Why CPA’s Are Migrating From Servers To The Cloud

And What Separates A Cloud Provider From The Rest 

Given new technological advancements in recent years, businesses, and in particular certified public accountants (CPAs), have displayed trends which suggest a strong push towards modernizing their infrastructure. Thus, we will be going over why CPAs are migrating to the cloud in the first place, and what makes certain cloud providers desirable. For many businesses and organizations the lack of modern features exhibited by their existing on-premise servers has warranted the transition to remote, cloud hosted, infrastructure. Migrating to the cloud, although difficult, likely proves to be a worthwhile investment. In recent years, for businesses and organizations who made the switch to the cloud, the experience in this field of technology has equipped them with the understanding of what services are appropriate for their needs, and what is unnecessary. In particular, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) providers who specialize in support and security have seen a surge in popularity. Furthermore, the prevalence of privacy laws has motivated businesses and organizations to maintain compliance and operate entirely with Canadian built and owned infrastructure.

Why Are CPAs Looking To Modernize Their Infrastructure?

Typical on-premise servers have begun to lose support. Previously, when hardware was considered more “new” manufacturers dedicated more resources into identifying issues and developing updates to patch those issues. The fact that these updates were frequently available meant that the infrastructure was more secure. However, considering this hardware no longer has the title of being “new” technology, less resources are pooled into identifying and patching issues. This partial discontinuation results in unpatched issues. This threatens the security of the infrastructure because these vulnerabilities can be exploited by hackers. Furthermore, dwindling support entails a longer wait time for inquiries you may have on the topic of maintenance needs or questions. In the event that physical infrastructure reaches its end of life, any replacement option is either very expensive or not available because of this discontinuity. Therefore, this makes the idea of maintaining old infrastructure seem unrealistic and undesirable.

Cloud hosted infrastructure combats this predicament because CPAs are no longer paying for the physical infrastructure, they are simply paying for a service. Thus, this eliminates the worry of whether or not the physical servers are becoming out of date for CPAs because they no longer have to manage it themselves. Therefore, CPAs are ensured that their data remains protected from any potential vulnerabilities because they are identified and dealt with swiftly, and externally.

Additionally, the push to allow employees to work remotely entails the need for data to be more accessible. Existing, on-premise, infrastructure requires individuals to work from within the confinements of the office, because it is only from that location where they can access files. Modernizing the workplace suggests moving to the cloud because then files are accessible from any mobile device via a single portal.

Moreover, with on-premise systems, the sensitive data is more vulnerable overall to being lost or corrupted. When using the cloud, redundancy is commonly offered entailing automatic failover and backup. Therefore, in the event of a natural disaster or foul play, all the valuable data won’t be lost but can still be accessed. This makes business threatening events avoidable.

Don’t Fall Victim To The Illusion That All Cloud Providers Can Meet Your Expectations

Not all cloud providers are equal. Some cloud providers are noticeably higher quality than others, and there are certain giveaways which allow you to understand which are which. Here we will detail what some of those giveaways often are.

Free computer server room image, public domain CC0 photo.

When setting up cloud infrastructure, it is easy to get bogged down with the technical jargon and lose sight of core objectives. With experience, one will be able to more accurately discern what is available, and necessary for your business. Often, cloud providers automate the process and wedge their customers into some pre-established plan among different tiers. Because of this, the provided plan is either non-comprehensive of the customer’s needs, or too fancy to the point where the customer is paying for features they don’t use. Without talking to a cloud service professional, it is common to fall victim to this inefficiency.

Additionally, support is a mandatory requirement for cloud infrastructure, both during the initial migration and regular operation. It may be the case that, to cut costs, a cloud provider offers minimalistic support. In this case, your inquiries will wait in queue and may even be disregarded due to a lack of urgency. If you do get a response, it could take days or even weeks.

If a provider instead chooses to cut costs in the area of security, this also poses serious risks to the integrity of a business or organization. A lack of security leaves your infrastructure vulnerable. Any individual who takes advantage of these vulnerabilities hinders business activity. Any unauthorized intrusions, data leakages, denial of service, or fraud which occurs because the cloud provider did not maintain adequate security measures can leave executives and management liable to prosecution. Case studies have shown that it isn’t just the functionality of the business or organization which is at risk, it’s their reputation.

 The Difference A Reliable Provider Makes

At Server Cloud Canada we tailor a solution specific to your company and outline why it is necessary to fulfill your needs. Therefore, you can trust the spending of your resources is optimized. With a three tier 24/7 support system, our in-house engineers are at a moment’s notice to assist with any basic, moderate, or advanced inquiry. All inquiries are treated as critically important, and will never be deemed “low priority” in any way. Through our support queue, we maintain a mean response time of one hour. We personalize the support to align with your internal policies, and you will never be waiting an unreasonable amount of time to hear back from us.

The rapid evolution and expansion of your business or organization requires in-depth care and service. Here at Server Cloud Canada we understand maintaining integrity, within all aspects of a business or organization, is the epitome of success. That’s why we focus on delivering a support system with a high quality of one-on-one configuration and assistance. In the end, time is money.

We specialize in security and disaster recovery. Using active monitoring and encryption, suspicious activity is detected and dealt with, sooner rather than later. Considering we have nine data centers evenly distributed throughout Canada, we maintain redundancy and offer automatic failover along with backup. If one data center fails, whether it’s due to a natural disaster or foul play, using our active load balancing we can ensure a high degree of server uptime.

Furthermore, Server Cloud Canada is compliant with federal and provincial privacy laws because our infrastructure resides entirely within the borders of Canada, and is completely Canadian owned and operated. This compliance, desirable to CPAs, is something which American providers may struggle or fail to achieve. Often it cannot be assured due to the complexity of the laws.

Keep in mind this support is bundled with a service proven to be reliable in a variety of industries such as education, healthcare, and financials. Server Cloud Canada’s cloud hosting service will improve the functionality and security of your infrastructure.

In Summary

Older on-premise infrastructure renders data inaccessible outside of the workplace, results in vulnerabilities, and lacks support. The increasing cost to maintain these systems has deemed it an unrealistic option to continue using according to many CPAs. Modernizing infrastructure through migrating to the cloud acts as a solution to these issues considering physical servers are no longer managed internally. That is why many CPAs have decided to tackle cloud migration.

 Furthermore, many CPAs have begun to accumulate experience in the field of cloud hosting since their initial migration. Because of this, the general public has become more informed as to what is valuable among providers, and what is unnecessary. The realization that many cloud providers offer inadequate security and support has led many CPAs to begin the search for, and make the transition to, a new cloud provider. This, along with the complexities of privacy law compliance, reminds individuals that choosing an appropriate cloud provider requires considerable time and effort to make sure all needs are being met. It truly is the quality of security and support which can separate a cloud provider from the rest of the competition.