Head-to-head: Which will win for your business?

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1 Head-to-head: Which will win for your business?

2 How should we handle IT? It s a fundamental question for any growing business one that affects your bottom line, and your power to grow even bigger. Cloud-based apps (think CRM, analytics, collaboration and productivity tools) and public cloud-based infrastructure (think servers and storage in someone else s data center) are an attractive proposition. They let you spend your time and money on your business, not software licensing, implementation, maintenance and support. But sometimes whisper it softly the cloud isn t the best option. And if you ve already invested in on-site IT, it s only common sense to squeeze out all the value you ve paid for. Here s how the two models weigh in...

3 Meet our first contender: Cloud Cloud computing comes in many, many forms. Here, we re talking about two of the most popular for growing businesses cloud-based software (Software-as-a- Service) and public cloud services, like Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services. Advantages: You pay no hefty initial costs You get the tech fast You can scale as you grow You don t have to handle security, maintenance and support You can focus on your business, not IT You get high security and reliability Disadvantages: You re not in full control of your systems Your data isn t in-house You won t necessarily know where your data is at all Latency might be an issue (your apps might not run as fast) You could be underusing existing skills/investments Wins for the highly mobile business Say you re a small team, always on the move. You ve also got a customer base that s getting way too big to track on your trusty, homegrown spreadsheet. You choose cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools e.g. G Suite*, or Microsoft Office 365 to make it easy for everyone to work together, wherever. You also choose a cloud-based CRM solution giving you topflight functionality, and the power to scale. Access is mobile by nature Meet our second contender: On-Site IT Before cloud computing, your only option was to buy hardware and software outright, and develop or hire the skills to support it. And, in many ways, that was a pretty good thing. Advantages: You know exactly where your data is You have full control of your tech You own your software You can drive hardware efficiencies You can customize stuff more easily You have no monthly subscription fees Disadvantages: You need more money upfront (a lot more) You need more physical space You have to maintain, power and support IT yourself Your infrastructure is likely to be less secure than a good cloud provider s Wins for the highly regulated business Say you re a medical clinic. You need to stay compliant with The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and know that patient data is secure, exactly where it is at any time, and who has authorized access. So, you buy the IT services you need to keep your data in-house while some cloud service providers claim to offer HIPAA compliant services, you decide it s not worth taking the risk, and giving up that control. *Formerly Google Apps for Work

4 Who wins for your business? Now, there s nothing to stop you taking advantage of both cloud and on-site models. (In fact, it s very likely you should.) Take a moment and work through the rounds below. This will help you decide where to focus most of your attention Cloud On-Site IT Round One: Your business needs Our people are located all over Most of our people sit within a hundred feet of each other We re always on the move, and we need to be able to work anywhere We rarely work outside the office We need a lot of different tech, and we need it yesterday We ve time to spare We need to be able to scale quickly Scalability s not a big issue right now Round Two: Your IT budget We d prefer a predictable monthly cash flow We d prefer to pay upfront, and not worry about monthly charges We don t want to pay licensing fees Licensing fees are a price (quite literally) worth paying to own the software we depend on We don t have huge stacks of cash lying around We have the money to invest now Round Three: Your IT resources We don t want the cost of housing, supporting and securing our IT infrastructure We ve already got a sweet IT team, and they wear the most hilarious t-shirts We don t mind handing over data and (some) control to someone else We demand absolute control of our data and systems We don t want to worry about upgrades We want the power to customize Total

5 Ding-ding-ding! Got your winner? Cloud, on-site IT, a mix of the two not one solution wins every time. It all depends on your specific business, and its specific needs. Just remember, you re not only choosing for today, you re choosing for tomorrow. Your winner should always reflect the way you plan to grow. Want more help picking the right tech for your growing business? Check out our other head-to-head guides: Apple vs Android Google Drive vs Microsoft OneDrive Call us at sprint.com/businessmojo