Despite the overwhelming shift to cloud-based platforms, many companies are still hesitant to move away from their on-premise systems. Why is it that for some organisations, benefits of cost savings, increased security, and scalability are still not enough to quell any fears of change?

Lengthy installations, time-consuming custom integrations and support, day-to-day maintenance and security updates, multiple vendor relationships and dependencies – sound familiar? These are the daily uphill struggles of maintaining an on-premise system, accountability for which all lies in the hands of the company that uses it.

But it’s surely worth it for the tangibility, the knowledge that your systems and data exist safely within the walls of the organisation, or is it perhaps that the prospect of a large scale data migration to the cloud can be daunting? Often, the rationale of management to cling on to their on-prem system can stem simply from a fear of the unknown, or concerns around the scope and management of the cloud migration project.

Below, we’ll look at why you should migrate to the cloud.

The ‘Big Move’

Moving to the cloud is a strategic choice for businesses, requiring input from multiple stakeholders, together with a holistic business case and plan to address and tackle the current ‘as-is’ and future ‘to-be’ state. Undertaking the ‘big move’ can seem intimidating, but a move to CARA with Generis is a painless process.

Before the project can begin, it is fundamental to establish a strong business case to present to management. Generis can facilitate the whole process including the ‘as is/to be’ business model, architecture check, data migration, support, licenses, and total cost of ownership. Clients’ fears can often come from concerns around factors such as integrations, and custom work within current environments – all of this is addressed with our rest APIs, robust configurability, and low code application builder.

Here are a few key reasons why so many organisations have made the switch from on-prem to cloud with CARA:

Cost

The initial and overall costs of a cloud-based environment are significantly less than an on-premise system, which typically includes ongoing factors such as power consumption, maintenance, a dedicated IT team, and even the space to hold the necessary infrastructure. With a cloud-based system however, all responsibility for the functioning of the software falls to the vendor.

Our CARA Platform employs a ‘one user, one licence’ pricing model, this means that consolidating multiple disconnected systems can drive significant cost savings. For example, if a user is already using CARA for LMS, they can also access contact management or SOPs on the platform, with no additional licence costs. Alongside this, Generis provide business case mapping, including a 5 year Total Cost of Ownership to highlight savings on multiple levels.

Scalability

With an on-premise system, growing organisations will have to continuously expand and invest in system architecture to keep up with their rate of growth. Whereas with a cloud-based system, businesses can easily scale up or down by managing their subscription based on their new usage. There’s no need to worry about investing in new servers and managing further installations.

With CARA’s one-user/one-license approach, companies can pick and choose which applications and use cases they require from the platform, expanding adoption as the business requires. Organisations also have the freedom of multiple cloud locations to avoid latency issues, with the ability to scale as a global enterprise requires.

Security

Traditionally, companies believed they needed to be on-prem in order to maintain security, however end to end security management is challenging, and without the appropriate IT support, organisations can be left vulnerable to security threats.

Cloud providers boast greater security than on-premise systems; to offer a valuable product, providers take strict, regulated data encryption and security measures to ensure your data is inaccessible to prying eyes. As well as offering robust security controls, CARA can be provided as a private cloud, giving the organisation more control and flexibility over back-up and disaster recovery.

As digital transformation continues to spread across regulated industries, cloud environments are playing an integral role in organisations’ long-term digital strategies, preparing for the challenges of tomorrow and staying ahead of competitors. While the road from on-premise to cloud can seem vast and complex, the pay-off is well worth the effort.

If you are planning the move from legacy, on-premise systems to a cloud-based platform for optimising content, data, and business process management – get in touch today to book a demo of the CARA platform.

The future is cloud-based, is it time for your organisation to take the next step forwards?