For years, an IT person has been a required role in a company. Though an IT team always beats one worker flying solo, your business almost certainly gets IT support in some capacity.
However, with the rise of working in the “cloud,” the idea of needing an IT person may have fallen out of favor to you. Perhaps you think that these cloud services (such as Dropbox, Office 365, and Google Apps) are so simple that you don’t need any help setting them up and maintaining them. This is particularly tempting for small companies trying to save on a cost anywhere they can.
Let’s discuss the aspects of cloud computing that necessitate you having great IT service. Jumping into using the cloud without considering these factors could end up causing you big problems in the long run.
Configuration Requires Time and Knowledge
While a lot of cloud services are designed to be simple to use right out of the box, that doesn’t mean that the default configuration will work for your team. Setting up a service for your business in a specific way not only requires knowledge of the service but also a lot of time on your part to test it.
If you’re not totally sure of what you’re doing, this could end up being a massive time sink. After making the jump to the service, you’re obviously invested in making it work, so you’ll do whatever you have to in order to get it functional. Without IT support to take care of this for you, you’ll be wasting time better spent elsewhere.
Having IT services means that the burden of the setup is off your shoulders. You can relay your exact needs to your team, who will use their expertise to set it up just as you need. Then you won’t have to worry about it!
Compliance and Security Issues
If your business is bound by HIPAA or other industry standards, you know that you have to be careful about the ways you store and transmit data. You probably don’t have time to oversee this yourself, as researching the ways that compliance standards apply to the methods in use at your business is a time-consuming process.
This is where IT comes in. When you bring in a managed services provider instead of trying to do everything on your own, you have much more breathing room. As an extension of your business, they already know what regulations apply to your systems and software.
Even if you’re not bound by HIPAA or similar in your industry, what about general security issues? Cloud file-sharing giant Dropbox recently announced a massive breach that affected over 60 million users. Without IT, would you want to deal with the effects of an attack like this, or oversee security to ensure that potential issues are minimized? With efficient IT on your side, these issues will be taken care of without you having to get involved.
Maintenance
Though they’re easier to maintain than in-house solutions, cloud services still require regular maintenance that will bog down your workflow. Assigning these duties out to an employee with other job duties will end up splitting his work and reducing his productivity; let IT handle the routine work.
With cloud services comes the need to reset user passwords, check to be sure updates are taking effect, migrate user data, and other menial tasks. While these are a necessary part of using these services, having to oversee this yourself wastes your time.
Expertise
We’ve discussed a fair bit about how letting IT handle cloud computing tasks leads to more time for you, but it’s not all about offloading the work. Having the input of experts goes a long way in boosting the value you get out of cloud services.
When you have a second opinion, you can be sure that you’re getting the best value for your money (as many cloud services have varying price levels) and that the product suits all of your needs. Since IT stays on top of industry trends, they’ll also be able to alert you if a service is going downhill or has recently reduced its features.
Cloud Computing Still Needs IT!
Hopefully, these points have helped you to realize that even small businesses who rely on cloud services still benefit greatly from IT support. Having IT experts on your side means that you don’t have to spend the time to learn everything about the services you use, or handle day-to-day routine maintenance. Instead, entrusting this work to an IT team saves you time and frustration, because they’ll be happy to take on this work and serve you with a smile.
If you’re confused by cloud services and want to bring on experts to help you with any aspect, we’d love to talk! We’ve worked extensively with Office 365, Dropbox, and Google Apps, and can make them work for your business exactly as you need them to.
Why not contact us today and start a conversation about how we can customize cloud apps for you?