The term Cloud Services refers to a broad variety of services that are delivered to our customers on demand over the internet, replacing the physical servers and equipment that are still part of the landscape in many offices. These services deliver simple and affordable access to applications and other resources with no requirement for hardware and the resultant infrastructure. Cloud services are delivered through a subscription service, rather than a fixed fee.

There are a number of benefits associated with adopting Cloud services for most organisations.

Firstly, you are no longer responsible for the on-premise equipment, which means reduced likelihood of any security issues. Secondly, hardware, such as exchange servers, are expensive to purchase and maintain, so the financial outlay needed to purchase equipment is flattened out and replaced with an on-going subscription cost. Hardware maintenance is history. In addition, servers are often held in their own air-conditioned room to ensure they don’t overheat, and the cost of electricity to power the air conditioning units is getting increasingly significant. There is no such requirement with Cloud services.