in staffing costs. Salaries alone can top $70,000 for just one employee. Even entry-level personnel tend to start at $50,000 and that doesn’t include benefits.
An outsourced solution typically costs around $100 to $500 per month for small businesses. For enterprise solutions, you might pay a few thousand per month, but typically at least half of what you would pay an entry-leveler.
That’s an amazing cost savings, and the hosting provider provides yo with as much staff as is needed to keep your servers in good working order. Plus, most hosts, especially cloud hosts, have redundant systems, making data loss virtually impossible.
You Get Better Security From Cloud Hosting
Security isn’t something most businesses think of when they think of cloud hosting. But, it’s a fact that reputable cloud hosts keep their servers in secure buildings, with posted armed guards and biometric security measures.
In other words, the host’s building is often very secure – much more secure than your office. If you purchase a dedicated server, you can also take advantage of dedicated physical storage and possibly a separate lock for your server that no one can access accept the administrator.
Your Systems Are More Cost Efficient
One of the biggest costs associated with self-hosted schemes is the cost for maintenance. Ongoing software upgrades and hardware replacement take their toll on your company’s bank account.
Cloud servers, on the other hand, are often able to update their servers, insulation, and interior systems on a routine basis at a cost that’s far lower than yours.
Since they’re in the business, they take advantage of discounts and leverage their own business relationships with manufacturers. It’s a type of efficiency that you’d expect from a specialist and something that’s not reproducible by your company.
By Daniel Simpson
Daniel works as a freelance IT consultant. He likes to offer his insights and ideas online and his thoughts can be found on a number of websites.
