There are plenty of reasons to move from an on-premises environment to the cloud. In this post, I share the most common reasons our customers move to a managed cloud. I should note that these are not in order based on a scientific analysis of our customer base. Rather, they’re based on my direct conversation with hundreds of Connectria customers. In my role as a systems architect at Connectria, I have a front-row seat to what matters to our customers. Check out the list below to help you decide when to move to a managed cloud and contact Connectria for more information.

1 Downtime

This is probably the leading reason customers contact us. Unfortunately, for many, it’s more of a reaction to a recent, painful event than it is a precautionary measure. If you think your disaster recovery (DR) plan might not be up to snuff, contact us. Even if you aren’t ready to move to a managed cloud, we can help you strengthen your DR strategy.

2 Security

It’s getting harder to separate security from downtime since cyber attacks are a leading cause of downtime. However, the good news is that a lot of the customers we work with are taking a more proactive approach in this area. They know they need to strengthen their defenses, and they also know they don’t have the in-house staff to cover everything.

3 Better service

These customers are often working with a cloud provider, but this provider is either not giving them the level of reliability they need or they’re just plain hard to work with. It’s amazing how often it’s the latter. Relationships matter. (Read about our No Jerks Philosophy here.)

4 Regulations

This one is pretty common, but I’m always surprised it doesn’t top the list of priorities more often. Regulations like HIPAA and PCI DSS are always changing, and the consequences of being found in non-compliance can be devastating. I think it may be that a lot of business leaders don’t realize how complex regulatory compliance can get or that a qualified managed service provider can help them manage compliance.

5 Lack of expertise

There’s a lot of talk about the IT Skills Shortage and how hard it can be to find and retain qualified staff. You’d think this is an area where business leaders would be more proactive, but once again, they usually reach out to us when they’re about to lose a key person – or they’ve already lost them.

6 Budget structure

I don’t know that it’s a primary reason businesses move to the cloud, but turning capital expenses into operating expenses is certainly one of the major benefits. When I’m talking to the business leaders, they tell me they’re ecstatic whenever they can free up capital budgets and write off the monthly expense of a managed cloud. We work with CFOs and finance people regularly to structure a plan that works for them, including making their monthly expenses more predictable.

7 Reduce expenses

I’ve seen several studies that rank cutting costs toward the top of the lists for why businesses move to the cloud, but a lot of people don’t seem to think a managed cloud can help them cut expenses even further. We have case studies, like the one below, from Milwaukee Electric Tool that prove that it can.

“Connectria has exceeded our expectations. Their expert remote management has helped us streamline and automate our processes, delivering tangible savings. Since Connectria has partnered with us, our relevant admin costs are a third of what they were.” – Eric Hanson Director of IT Services, Milwaukee Electric Tool

8 Mergers and Acquisitions

M&A activity is last on my list only because mergers and acquisitions don’t happen every day. But when they do, they can be incredibly disruptive. The faster you assimilate all the pieces, the faster you can achieve the goals that drove the acquisition/merger in the first place. One of those pieces is unfamiliar IT systems, e.g., you’re a Microsoft shop, and you just acquired a company that runs on IBM. We can help you sort through the pieces and make sure your systems are optimized across your expanded organization.