Empower Your Remote Workforce With The Cloud

Using The Cloud To Enable Your Remote Workforce

We’ve seen all types of organizations embrace remote work over the past few months. The coronavirus pandemic has left non-essential businesses, schools, and daycares with no choice but to close their doors in an effort to minimize the spread of coronavirus, but now, lockdowns are lifting throughout Canada. As we return to some sense of normalcy, what role does the cloud play in the future? Will organizations continue to work remotely? From what we’ve seen, the majority of organizations plan on leveraging a hybrid approach – some employees in the office while others continue to work from home. 

CFO Plans

Gartner surveyed 317 CFOs to find out their plans for operating in a post-coronavirus world wherein lockdowns are lifted:

• 74% plan to switch previously on-premises employees to remote work post-coronavirus. 
• 81% plan to exceed their contractual obligations to hourly workers via remote work to offer flexible schedules. 
• 13% have already cut real estate expenses with another 9% planning to do the same.

It’s clear: remote work isn’t going anywhere. So what does this have to do with the cloud? Well, cloud computing enables anytime, anywhere access to data, systems, and applications. So naturally, it’s time for the cloud to shine. Although the adoption of cloud services has been widespread for quite some time now, it’s never been more popular than it is now – and for good reason. 

Cloud benefits

In the simplest terms, the cloud breaks down barriers – offering the ability to work seamlessly through:

• Anytime access to data, applications, and systems from any device or location as needed to continue working despite disruptions. 
• Availability of backup copies for quick and easy recovery in the event of some sort of loss. 
• Protection against hackers with built-in security features, including multi-factor authentication, encryption, and more. 
• Lower costs as there’s no need to worry about purchasing, maintaining, and upgrading technology to keep up with advancements. 
• Greater compatibility with various employee devices, such as smartphones, laptops or tablets, and operating systems, such as macOS, Linux, Windows. 
• More scalability with the ability to add or remove users, storage, and change settings in an instant. 

The cloud offers an unparalleled level of business contingency, and in particular, remote work capabilities. You can achieve greater resiliency, agility, and of course, seamless remote work capabilities through the cloud.

Migrating to the cloud

If you haven’t migrated to the cloud yet, it’s time to start. The following can be migrated to the cloud:

• Business phones
• Servers
• Desktops
• Line of business applications
• File storage 
• And much more 

You can also adopt a productivity suite, such as Microsoft 365, that works via the cloud. Microsoft 365 offers the ability to collaborate with ease using a range of tools and features, such as:

• Outlook
• Word
• Excel
• OneNote
• Publisher
• PowerPoint
• Access
• Teams 

Get in touch with us to speak with one of our technology professionals about migrating to the cloud. 

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