Migrating to the cloud

According to analyst Gartner, the worldwide public cloud services market will rise 16.5 per cent in 2016 to $204 billion (£141 billion), up from $175 billion (£121 billion) in 2015. You only have to look at the growth of flexible start-ups such as Netflix and Uber to see the benefits the technology can bring.

It gives companies the chance to punch above their weight – accelerating time to market – and offers expertise that organisations don’t necessarily have in-house. And, contrary to common belief, cloud can help companies increase data security. By providing the processing power for demanding business applications cloud is also an opportunity to cut costs and decrease reliance on expensive on- premises systems. In addition, the technology can assist firms to boost employee productivity by allowing them to work in multiple locations.

The move from on-site to hosted applications and storage was once a daunting task, but this is no longer the case. There’s often the opportunity to ‘try before you buy’ cloud services, and expert help is available if needed.