A Layman’s Guide: 3 signs that suggest something is not right with your IT

“There are huge benefits of a professionally designed cloud service and IT infrastructure, but they are often underrated by many organisations. Getting your IT right provides organisations:

1. Potential cost-savings between 20%-50% (client case studies)
2. Potential reduction of cybersecurity instances of up to 60% (Gartner, 2018)
3. 52% reduction in employees who say IT negatively affects their day-to-day work (client case study)

These advantages are a result of advancements and investments into cloud services, such as Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and Amazon Web Servers. There are enormous benefits which companies can benefit from if they have the right advice.

However, IT and the cloud can be a black box of mystery, misinformation and misunderstanding. For example, if you know very little about cars, and your mechanic says that the flux capacitor needs replacing, you’re going to nod and say Yes, OK.

So, with that in mind, we’ve put together a short Layman’s guide to help non-technical professionals spot any red flags with their IT. If the answer to any of these is ‘Yes’, it may mean the design of your IT is sub-optimal.

These are:

1. Your organisation is operating Office 365, although it is still using:

• Servers (or planning to invest in new servers)
• Private Cloud (e.g. local cloud provider and not Microsoft Azure)

2. When you moved to the cloud, you experienced a cost increase

3. You’re locked into a multi-year contract.

Your organisation is using Office 365 but it is still using either servers or private cloud

If you’re using the latest Microsoft products such as Office 365, Microsoft 365 or Windows 10 and not Microsoft Azure, then you won’t be benefiting from the advantages of modern-day IT services. Many products are becoming end-of-life’ for systems which use servers. One of the biggest mistakes we see companies make these days is organisations investing in servers.

They’re expensive, clunky and fall short of modern-day security standards. A private cloud solution (usually your IT providers or a locally based cloud solution) is better but still doesn’t take advantage of the same benefits Microsoft Azure offers.

When you moved to the cloud, you experienced a cost increase

One of the benefits of a correctly configured cloud solution is the switch from sizeable up-front capital payments to a monthly subscription service on a pay-as-you-go basis. Set correctly, this should save money in the long-run and spreads the amount over several years, easing cash flow. If this isn’t the case, your organisation may not have be utilising Microsoft Azure or Office 365 properly.

You’re locked into a multi-year contract

Modern cloud services use a pay-as-you-go pricing model, meaning multi-year agreements are unnecessary. Multi-year agreements are a sign that your provider is locking you into using a local private cloud, rather than Microsoft Azure or Office 365. The reason for this is that local cloud providers need to purchase servers on your behalf and thus outlaying the capital themselves.

To protect themselves against a potential loss and guarantee the service is profitable, they will often require for clients to sign up to three-year contracts. This is similar to on-premise servers too; however, you will physically see these in your offices, which by now should already raise a red flag.

Tip: Look at your bill! Are you still paying for servers? You may be paying double for IT.

If you meet one of the above criteria, then it’s possible that your IT is not optimal for your organisation and you could be at a higher cybersecurity risk, creating more IT-related stress and paying more for the pleasure.

The takeaway from this article is to look out for your organisation using Office 365 and not Microsoft Azure; cost increases with your cloud move and multi-year contracts. All of which increase cybersecurity risks, stress and cost more.

If you think this is the case with your organisation, let us know, and we’ll be able to let you know what’s truly going on and what can be done to fix this and modernise your IT.

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