Cloud Computing adoption is on the rise for businesses looking to reduce capital expenditure and avoid software licensing. According to the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) Annual Trends in Cloud Computing Survey forty two percent of respondents turned to the cloud to modernize legacy IT. Forty two percent of those Business Owners and IT Executives cited Cloud Computing as simply a better option and fifty percent surveyed were moving to the cloud to cut costs.

Many companies have turned to Cloud Computing without even knowing it. Through rogue IT (end user adoption without IT assistance) employees may be using cloud backup technologies for file sharing, mobile applications that connect to the cloud and other productivity tools. Here are some ways your company can make a strategic investment in Cloud Computing to extend the life of your existing IT Infrastructure.

Cloud Computing for Desktop as a Service

Some companies have older desktop, laptop and servers that are not able to run the latest version of office productivity applications or other desktop software. Because these systems may not have fast enough processors, inadequate memory or are lacking in an updated operating system O/S, some companies had adopted hosted or cloud versions of these productivity applications to gain access to the latest applications without having to upgrade their computers.

Cloud Computing for Hosted Email

Hosted email services are another way for you to gain access to the latest version of popular products like Microsoft Exchange without having to upgrade servers and pay up front license fees. By migrating to a cloud based version, you can have access to the latest updates for a monthly subscription fee.

Cloud Computing for Customer Relationship Management

Salesforce Automation (SFA) and Customer Relationship Management solutions are one of the more popular technologies available as a Cloud Service. Many companies have home grown or custom solutions that are expensive to maintain or may not be compatible with the latest server operating systems. To avoid an expensive upgrade consider a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution to provide your enterprise class functionality, at an affordable price.

When considering migrating critical applications and their data to the cloud, consult your IT Service Team to ensure you have the proper network bandwidth and infrastructure, security provisions, project management and training to get the most productivity from your new cloud computing applications.

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