With so much data moving around via email, electronic messages and the servers they’re stored on are tempting targets for criminal hackers. The companies that are falling victim to these cyber attacks are companies of all sizes, from small mom-and-pop operations to the largest, multinational enterprises.
Many security breaches may be a result of companies not switching their servers to a cloud-based email provider.
Cloud-based email can not only increase your company’s security, but also provide many other benefits, such as cost savings, more flexibility, better remote access, and more.
1. Cloud-Based Email is Easier to Administer
You won’t need to staff up your IT department with more experts to ensure routine tasks take place smoothly, such as with email upgrades. The cloud-based email provider’s own IT professionals will be looking after your data and the servers. They’ll take care of updating the software. Your IT staff will have less of a burden, no longer needing to schedule and deal with maintenance issues.
And instead of having to predict how much server space to buy in your facility as employee needs grow, the cloud provider’s infrastructure allows you to scale as needed. It’s a snap to add more licenses as you increase employees, or disable accounts for terminated employees.
2. Better Remote Access
It’s prudent to set up communications that enable your workers to stay in touch no matter where they happen to be working. You can quickly facilitate work-from-home situations with cloud-based email and this also prepares your organization to hire more remote workers.
Chances are good that many, if not all of your employees, would prefer to conduct email using smartphones when possible because they can work more efficiently. With a cloud-based setup, employees can shoot out email messages while multitasking, for example while waiting for a conference to start.
3. Improved Reliability
Cloud-based email is always going to be more reliable than your own company’s servers. What if there is a catastrophic hardware failure in your facility? Or how will your IT team respond if there is a natural disaster or other major, unpredictable event that interferes with your equipment?
The cloud provider will have 24/7/365 uptime reliability standards specified in your contract, but that’s only part of the benefit. If there is an issue with one server, your data will remain online because it’s backed up redundantly in multiple locations. For mission-critical deadlines, it’s folly to rely on your own email server when a cloud-based email setup guarantees you comparatively better reliability.
4. Advanced Security
The IT department of your email cloud provider will be relentlessly focused on maintaining uptime and security. You can rest assured that their team will have the combined experience and knowledge to take care of your company’s email servers.
It would cost you much more to put together a team with similar skills. Additionally, the cloud provider will stay on top of industry security best practices as well as maintain tabs on emerging threats.
5. Cost Savings
The fixed costs of investing in and updating email servers for your company will go away. You’ll be able to budget more predictably based on simple metrics of the number of employees using the system, making monthly or yearly payments to the cloud provider.
When you consider how much money your company could lose to downtime if there was a local server failure that disrupted email, even for a day, it’s easy to make the case for transitioning to a cloud-based email solution.
It is more difficult to calculate how much you would stand to lose in customer good will if your company failed to protect them against a hacker attack that stole emails from your poorly secured servers.
6. More Flexibility
Your email capacity can be scaled up without delay, such as if you elect to begin using email marketing more, or have determined you need much more storage capacity. Scaling up and scaling down as needed is accomplished with clicks of the mouse, and you aren’t left holding a lot of extra equipment that you no longer need. You can set up new email for 140 workers on a temporary project, and then disable those accounts when work finishes.
7. Made for Expansion
For companies working out of a single facility today but with an eye toward opening new branches, it makes sense to switch to cloud-based email. That’s because you’re going to need to connect the computers in one building to another over the Internet anyway. Cloud-based email solutions are ideal for connecting colleagues as you branch out locations and scale up staff and operations.
Transitioning Your Company's Email to the Cloud
With so many benefits made possible by making the switch to cloud-based email from an email system maintained on your own servers, it makes sense to prepare for the transition as soon as possible.
After all, who would want to postpone setting up a new email system that reduces the potential for cybercriminals to access sensitive information? And no company would want to delay a cloud solution that’s easier for its employees to access while they’re on the go.
If you’re not certain how to get started, such as determining the right system for your business, we can help with insight and answers to any questions you might have. Please connect with NuWaveTechnology Partners to go over the details of cloud-based email today.