When it comes to choosing an intranet solution, some businesses have a rather old fashioned, irrational fear of ‘The Cloud’.
We regularly get asked by businesses where the Hub is hosted - the answer being “on the Google Cloud Platform” – and you would be surprised by how many businesses actually respond with: “But what happens if Google or the Cloud goes down?”
The assumption is that if their intranet is hosted remotely in the shared environment of the Cloud, that it’s somehow less secure. 66%* of IT professionals say ‘security’ is their most significant concern in adopting a cloud computing strategy. This ‘Cloud Fear’ tends to send businesses running back to earth towards the safety of an on-premise intranet.
Having your intranet on a physical server you own, that is located at your office, obviously has a security appeal, especially for those IT professionals who like to be in total control of all company tech. However, this perception that on-premise intranet solutions offer a security advantage over cloud-based SaaS solutions is something of a misnomer.
Today, most businesses are migrating their applications and data to cloud-based solutions which offer them a more reliable and cost-effective alternative to on-premise. With infinite storage available, the Cloud meets the demands of todays’ fast-growing organisations. On the other hand, on premises solutions require greater investment in terms of hardware, ongoing maintenance and capital investment of infrastructure for companies.
We are in an age of digital transformation, with remote working, mobile and app technology, meaning enterprise businesses are being driven towards the more accessible technology of cloud-based solutions. This cloud transformation is happening fast - a survey by LogicMonitor predicts that over 83%* of all enterprise workloads will be on the Cloud by 2020.
Why a Cloud-based Intranet?
Cloud intranets or SaaS intranet are equipped with modern features which provide buisinesses with easy access to collaboration spaces and shared resources, offering better employee engagement and unique user experiences.
Let’s take a look at how cloud-based intranets provide greater advantages to businesses.
Top 4 Benefits of Cloud-based Intranets
1. Easy Customisation and Huge Cost Savings
On-premise servers may not be able to handle the demand for managing modern applications, and can prove to be extremely costly, requiring regular upgrades and maintenance. The operating system licenses for on-premise solutions may also be higher along with overall IT expenditure, resulting in greater cost to companies.
Cloud-based servers can provide your business with complete flexibility in terms of easy accessibility and security for the end users. They also eliminate the need for making upfront investments on expensive servers, and all ongoing maintenance is handled by the cloud provider, which eliminates that cost and additional effort. By having all costs rolled into a single license cost and with no requirement for any technical knowledge required in-house, cloud-based intranets provide an affordable, easy to manage, seamless experience for your business.
2. Helps Businesses Operate Remotely with Efficiency
Cloud based Intranets provide a secure and centralized collaboration hub and knowledge base, with easy accessibility from anywhere and at any time, which is ideal for remote working. By utilizing a cloud provider, your business and its employees have access to a dedicated intranet support service, rather than just pestering your internal IT team. Cloud intranets provide your business with a more scalable solution which can be deployed quickly and with greater efficiency.
3. Improved Connectivity
Cloud based Intranets provides your employees with easy access to company resources, which helps increase employee productivity. On the contrary, there is a greater challenge of delivering resources through on-premise intranets, which offer inferior accessibility for remote or mobile workers. Cloud based intranets also provide more secure, reliable connectivity for your employees, where downtime can be as little as 0.05%, which is a huge benefit for businesses.
4. Low Cost and Quick Set-Up
Cloud based solutions follow a license fee that allows organizations to buy software as a service rather than making upfront capital investment on physical servers. Thus, the complexities related to paying for a solution is massively reduced. It also means that set-up times are almost nonexistent, withcloud-based intranets able to go live in a matter of 48 hours, whereas on-premise solutions can take months to procure and build.
Cloud based solutions offer greater flexibility to your organization by allowing you to try the solutions before taking the decision of investing in them. This assists companies in choosing the best solution suitable to their business conditions and requirements.
*As per the findings of Logic Monitor’s Cloud Vision 2020 https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2018/01/07/83-of-enterprise-workloads-will-be-in-the-cloud-by-2020/#2645a7646261