The Cloud has only been around for a decade…how good could it be?
Stan had a real dilemma on his hands.
He desperately wanted all the benefits that come from the latest and greatest in IT for his business – but he didn’t want to take the plunge into the cloud.
Despite the fact that companies around the world have embraced the security, reliability, and efficiency that the cloud offers, he preferred to stick with what he knew. It’s not that he was a Luddite – he had computers, and even used the internet, for heaven’s sake! But moving to the cloud, he felt, was just too much.
Luckily, Stan wasn’t your average business owner. He was nothing if not an out-of-the-box thinker, and so he put his mind to work coming up with low-tech solutions that would mimic the benefits offered by the cloud. In the end, he came up with three ideas that he felt would provide him with those benefits – and here they are, for any fellow nephophobes (look it up!) to follow:
1. Hard copies of everything – including the office itself.
Printing out and filing every document and email is one way to preserve crucial information – just as the cloud stores a company’s data. But hard copies of files alone don’t provide the same kind of protection against problems with apps, or even full-on IT system crashes or viruses, that the cloud offers.
That’s why Stan decided to set up an exact replica of his company’s office in a remote location, complete with copies of every piece of hardware and software, every file, and every other detail – even down to the furniture, the office plants, and his secretary Edna’s candy dish. That way, in case of a disaster, his team would have a fallback location with a working IT system and all the comforts of home, and business could continue as usual.
2. Extension cords.
Mobility is a huge benefit of the cloud since it allows company apps and data to be accessed from any connected device, anywhere, at any time. That constant availability means that employee productivity can increase dramatically—and Stan wanted that boost in productivity for his own company. Unfortunately, Stan’s team was tied to their desks at work, because only their desktop computers had the company software installed on them.
Stan’s solution? Extremely long, durable extension cords. Computers aren’t that heavy, and with long enough cords, employees found they were able to load their desktops into their cars and take them with them wherever they went. Sure, the cords caused traffic snarls here and there, but what was that in the face of such progress?
3. Bake sales.
When Stan needed to scale his data storage or processing capacity up or down, he had to buy expensive hardware – or let expensive hardware go to waste. Of course, the cloud would allow him to scale up and down as needed with a simple adjustment to his services and a tweaking of his low monthly fee. But Stan had a better idea.
Everyone likes brownies, right? Stan instituted weekly bake sales in his office to raise money to cover the company’s IT needs. Employees were each expected to bring in some goodies to sell and were also expected to buy something each week. Not only did they pad out their waistlines—but they also padded their IT budget too.
With these three new practices in place, Stan felt that he had truly found a way to get all the benefits of the cloud, without actually having to use it. His employees, on the other hand, felt that he had gone too far. After one too many extension cord-related car accident, a questionable batch of brownies, and some concerns about how Stan had obtained copies of personal items stashed in employees’ desks for his dummy office, the plan fell apart. Stan took an extended leave of absence in Mexico for his own safety…and while he was there, his interim replacement quickly moved the entire company to the cloud.
Don’t be like Stan. Call Microserve today and learn how the cloud can make your business more secure and more agile.
