Cutting through the jargon – The practical benefits of cloud for Irish businesses

Guest blog by George O’Dowd, managing director, Novi.

What do business owners want from their cloud service? There is a lot of hype around the transformative capabilities of cloud but many business owners are confused about what practical benefits they can enjoy and what this means for their day-to-day business operations.

Novi spoke to IT managers and business owners from a cross-section of organisations of different industries and sizes, from five to 150 employees, to discover exactly what business leaders expect from the cloud at a practical level – in other words, what was their ideal cloud service?

While ranked differently in terms of priority depending on their sector and the nature of their business, we were amazed to find that 88% of the organisations we spoke to had virtually the exact same practical requirements.

Here are the top 10 requirements that Irish business leaders want from their cloud service:

– Replace file server(s) and mapped drives while having the ability to securely share files with people inside and outside the organisation.
– Enable people to work remotely – from home or when travelling – with secure and easy access to files, without the hassle and slow performance of a VPN.
– Grant employees the ability to access specific files when not connected to the internet – avoid people unnecessarily having to come into the office.
– Secure access to work email from multiple devices – phones, laptops and PCs.
– Cloud flexibility to allow the business to add or remove licenses as it grows or scales back.
– Allow employees to sign into various cloud services using the same login details – access to the CRM, email and file sharing service all using the same centrally managed and controlled login details.
– Enable organisations to specify what country its files and data are stored in.
– Two-factor authentication method for all services and file encryption for sensitive files.
– Support of cloud services from a single provider – as opposed to dealing with multiple cloud vendors.
– The choice to host-specific business applications in the cloud or on-premise and to grant access to specific users.

While businesses were clear on what they wanted from the cloud, it emerged that few business owners were satisfied that their existing cloud service met their practical needs.

Based on these insights, Novi reviewed the strengths and weaknesses of various cloud services from some of the largest providers in the market. We then selected the best features from each of these providers – including Microsoft, Cisco, AWS and other niche security cloud players – and blended them together to develop a single managed cloud service, Novi OneCloud.

Novi OneCloud is designed to provide businesses with practical benefits which address their precise cloud service requirements. It enables:

– Secure file sharing for office, remote working and remote office-based users.
– Control and visibility over who has access to specific folders and files – just like traditional file-sharing systems.
– Ability to work offline with files encrypted on laptops and mobile devices.
– Ability to store data in a location of your choice e.g. Ireland, EU, USA.
– Integration with Microsoft Office 365 email.
– Single sign-in across all cloud services – seamless login and increased productivity.
– Two-factor authentication method for all cloud services for enhanced security.
– Ability to restore accidentally deleted files and reverse changes made to files.
– No need for VPNs or complex remote working methods – enhancing usability and productivity.
– Ability to add or remove users in line with changing business needs.

As outlined above, the cloud certainly has the potential to transform your business when services are designed specifically to deliver practical benefits. Novi OneCloud cuts through the jargon and mixed marketing messages from large cloud players and focuses on addressing businesses’ most pressing cloud requirements.

Visit Novi to learn more about our integrated multi-cloud service and other services.