For big businesses, the act of moving some or all of their physical server space to a cloud provider can result in immediate and dramatic savings. Small and medium-sized businesses, however, are often unsure if such a move would benefit them or if it would simply be another cost to their already stressed IT budget. While not every SMB will need the same amount of cloud computing to benefit, there are a number of clear reasons that a partial cloud option can help any SMB get ahead.
First and foremost is cost. Hosting costs are not unreasonable and are certainly cheaper than paying for the space, energy and maintenance of physical machines in a local office space. This benefit is often seen immediately when a company switches to a cloud-based service, as their energy bills can drop dramatically. Next, companies can experience better stability and less downtime. As methods for keeping virtual machines up and running improve, downtimes of less than 0.001% are possible, provided a company is willing to pay for them.
Virtual servers also offer greater efficiency if the right provider with the right hypervisor is chosen, in addition to the flexibility to migrate data to a new machine as well as have multiple redundant backups on hand anytime a company may need them. Finally, companies should consider the positive environmental impact that going virtual can offer. Not only is less energy being consumed, but less physical space is taken up by machines that need to be repaired and eventually destroyed. With cost savings, better efficiency, greater stability, and a lower carbon footprint thrown in for good measure, it is no wonder that more and more SMBs are considering a switch to cloud hosting options.
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