Cloud First with COVID-19 – The right business strategy

Like many of you, I have had some time in recent weeks to reflect on my role and how we as a NextGen managed services and security provider are helping during this pandemic. Much of my daily life before COVID-19 was convincing businesses that a cloud first strategy was the right choice, not only from a security and cost perspective, but primarily due to how the workforce has changed.

Before the pandemic, most of us relied on a platform that allowed us to work from any place at any time with flexibility during our busy lives on the go. Even with all the convenience provided by the cloud, most businesses that we spoke to still had a negative impression of moving “everything” to the cloud.

Here’s what they had to say:

• The cloud is too expensive.
• I have better security at my office.
• I cannot run 100 % of my applications.
• I don’t trust the cloud.
• I can get another few years out of my server that lives in the closet down the hall.

In August of 2019, we convinced a client of ours to move the cloud. We advised them to take a leap and move everything to a modern cloud platform that would support their goals of a cloud first strategy and a true mobile workforce. A few benefits that they were looking to gain were:

• Better and more turnkey remote access, no clunky VPN’s
• Higher security
• Operate more efficiently
• The ability to scale quickly
• Access to 100 % of the firm’s data. (files, folders, network drives, and all applications)

They decided to move their entire organization to the cloud and by November of 2019 this firm was up and running.  I spoke with our client last week (April 2020) and he mentioned something to me that I had to share.

“Thrive and the NextGen cloud platform might be one of the single best decisions that we ever made as a firm!  100 % of our firm is now able to work in the cloud from anywhere. Had it not been for this move during this COVID-19 pandemic, we simply would not have been able to work in this manner. Our firm would be in a much different place.” ~ Michael Cohen, Managing Director – Glass Jacobson

Stories like these not only point out how a good cloud first strategy helps our client’s business during normal times, but really shines during times like these.  As a NextGen MSP and MSSP, I know that we have armed our clients with a robust cloud computing platform that is helping their business every day and enabling them to keep their virtual doors open and employees productive from anywhere.

For more information on Thrive’s Cloud Solutions, CONTACT US TODAY!