Improving security, enabling teamwork
– at the top of every UK business agenda
With the festivities behind us for another year, and January well and truly here, now’s the time to look ahead. Michael Frisby, managing director, Cobweb, asks: ‘Is your business ready for 2020?’.
Is 2020 the year you move to the cloud?
For more than 20 years, Cobweb has been helping businesses of all sizes and across industry move to and develop their IT infrastructure in the cloud.
Few businesses today are not in the cloud in some way. With the cost of maintaining on-premises technology continuing to increase, end of support scenarios creating increased security risks, moving to the cloud – with its evergreen technology, automatic updates and reduction or elimination of on-premises hardware, investment is growing, fast.
At the same time, the rise of modern working practices requires technology to enable remote and flexible working and facilitate greater collaboration and communication within the workplace – as well as to ensure that the expectations of tech-savvy millennials are met.
Therefore, issues surrounding security and teamwork are going to be key to address, to enable a business to remain competitive at the start of this new decade.
Some questions to ask yourself include:
Will end of support impact me?
January 14 2020 and October 13 2020 will see end of support for Windows 10 and Office 2010 respectively.
End of support means not only no more feature updates, but no further security fixes, which could leave you as a business open to threat of cyberattack.
Could better teamwork help improve productivity in your business?
The 9-5, single location office belongs to the past. Enabling your staff to work together productively and efficiently is key to remaining competitive.
‘Poor communications cost businesses around £8,000 per employee, per year’ Opinium Business Communications Report
Are your servers putting you at risk?
July 9 2019 saw end of support for SQL Server 2008, and January 14 2020 will see end of support for Windows Server 2008, with the potential problems of failing technology and increased risk end of support brings.
Have you fully empowered your staff?
Microsoft Teams is the Office 365 team hub where teams can chat, talk, meet, call, and share files – as well as integrate their favourite applications.
‘Eight hours – the average amount of time saved per week, when using Microsoft Teams’ Forrester – Total Economic Impact Study
Security and teamwork assessments
Understanding the importance businesses place on effective security and efficient teamwork, Cobweb has created security and teamwork assessments.
The assessments are an ideal place to understand how secure/collaborative your workplace is and where you might need to go. Cobweb will assess your strengths and identify any weaknesses, providing key recommendations in a personalised report.
Complete Cobweb’s free security and teamwork assessments at: cobweb.com/assessments
2020 is the year to embrace the cloud, don’t let lack of skills hold you back
Many businesses feel they lack the skills or availability of staff to make the move to the cloud and provide ongoing management expertise. As a result, they’re struggling with legacy services that are growing increasingly expensive to run, are opening up the business to increasing risk, are unable to take advantage of the huge advancements in technology and are in danger of losing their competitive edge.
‘88% of UK businesses now have at least one cloud solution’ Cloud Industry Forum – Cloud The Next Generation
But moving services to the cloud and overseeing ongoing management is simple if partnering with the right provider. A good cloud managed services provider will be able to provide support and guidance to meet your individual need as a business, and ensure your business is safe, secure and enhances productivity through the benefits of cloud.
