3rd October 2011
SMEs must cover all bases when adopting Cloud or face downtime, says The Internet Group
Yesterday, hundreds of thousands of Internet users in the UK were left without a connection as BT took the full brunt of a power cut at a major exchange in Birmingham. Although consumers were left with a little more than a hour without the Web, many businesses, primarily SMEs, were badly affected and for longer.
Adam Maurice, Managing Director of managed IT service provider The Internet Group, works closely with many SMEs that form a large part of its customer base, some of which have been affected: “This latest outage follows a similar incident with Easynet last month, which saw businesses around the London area out of action.
“SMEs are increasingly enjoying the benefits of enterprise IT without capital investment by adopting Cloud-based technology and services, but of course, without storing data elsewhere business continuity relies on a stable and interrupted Internet connection,” he said.
“Reliability still remains one of the big burdens to smaller businesses adopting Cloud-based services. The issue here is that very few SMEs are covering all the bases when looking into implementing Cloud technology and see the huge cost savings over and above any risks.
“Suppliers and service providers are still way behind in educating their customers to the possibility of not being able to access their Cloud-based data due to outages and so it is imperative that users not only do their research but ensure that they have a solid continuity plan in place should something go wrong.”
Maurice continued: “A recent survey by the Cloud Industry Forum suggested that over 98 percent of UK SMEs will adopt Cloud services in the next few years, whether this is for part or all of their business. Furthermore, the dependency on Internet access was identified as the third biggest barrier to adoption; more so for SMEs with under 200 employees.
“It is essential that when considering the Cloud to cover all bases and suppliers must educate customers about all the risks and opportunities. Although it is rare for a business to move all business functions to the Cloud – there will always be concern over security and privacy as well as ownership – consider what would benefit from Cloud technology the most. A hybrid Cloud policy means that SMEs can benefit from some of the cost savings, as well as ensuring that important data is kept within the business,” he concluded.
About The Internet Group (TIG)
The Internet Group is a multi-award winning specialist IT and managed services provider to businesses in the UK and around the globe.
The company provides a complete range of solutions; from service desk support and project delivery resources, to fully outsourced managed services. Through a team of highly skilled engineers, consultants, software developers, and project managers, TIG provides solutions aligned to the specific business needs of individual organisations – turning IT from an overhead, into an asset.
Recognised by Computer Weekly as the Best Place to Work in IT and included in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500, TIG works with clients across a range of industry sectors, including professional services, recruitment, retail and manufacturing. As a result and in recognition of its customer-led approach, TIG was awarded a 3 star SDI accreditation in 2009, and in 2010 won the SDI IT Service Excellence Supplier of the Year award (as nominated by their clients).
For more information visit http://www.theinternetgroup.com
