Without the help of managed cloud hosting services, organizations across America could not have sent millions of workers home to do their jobs remotely during the pandemic lockdown. Managed service providers enabled businesses to quickly migrate workers to a cloud environment while scaling to adapt to changing customer demands.
The pandemic validated cloud’s value proposition. According to Sid Nag, research vice president at Gartner, “The ability to use on-demand, scalable cloud models to achieve cost efficiency and business continuity is providing the impetus for organizations to rapidly accelerate their digital business transformation plans. The increased use of hybrid and multi-cloud services has reinforced cloud adoption to be the ‘new normal’ now more than ever.”
Cloud adoption is becoming mainstream for many organizations but has expanded rapidly since the pandemic. According to the Flexera 2021 State of the Cloud report surveying 750 enterprises:
- 61% of organizations plan to optimize cloud costs in 2021, making it the top initiative for the fifth year in a row.
- 59% of organizations plan to focus on cloud migration.
- 76% said they are incorporating multiple public clouds, while 56% report using more than one private cloud. The most common combination is a mix of various public and private clouds, with 43% taking this approach.
- 63% of enterprises reported using cloud managed service providers to manage public cloud use.
Why Managed Cloud Hosting Services?
The DNA of managed cloud hosting services is an IT staff’s dream:
- No high up-front investment
- Fast lead time and deployment
- On-demand IT resource and scalability
- Secure and reliable performance
- Services purchased on a predictable subscription fee basis
- Access to data anywhere, anytime from any device
- Ability to recover data in the event of a disaster or cyberattack
Managed cloud hosting enables organizations to gain better visibility and control over their cloud environment to minimize risks while continuing to speed business growth and innovation. Trusted experts oversee all migration, management and optimization activities. Just as important, data security, governance and privacy are becoming table stakes in all IT strategies. Managed cloud hosting services ensure data is secure and complies with strict government and industry regulations.
Private Cloud. Public Cloud. Or a Mixture of Both
Managed cloud hosting services give organizations flexibility to choose private, public and hybrid cloud environments.
Private clouds are ideal for organizations who have large computing and storage requirements, strict security and compliance needs or want speed to innovation. Managed cloud providers host private cloud infrastructures as a monthly subscription service.
Public clouds save on capital expenses of having to purchase, manage and maintain hardware and application infrastructures. Managed cloud providers are responsible for managing your scalable public cloud to ensure the health, safety and accessibility of your data.
Hybrid clouds give you the perfect mix of scalability and flexibility of the public cloud with the dedicated physical environment of the private cloud. You can decide which workloads are moved where and create a seamless coexistence of all your physical and virtual infrastructures.
When Is Shifting to Managed Cloud Hosting Right for You?
- Your aging technology is simply not delivering efficient network performance and reliable uptime for today’s digitally connected world.
- Your current network environment is not designed for today’s remote and multi-site workforces who demand anywhere, anytime network access and real-time office functionality from any device.
- Your multi-site IT environment has become too complex and time-consuming to maintain.
- Your security is not adequate to proactively detect and defend against sophisticated cyber threats.
- Your network is not prepared for the unprecedented number of devices and applications that will soon bombard your network from emerging technologies (such as 5G, IoT and artificial intelligence.) All of these will require higher bandwidth, faster speeds and secure connections.
- Budget restraints, long lead times to implement new IT capabilities and the continuous drain on IT staff and resources are holding back innovation.
