Operating your own servers for business applications on site is no longer up-to-date. In the past, on-premise infrastructures made sense for static IT infrastructures that had not been adapted for years. Today, however, every industry requires agility that can only be achieved with the right IT environment.

Cloud migrations are becoming increasingly popular

If companies have fewer than 500 employees, in most cases it is a waste of money and time to invest precious resources in an own IT infrastructure. Instead, many companies rely on cloud services and obtain storage repositories for your applications from professional hosting companies.

In a cloud migration, a company's data and apps are transferred to a cloud infrastructure. More and more companies are turning to cloud migration: According to a forecast by LogicMonitor, 83 percent of the workload of all companies worldwide will be transferred to the cloud by the end of this year.

Read this blog post to learn why your application is well suited for the cloud, what cloud delivery models are suitable for software development, and why you should work with a local cloud service provider.

Why you should bring your application to the cloud

Software developers and IT managers around the world have the complex task of providing the end users of the application as well as the management in their own operations with a stable, secure, innovative and scalable IT environment. Purchasing cloud services helps your company to meet the needs of the users of your application and position itself as a technologically advanced company. In times of globalisation and digitalisation it is essential that your applications are always available and can be flexibly adapted. At the same time, you have to get the most out of the available resources with a tight budget.

The main benefits of cloud migration include stability, scalability and cost efficiency.

Stability

It is essential that your application is always available. This is the only way to provide a working environment for both the end customer and the development team. The cloud provider takes care that your application runs stable and reliable and that you can access the application or your data at any time.

You also don't have to worry about the security of your application or protection against cyber attacks. In addition to integrated security programs, cloud vendors' packages often include automatic recording, continuous operation and contingency planning.

Scalability

The requirements for the application and IT environment can change quickly, especially in growing start-ups and SMEs, depending on the order situation or team development. A cloud-based infrastructure offers the advantage that you can continuously expand or adapt the environment according to changing needs.

Flexibility

Thanks to reliable hosting, software developers can access all files from a wide variety of devices and test new applications with ease. The cloud is accessible around the clock, allowing flexible working hours and minimizing downtime. So your team can reach deadlines even far away from their usual workplace.

Cost efficiency

In contrast to the operation of your own servers, no hardware has to be set up when purchasing cloud services. Regular hardware revisions and the permanent assurance of ideal conditions for server rooms are therefore no longer necessary. In addition, the hardware no longer needs to be replaced every five to seven years, saving time and money. Instead of a large one-off expense, services are purchased in a monthly model.

Thanks to an attractive pay-as-you-go payment model, a cloud infrastructure only pays for the resources actually used. Instead of hoarding performance in a separate server room and having little room for expansion, customized services are purchased from an external provider. Last but not least, an increase in efficiency can be achieved by eliminating waiting or delivery times and allowing employees to commission servers at any time of day or night.

These are the available cloud deployment models

Based on the type of provisioning, a distinction is made between four cloud models: public, private, hybrid and multi-cloud. Learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of the four cloud delivery models.

public cloud

One speaks of a public cloud if the cloud services can be used by the general public. The public cloud or public cloud is provided by freely accessible providers such as Xelon or hyperscalers such as Microsoft or AWS. Non-business-critical data has been stored for some time now mostly only in public clouds. However, to ensure the continued existence of your company's central data or applications, you should migrate to a public cloud for data protection reasons only after weighing up all the rules and regulations to be complied with.

Private cloud

Private clouds are hosted on private servers in the company itself or with a third-party provider and the resources and networks are completely separated from other users. Only one company at a time has access to the private cloud. This means that only your own system uses the resources of the private cloud. Among the most important advantages of private clouds over public clouds are higher data protection, individually configurable failover and greater control over your own data or applications.

Hybrid Cloud

Today, data and applications are often split between several - private and public - cloud providers. This avoids lock-in scenarios and guarantees cost efficiency. The hybrid cloud represents a hybrid of private and public cloud resources and combines the advantages of both cloud delivery models. In the hybrid model, for example, a public cloud is linked to the local data center in the private cloud. Individual services run over the Internet at public providers, while data protection-critical data and business applications are operated and processed in a private cloud. Many companies rely on hybrid clouds.

Multi-Cloud

Multi-clouds are cloud infrastructures that are used and provided by several companies in order to be able to jointly access certain services. Multi-clouds consist of more than one cloud implementation of the same type from different providers. Unlike a hybrid cloud, a multi-cloud will have more than one cloud service used by more than one cloud provider.

These deployment models are suitable for your company

When choosing a cloud delivery model, software developers and agile enterprises are primarily interested in private or hybrid clouds. The key advantages of private clouds over public clouds include increased data protection, control and design freedom, while hybrid clouds combine the advantages of private and public clouds.

At first glance, the high security standards and customized offers of a private cloud often seem more expensive than the ready-made offers of hyperscalers. However, a recent study by Tech Target shows that the horrendous costs of private clouds are largely a myth and that more than half of all companies with a public cloud ultimately do not save any money. In our company, for example, the private cloud is designed together with the customer and an individual service package. This guarantees that the customer's IT budget is invested wisely.

Therefore, SMEs should work with a local provider

Hyperscalers often offer free access to the basic functions of a public cloud and have attractive pricing models for further use. However, these pre-defined packages rarely meet all the needs of growing start-ups or SMEs. Local providers like us determine the individual needs of customers in a personal meeting. Depending on your human and financial resources, we can propose an SLA model that will provide your IT department with the best possible support.

A local provider that is located in the same time zone and speaks the same language as your team is usually the better choice.

Also, in times of data leaks and hacker attacks, most companies want to know where your data is stored. The majority of Hyperscaler has its headquarters in the USA. The access to data, as it is practiced for example by the American Patriot Act at US companies without judicial control, is not allowed in Switzerland. Local providers comply with Swiss data protection laws and can therefore guarantee the highest data security standards. Our infrastructure is located in ISO-certified data centers in Switzerland.