Key Cloud Considerations For A System Administrator
The job of a system administrator is probably one of the most unappreciated roles in all of IT. End users, developers, and everyone in between rely on system administrators. Sys admins spend hours upon hours, often in the middle of the night and on the weekends, running backups, software updates, and much more. They maintain the equipment that keeps you all running.
With the introduction of the cloud, system administrators are finally getting a much needed break. By shifting a company’s information technology to the cloud using the best tools available, system administrators can essentially outsource some of the things they spend so much time on. They can then better focus on other tasks, essential to what they do. Let’s look at five benefits of a cloud based phone system. We see how these benefits will improve both the system administrators work load. Also the responsiveness to end users and developers.
1. Focus More On Users Instead Of Hardware
Most system administrators find their time stretched thin. Between taking care of users and the computer hardware, maintaining the server infrastructure, and more, a system admin often feels like more of a firefighter than anything else.
When you make the transition to the cloud, you will have far less fires to deal with every day. When you migrate server infrastructure into the cloud along with thin clients for your end users, you will discover you have far less problems to deal with. On top of that, most providers will help you with support for their systems and your users.
This added assistance will free up your time so you can focus more on delivering a superb user experience to the employees at your company. You can concentrate on implementing all those projects you kept pushing back, simply because you didn’t have the time to get them done.
2. Less Fighting For Resources
If you are a system administrator in a small to medium sized business, you are already well aware of the fight for resources. Resources you need to ensure all your equipment and infrastructure keeps running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Add to that the cost of software licenses, upgrades, and all those extras you run into day in and day out, and chances are your budget is stretched pretty thin.
Cloud-based systems such as managed Exchange, SharePoint or an cloud hosted voice PBX are billed on a monthly basis. You know exactly how much it will cost. In most cases, you will find that these costs are actually lower than what you spend to keep all the equipment in house. Upgrades should also come free with a cloud setup. This makes it much easier to create and manage your IT budget.
3. Increased Flexibility
When you think about your systems, it often feels like a marriage of sorts. When you decide on a specific system, chances are you will have to stick with that system for a certain period of time. Migrating to a new platform can prove difficult and even costly. This is why you see so many businesses running software that is long past its prime.
Things work a little differently in the cloud. It’s very nature is much more flexible. You can easily move from platform to platform with very little effort on your part. If you need to expand one area, you can simply make a phone call and get it done, without having to worry about the impact to other systems. Cloud providers have to compete in a very tough market. Because of this, they often offer easy upgrade paths, to be as flexible as possible. This leads to your own IT structure being more flexible as well.
Not happy with your cloud provider? No problem. One simple e-mail or phone call and you begin the process of migrating to another cloud provider. Most cloud hosts include free migration as part of their packages and will help you get it done in no time flat. This provides the flexibility to expand and move your services around at will.
4. Less IT & Network Security Concerns
We all know how important IT and network security is today. We are bombarded by news stories of hacks around the world and if you are a system administrator, you wonder if your network will be next. Investing in security and then maintaining that system can be a daunting and expensive task. In fact, in today’s world security of networks is one of the system admins biggest sources of stress. In case you deal with this daily.
Hosting providers today bring with them their own security infrastructure that most system admins only dream of. With secure data centers across the world and trained professionals designed to prevent attacks, a system administrator can rest easy knowing their network is safer. If a breach does occur, these professionals are trained experts in dealing with them. This includes both stopping the attack and discovering exactly what got hit.
5. Improved System & Network Performance
As a system admin you are always concerned about the performance of your systems. You work tirelessly to provide the quickest connection and fastest speeds for your users so they don’t have to fight with a slow system just because they want to get a few things done.
Cloud providers understand this. They work very hard to provide systems for your company that are fast and reliable. In addition, these providers are constantly improving their networks and optimizing them for the best performance possible. This usually means new upgrades, software updates, and much more. At the end of the day, you will have a system that is much more robust and powerful. This provide your users the best performance possible, at a fraction of the cost of what you would normally spend.
Final Thoughts For System Administrator Professionals
The advent of the cloud marked a new era in computing. Finally, system admins can shed much of their equipment in favor of the cloud. Sure, there will still be desktops and laptops to maintain, especially if, as most Dev Ops do, you make use of a linux laptop or desktop. But much of the server infrastructure can easily be migrated to the cloud.
This migration will provide system admins, developers and even end users, the support and performance needed in an increasingly fast paced and mobile working world, to get the job done. For a system administrator, it means more time to focus on improving the overall user experience and providing increasing value for the end user.
If you’re a system administrator, we thank you. We hope you see the many benefits of migrating to cloud environment for you and your company. Got more questions about the benefits of a cloud environment for your business? Contact Fastmetrics today about direct connections to AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and more.
About Fastmetrics, Inc. Building & Business ISP
Since 2002, Fastmetrics is the Bay Area’s only dedicated business ISP. We provide telecommunication services in California and the San Francisco Bay Area. Reliable service – backed by better live and local support. From install to 24-7 proactive monitoring, get treated like a VIP customer. Not a number by a faceless call center. We specialize in managed business internet and phones, dedicated high speed business fiber internet, business WiFi, SIP voice solutions / UCaaS and managed network services. We are a Microsoft and Cisco Meraki Partner. Our team are Certified Cisco Specialists, Ubiquiti Enterprise Wireless Accredited and Polycom Authorized Solution Advisors. We take care of your business network, so you can focus on growth.
