Are IT Purchases Hurting Your Bottom Line?

by Stefani Laszko

Does the thought of purchasing your first server or replacing an existing one stress you out? Small to medium size businesses need servers for various reasons.  Common needs are increased performance, additional file storage or separation of specialized business software. Depending on the specific needs of your business, a new server and associated software and licensing can easily cost $5,000 – 10,000. Is this in your budget? And don’t forget, the average lifespan of a server is 3 – 5 years so you’ll be having this issue again within a few years.

Enter cloud solutions: by partnering with a cloud service provider you will be able to access all the computing power you need without the upfront expense. IT is moving from an upfront cost (capital expenditure or CAPEX) to an operating cost (or OPEX) that can be easily budgeted for. Instead of a large CAPEX for a new server (and all the goodies that go along with it) you are essentially renting one (OPEX). The beauty of cloud solutions is that they seamlessly grow or scale back with your business and its needs.

Here’s the crucial part – you must partner with a provider that knows what they are doing. A few good questions to ask are: How many premise to cloud conversions have they done? Do they own their own infrastructure or are they leveraging someone else’s solution? What does their disaster recovery plan look like? If you do your homework and partner wisely you are setting your business up for success for years to come!

Mythos Technology is an IT consulting and management firm that specializes in Hosted Business Solutions. For more information, please visit www.mythostech.com or call (951) 813-2672.