Pt 2: What is "the cloud" and why should we use it?

In “What is the “cloud” and why should we use it Pt 1”, I explained what the cloud was, I also talked about the 3 types of cloud services and the 10 reasons why everyone should be leveraging the cloud.

To briefly recap, those 10 reasons are all related to resiliency, security, and empowerment of innovation. All of which are things that every company and their customers need, and need quickly during this time.

The way we've always worked and delivered our products and services has been heavily disrupted and may never return to “normal”. The unprecedented health challenge we all face is directly impacting how services are being delivered today, and will shape the way we interact with consumers in the future.

Teams have rapidly turned to remote work to minimize the impact on day-to-day productivity and ensure the health and safety of your employees and customers – a digital first approach that may have been on the slow roll-out road map is now mission critical.

One of the great misnomers of the cloud is you “move there”, which suggests a huge lift.  It would be more accurate to say you “try there”.  For example, you can identify a business problem (like a remote workforce) that can be solved by a cloud solution, test it in a safe environment, see the benefits, start with small migrations, and then grow.

This crisis has provided companies with the opportunity to take a rapid-innovation approach, and luckily the technology exists and is available to everyone.

Solutions that you may have thought were more suited for fast growth startups, tech firms and big companies with big budgets, have become more tangible and quite frankly a necessity for all industries.  Cloud providers have been stepping up to provide access to jump-start funding and credits to rapidly move forward with cloud projects to support your teams and customers.

We have seen a huge uptick in use of cloud services, such as desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) solutions like AWS Workspaces and elastic pay-as-you-go services like AWS VPN.  These solutions can support thousands of remote users. Implementing Office 365 and Microsoft Teams (which have often been on the project back burner for years) allow real time, secure digital communication, and can be deployed in days instead of weeks.

Check out our latest Think|Chat vlog where we talk about real life projects and solutions, AWS trends and credits, and get the insight scoop on what we're excited about for the future:

 

With an increase in cyber attacks and quick changes being made to networks to enable remote working, it is of utmost importance to review your current security and resiliency.  While leveraging the public cloud for your critical infrastructure can enormously improve your security posture, you are still responsible from a compliance and security standpoint for protecting your data. 

TIP: Remember to consistently review your current technology environment to ensure your overall network is secure. Make sure your patching is up-to-date, and you have the proper disaster-recovery solutions and backup in place.

Now more than ever is the time to ask yourselves – “What business problems and process challenges could I solve by leveraging cloud solutions?”

This rapid shift to more flexible solutions has been a fascinating trend to watch.  Technology teams and C-Suite leaders have been reporting on the team building power of empathetically rolling out projects in this far from perfect situation.

We are seeing processes and systems put in place that will forever change the way people work.  Although it may not feel like it in the moment, this will better us to drive future innovation and improve crisis readiness.We have felt extremely privileged and lucky to be able to support all of our clients, which in turn has allowed them to support their employees, customers and communities.

The Think|Stack team was built for situations like this, to help those who we not!

As a business trying to help other businesses, we have designed three complimentary virtual environments to support sustainability and growth through recovery.

• Journey Map discovery call and problem solving session
• Remote Workforce Security Reviews, including vulnerability scans and a review of your remote network to check for compliance and security
• Cloud Footprint and Cost Savings analysis

👇We're here to Help.👇

Book your complimentary virtual session by completing the interest form or by emailing Tim Foley at tfoley@thinkstack.co.

WE TRANSFORM & PROTECT

We Transform & Protect by putting People Before Technology. We believe that the technology your business relies on should be used to drive  transformation and lead to a seamless user experience.  In uncertain times it’s important to partner with people and companies you can trust.   Think|Stack was built for situations like this, to help those who weren’t. 

If you’re unsure what to do next or if you have questions about your technology, our Think|Stack tribe is here to help, contact us anytime.