The benefits of having a cloud-first policy

The uptake of the cloud is happening at a significant pace, completely changing the way we do business. It seems logical that a ‘cloud first’ policy will become the norm. This means that whenever companies deploy new services, or update existing services, they will almost always consider moving them to the cloud for the betterment of the IT environment.

What cloud first doesn’t mean is that network monitoring becomes redundant. IT admins still need to know if all their cloud services are running — even if they are not responsible for outages, they should still know about them.

There are five key reasons for applying a cloud-first policy, all of which could benefit a wide range of businesses.

1. It’s a chance to rethink the IT strategy

• Are we using our legacy systems in the way that we should?
• Can we simplify the system?
• Is it at the core of our business or can we move to a standardised system?

2. We can do things that were impossible before the cloud

The possibilities are endless, but one of them might be: delivering websites and downloads globally and at high speed using CDNs, while simultaneously geo-blocking downloads in those countries that have export embargoes.

3. It saves time and money

Email is a perfect real-world example of this. Migrating an on-premise Microsoft Exchange server cluster to Office 365/Exchange Online can result in the removal of excess hardware, less hassle when it comes to ongoing maintenance and ultimately increased performance.

4. It’s scalable

It is suitable for businesses that are growing so quickly they are moving offices every 4–5 years. Moving IT services to the cloud can take the pressure off IT. 

5: It offers greater security and stability

Most companies rely on just a small IT team working an 8-hour day to ensure adequate cybersecurity is in place. Cloud providers, such as Amazon and Microsoft, have round-the-clock teams devoted to this kind of activity.

Cloud first contributes to time and cost savings and supports security and scalability, but this is only true if you have a reliable monitoring service as the foundation. Paessler’s PRTG Network Monitor supports your cloud-first strategy by giving you the means to monitor both on-premise and cloud services from a single dashboard.

www.paessler.com/cloudfirst