Cloud Services
Are you continually limited by your IT infrastructure being based on-premises? Cloud Services seamlessly migrate your systems to a Cloud-based platform, allowing you to harness all the benefits of digitisation – such as increased accessibility, service continuity, and cyber security.
What is a Cloud Service?
While it might seem intuitive to house business-critical systems such as document storage, ERP software, financial platforms, and HR management programs completely on-premises, the reality is that without external support, these systems are just as prone to failure or attack as any other technology. However, unlike other technology, your business can’t afford to have these systems down for long – and these days, reliable in-house IT expertise is in short supply.
A Cloud Service, on the other hand, seamlessly moves and hosts your business-critical systems to a secure Cloud-based platform. This means your ongoing technical support and security patches are taken care of without taking resources from your IT team – and maximises the availability, reliability, and safety of your business-critical systems.
How do Cloud Services work?
Cloud services are hosted and managed by third-party providers, offering businesses seamless, on-demand access to essential IT resources over the internet. By leveraging cloud technology, organisations can efficiently share resources, enhance scalability, and strengthen security without the limitations of on-premises infrastructure.
Types of Cloud Services:
- Platform as a Service (PaaS): Provides a fully managed development environment, enabling businesses to build, test, and deploy applications without the complexity of managing underlying infrastructure.
- Software as a Service (SaaS): Delivers software applications via a web-based interface, allowing users to access essential tools anytime, anywhere, without the need for local installation.
- Cloud Storage: A scalable solution for storing, managing, and accessing data securely on a cloud provider’s infrastructure, ensuring resilience and availability.
- Private Cloud: A dedicated cloud environment tailored to a single organisation, offering enhanced security, greater control, and customisation to meet specific business needs.
Minimise the risk of Hybrid Working with Cloud Services
If your cyber security infrastructure is not managed properly, remote workers open the door to potential cyber security risks – since, if unprotected ‘smart’ devices are connected to the same router, it’s a potential entry point for a cyber-criminal.
On the other hand, a Cloud Service allows your remote workers to securely access your business-critical systems through a hosted desktop. This desktop is protected by our own resilient infrastructure – ensuring that your systems are safe while also allowing you to reap the many benefits of hybrid working, such as boosted morale, greater operational agility, and more sustainable operations.
Six Benefits of Cloud Services
While moving your systems from on-premises to Cloud-based may sound like a massive and difficult undertaking, have no fear. Not only is the scope of this service completely scalable – giving you the freedom to ‘test the water’ with just a single service or dataset to begin with – but our experts handle all the migration on your behalf, to ensure the smoothest and disruption-free transition possible.
Not sure where to start? Our technical team take on the management, configuration, and licensing of leading public Cloud services such as Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 – and is able to provide both ongoing support and expert guidance to ensure you’re getting maximum value for your money and maximum utility for your operations.
While your on-site systems need to be continually kept up to date with security patches as part of the ongoing responsibilities of your IT team, that is not a concern with a Cloud Service – since public Cloud systems are continually being monitored and updated frequently. Furthermore, accessing Cloud-based business-critical systems through our protected hosted desktops is just another layer of business continuity, ensuring your eggs aren’t all in one basket.
But every system experiences technical difficulties at some point… so what happens if your Cloud service is disrupted? Well, our Cloud Services are hosted from a dual-site data centre; meaning that in the unlikely event that one site experiences a problem, your service will simply be rerouted through the second site until repairs have been resolved - essentially meaning zero disruption to your services.
With your Cloud Service well in place, your team will be able to be effective from wherever they happen to be working from; be it at home or otherwise - but without sacrificing cyber security. With this capability, you empower your people to access the information they need on-demand, allowing them to deliver a dynamic, responsive service to your customers.
Flexibility has become a central demand for staff in recent years, thanks to the advent of hybrid working – and these days, being able to facilitate it effectively is instrumental to recruitment, retention, and morale. In this way, a Cloud Service only helps you to maintain your operations and encourage greater productivity throughout your organisation.
What is included in a Cloud Service?
Fully scalable to your needs, a Cloud Service can be as short-term as migrating a single system to the Cloud as a one-off, or as long-term as a full Cloud solution deployment with ongoing support. It’s entirely up to you!
Cloud Services are divided into four key areas: Expert Management & Support, Microsoft 365 Services, Customised Cloud Solutions, and Hosted Desktop.
Expert Management & Support refers to our pre-sales and technical experts assisting you with the management, configuration, and licensing of public platforms such as Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 – and optimising your new set-up to ensure that you’re getting the maximum benefit.
Microsoft 365 Services covers the comprehensive support for your Microsoft 365 services, including Entra ID, Conditional Access, InTune, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams.
Customised Cloud Solutions range from the initial migration of a single service or dataset, all the way to a full Cloud deployment. This also covers assistance with leveraging the best Cloud solutions to suit your needs – with all solutions being hosted from our dual-site data centre infrastructure for maximum security and continuity of service.
Hosted Desktop involves the enablement of secure hybrid working, giving your employees constant access to data and applications – but backed up and protected by our leading IT services.
Why does your business need a Cloud Service?
The most prominent benefits of moving to a Cloud Service help you to directly address two major issues of the modern workplace – namely, cyber security, and hybrid working.
These days, trying to internally manage the security of business-critical systems is actually riskier than simply hosting them in the Cloud. This is because cyber security is no longer a one-person job – and though IT teams may try to balance it in with other duties, the reality is that this creates a lot of room for error.
Outsourcing through specialist Cloud Service providers, on the other hand, ensures that active monitoring and security patches are continually being carried out on the platforms that house your business-critical systems. This ensures that you benefit from a more cohesive security solution, with far less unnecessary burden on your employees – allowing them to be more productive in other areas.
Similarly, effective hybrid working relies on employees having continuous access to the information that they need. That’s why having your staff maintain the performance of internal systems – especially in the event of technical issues – can be enormously disruptive when employees are working remotely, causing productivity to drop and frustrations to skyrocket the longer they persist.
This is again, heavily mitigated with a Cloud Service, which uses a dual-site infrastructure to maximise continuous uptime and continuity. This means that even if your provider encounters technical difficulties, you likely won’t even notice – leaving your employees undisrupted, and continuously able to deliver dynamic and responsive service to your customers.
Why choose Apogee as your Cloud Service provider?
As well as being independent subsidiaries of HP Inc., who are widely considered to be industry leaders in digital security, Apogee’s services are certified with ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials – allowing you to benefit fully from your Cloud solutions with complete peace of mind.
ISO 27001 ensures the integrity and security of our information security management systems and processes, giving you confidence that your business-critical systems are being overseen and maintained properly and compliantly.
Similarly, the Cyber Essentials certification shows that we have undergone regular independent assessments of our IT security controls, and have been found to be effectively addressing cyber security concerns and mitigating the risk of Internet-borne threats.
To learn more about our Cloud-Based Backup and Hosting Services, fill out the contact form below.
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