Cloud hosting is becoming more and more popular for businesses of all sizes. It allows you to access your important information from any device, anywhere in the world. For charities that can mean keeping on top of your fundraising activities and viewing performance and financial information. As Cloud based services become more and more popular, they are also becoming more affordable.
But what are the benefits for charities? Will converting to the cloud be the right choice for non-profit organisations? In this blog post, we will discuss the five main reasons the cloud can help your charity meet its objectives.
At Class Networks, we specialise in working with charitable organisations and have been providing business communications technology solutions for more than 30 years.
With services including hosted servers, cyber security, storage and backup, to keep your data and applications safe and available. To see how your charity could benefit from our cloud hosting services. Call us today on 0333 800 8822 and speak to our knowledgeable team, so we can help your charity stay one step ahead.
What is cloud hosting?
Cloud hosting is a form of hosting that allows organisations to safely share data processing resources with numerous other organisations, such as power and storage, in an environment that offers a level of security and resilience that is hard to replicate in an office with just a few servers. Networked virtual servers provide data processing power and memory on-demand, saving the cost of a single server and providing built-in resilience.
As these servers are virtualised they provide the best of both worlds when it comes to hosting your data and applications. They share resources in order to dynamically manage the workload, which means your applications never have to compete for performance.
This can be done through a public cloud, which is made up of multiple servers owned by different organisations, or a private cloud, which is restricted to use by a single organisation. It can be used to host websites, applications or services including virtually hosted desktops and email.
The cloud has many different configurations, but cloud hosting typically consists of clustered servers all working together to deliver a cloud-based web hosting solution.
Cloud computing architecture
Public Cloud Hosting:
A number of cloud servers are networked together and hold data for multiple clients. Unlike in traditional shared hosting, client disk space and processing power are not shared.
Private Cloud Hosting:
Unlike the public cloud, it’s only utilised by a single company or organisation, providing increased security for clients. The virtualised assets are hosted behind a private firewall on a private network.
Hybrid Cloud Hosting:
A hybrid cloud is a mix of public and private clouds. One public cloud (external) and one private cloud (internal) are included.
Benefits of cloud hosting services for charities
Cost effective solution
Cloud hosting is the perfect solution for charities that are looking to save money. By moving your charity’s applications to the cloud, you can take advantage of significant cost savings on hardware, software and staffing costs.
Here are five reasons why it’s so cost effective for charities:
- Saves you money on hardware costs
- Saves you money on software licensing fees
- Reduces staffing costs
- Improves website uptime and reliability
- Helps you scale up or down quickly as your needs change
Elastic scalability
By definition, scalability is the ability to increase or decrease system resources as needed in order to meet demand and provide extra resources.
In cloud computing, this means being able to add or remove servers creating more resources quickly and easily in order to accommodate changing traffic levels. Easy scaling means that when traffic increases, your organisation can grow with it – without any downtime. This is important for those within both the commercial and non-profit sectors.
Charities often rely on donations from individuals or corporations. If a charity’s website and systems are not able to handle high traffic, it could severely impact the amount of money a charity raises.
Cloud servers have the ability to add CPU power, memory and storage space on the fly, so your sites can handle any increase in traffic. Your provider will be able to help you choose a plan that is scalable and can grow with your charity. You don’t want to have to switch providers because your original one couldn’t handle the load.
Our bespoke cloud plans are designed to ensure our clients get the most from their IT infrastructure.
Improved cyber security
Cloud hosting can improve the security of your IT infrastructure. By moving to the cloud you can take advantage of enhanced cyber security features that are not available with traditional in house models. These features include:
- Real-time malware scanning
- Automated vulnerability assessment
- 24/7 monitoring, support and reporting
- Daily backups
- Restricted access to data centres
- Secure data transmission
Increased reliability
Because cloud hosting works on a decentralised basis it’s a great way to improve the reliability of your website and services. It ensures that your site, systems and management tools will be available even if there are problems with your local network or server.
It also makes it easy to scale up your resources as needed, ensuring that your site can handle any amount of traffic. This makes cloud hosting ideal for charities as they often receive large amounts of donations at once; such as in the aftermath of a tragedy or disaster or following a successful campaign.
More efficient workflow
Cloud hosting is a great way for charities to improve efficiencies. By using cloud-based services you can reduce the amount of time and money spent on IT infrastructure. This allows you to focus on your core mission and goals. In addition, it can help charities be more agile and responsive to changes in the market or the needs of their donors. Overall, cloud hosting provides many benefits that can help charities improve their operations.
Improve communications at your charity
At Class Networks, we have over 30 years of experience in providing IT services to charities. We offer a range of bespoke services, including fully managed cloud hosting plans, that can help you to take your charity’s IT infrastructure to the next level.
Our services include:
- Hosted servers
- Hosted desktop/Cloud computing
- Hosted voice
- Web hosting
- Cyber security – anti-malware
- Data storage and backup
- Unified communications
- Multiple connectivity options
- Smartphones
- Call management
- Call centre
- Video conferencing
To find out more about how Class Networks can improve workflows at your charitable organisation, call us on 0333 800 8822 or email us at info@classnetworks.co.uk
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