Service Providers ARE ready for the cloud

As the advantages of cloud platforms become more and more clear, the pressure on businesses to take advantage of this new technology mounts. But when migrating to any new platform, there are some challenges that need to be overcome. A recent article on MSPMentor explained some of the misgivings of managed service providers (MSPs) when their remote monitoring and management (RMM) provider, Kaseya, charged them to “take control of the cloud.”

Two sides of the cloud coin

Their position is understandable; moving entire workflows off-premise is a huge undertaking. It won’t happen overnight. Many fear moving to a cloud-exclusive model may take away some of their control over data, hurt performance, or increase operational time. It really is a shame, because there are so many advantages to the cloud model. Working in the cloud means data is always at your fingertips whether you are in your office or on the other side of the world. Plus, platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offerings like Progress® Pacific™ bring the added benefits of communication tools and a rapid application development platform. To miss out on these benefits could mean your business is not living up to its potential.

Take control of the cloud

With Pacific, we are trying to ease that transition to the cloud. By supporting not only public cloud models but also private and hybrid cloud models, customers need not worry about losing control of their data. By adopting a private cloud model, none of the data has to move off-premise at all. The “cloud” wouldn’t be in some far-off server farm; it could be hosted on the on-premise servers you already have. It would be business as usual, but with the added benefit of connectivity that a cloud model brings. With a hybrid approach, you can use both on-premise and off-premise servers. This lets you keep data that is critical for security, compliance, or performance reasons close to home while shifting some of the weight from non-critical data off-premise. From the user’s perspective, it’s all the same and just as easy to find. The hybrid cloud also means that the transition to this new way of doing this is seamless. Existing data and servers stay exactly where they are while your organization expands off-site.

Work still to do

Even with the clear advantages of the cloud model, there are organizations who remain slow on the uptake. According to MSPmentor, while new customers are more likely to sign up for cloud-based plans, 80 percent of Kaseya’s customers are still on-premise. This demonstrates just how challenging it is for many MSPs to make that leap. A hybrid model could smooth the transition into the future in these cases, where existing infrastructure and business practices create a barrier to cloud adoption.