Much of the discussion of cloud adoption centres on its benefits in the private sector, where organisations which are motivated by profit need to be convinced that by embracing this emerging form of IT solution they can increase margins and exploit new revenue streams.
This could leave non profit firms feeling marginalised, since the debate rarely swings towards the ways in which significant savings can be made in their arena.
Thankfully by taking advantage of cloud migration services offered by a variety of providers it is possible for non profits to take the plunge and lower IT costs in the process.
Unleashing IaaS
IaaS (infrastructure as a service) may play second fiddle to SaaS (software as a service) in terms of current adoption rates and provider revenues, but it is arguably the most important element that larger non profit organisations can unleash to help them combat costs and make money go further.
Gartner reports that IaaS is the fastest growing part of the cloud market at the moment, and for good reason. It enables organisations to unburden themselves of the need to host all of their IT infrastructure on-site, instead allowing a third party to take care of the heavy lifting.
With IaaS onboard a firm can access an almost unlimited amount of storage and processing capacity, as well as having the opportunity for the cloud provider to manage other elements like network connectivity, digital security and general upkeep and upgrading of hardware.
In the past all of these elements would have been costs that individual organisations would have to bear, but now in the cloud age they are collectively paid for by enterprise cloud clients and made economically viable thanks to the scale of the facilities that vendors operate.
Cloud Tactics for the Long Term
For non profits that may still be sceptical about the cloud’s potential to change the world, it is only necessary to look at other studies that show the market is maturing and continuing its rapid growth.
A report from Forrester predicts that the public cloud alone will be worth £114 billion annually by the end of the decade, but of course this is not the only route available to organisations that are looking to reduce costs and still maintain a cutting edge IT setup. With these kind of figures it really is important that you have a Gloucester Accountants firm found on websites such as www.randall-payne.co.uk by your side looking at the numbers with you as you don’t want to miss a zero.
For many firms it is most cost-effective and convenient to take a hybrid approach to cloud computing, combining elements of public solutions with existing on-site hosting so that the migration process is gradual. This avoids the need for instant, jarring and potentially expensive changes to your IT infrastructure while still letting you experience just what the cloud is capable of delivering.
Non profits are under more scrutiny than ever and the need to make sure that funding is spent appropriately has never been greater. IT costs account for a big chunk of the overall budget, so considering cloud adoption as a means of potentially slashing this in half will seem like a savvy move to most.
