Does a small business need Private Cloud? The honest answer…

If you’re running a small business or startup company, then there’s little doubt that at least some of your infrastructure is in the Cloud already.

Google Docs, Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud – you’re probably using a Public Cloud service for email, storage or document creation.

But does every small business need Private Cloud? The honest answer is no. In fact, there aren’t that many that do.

For those that do, however – it’s all but essential. And for companies in the startup phase, it could be a foundational pillar of their success.

The benefits of Private Cloud to startups

Startups move fast. Really fast.

One month, you’re running the whole company off a self-hosted mess of cables and hardware, rammed into a wheeled server rack, sweating it out in a cheap rented office.

Next thing you know, you’ve got 1,000 customers, a huge open-plan office, and need to go on an IT team hiring spree.

That fast-moving environment is stressful. And it’s the worst time to be forced into scaling your owned IT infrastructure – because it’ll have to be done at the same breakneck speed.

That’ll either cost a lot, or – more likely – go spectacularly wrong. Maybe even both, if you’re really unlucky.

Startups of all kinds are almost always rooted in technology and data. It’s what makes them agile and disruptive – but it can also become a liability. Security, compliance and data residency (remember GDPR?) can be total business killers if malpractice is discovered, and that risk is heightened with on-site servers.

Anything can go wrong. And even if you’ve backed it all up – how robust is that backup? Does it comply with regional laws?

At some point, a Private Cloud migration will become inevitable for any startup that grows beyond its primary country. Adopting Private Cloud in the very earliest days will make that process so much easier, simpler, and more cost-effective. It’ll clear out a path for scalability – and frees founders from the stress of maintaining technological infrastructure.

To add to that – startups are always on the hunt for funding – and being able to prove viability for international growth, and establish trust on a proven platform (like Private Cloud) is going to be far more tempting to VCs and investors than a business based on high-risk, on-site infrastructure.

Do other types of small businesses use Private Cloud?

It’s not just high-flying, VC-funded startups that benefit from Private Cloud solutions. Any company or organisation with strict data safeguarding requirements is likely to be suited to a well-managed, scaleable Private Cloud installation.

If your business holds vital and sensitive information – like banking and financial data, private health documentation, and military or government intelligence – those vulnerable parts have to be ring fenced. Industries with strict compliance considerations, or who protect vulnerable people need the same level of data safeguarding.

This is by no means an exhaustive list – these are just a few of the compliance-heavy sectors in which some small businesses operate:

• Financial services – such as IFAs and accountants
• Medical sector – small dental or private antenatal practices
• Educational support services – like outsourced sport or music tuition

Then there’s GDPR, and laws around data residency, which vary from country to country.

This is typically solved with self-managed, on-site hosting and computing solutions, or dedicated off-site hosting partners. But these solutions aren’t always perfect, and can be difficult to set up properly. Neither are as flexible or as intuitive as a Cloud-based solution.

Plus, the cost of building and maintaining IT infrastructure can be far outside the reach of a typical small or medium business, too.

If it comes down to setting up your own servers or implementing a Private Cloud solution, you’ll have a lot to consider; and one of the biggest considerations is cost.

Private Cloud versus on-site infrastructure: which is cheaper?

In the long run, Cloud is the cheaper solution. And it’s safer, too.

Migrating to a Private Cloud solution can be a fairly large initial expense – but long-term, it eliminates the need for a large IT team, carrying out maintenance, security patches, upgrades… That’s all taken care of by your Private Cloud solution provider.

Hardware upgrades are a thing of the past, too. Private Cloud technology is never out of date. Even if you’re accessing your Private Cloud on a 10-year-old laptop, the hardware infrastructure you’re accessing is running bleeding edge, best-in-class technology.

And think about how much would cost to lose all of your data – and the disruption to business that would cause. Adding redundancy to your on-site servers practically means duplicating your entire physical setup, and the costs that that entails.

Cloud solutions don’t have that problem. Resilience and redundancy are Cloud’s killer features – and a Private Cloud solution maintains that, while keeping compliance and security at its heart.

Read more: Resilience is Private Cloud’s killer feature

How to decide If your small business needs a Private Cloud solution

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Is data security and compliance a priority?
• Are we resilient enough to survive in a data loss disaster?
• Can we afford to maintain and upgrade our IT infrastructure regularly?
• Could we still run if our key IT people decided to leave the company?
• Do we need to be able to scale up operations with demand?

A shortcoming in any of those areas is reason enough to adopt a Private Cloud solution. And if you need a guide through the process, then deeserve is on hand to help.

Private Cloud solutions for any size of business

At deeserve, we know how to build Private Cloud for small businesses – and our list of world-class data centres continues to grow. Our expertise has made us the trusted Private Cloud partner to some of the biggest companies in the world; but our tailored approach means that even small and startup businesses can get the business-transforming benefits of Private Cloud at an affordable rate.

Want to learn more about Private Cloud for your business? Call us on 01509 808586 or send your message to [email protected].

Posted on: 4th April 2022.