Digital transformation is all about enhancing the way you do business. Say goodbye to those paper and manual based practices and welcome the world at the push of a button. Connect, meet, inquire, deliver, and automate through the hands of technology.

Not only does digitalization infer ‘going paperless’ but also changing the way we work. The COVID-19 pandemic has in many ways, forced the digitalization for many businesses. During the lockdown, there was a quick divide between the ‘have’ and ‘have not’ which left many companies without the ability to work and collaborate, as there was little to no access to the usual resources. Investing in digitalization is an excellent first move and sets your business on a course to success: it will pay for itself quickly when implemented correctly. Investing in a digital transformation can make a sizeable financial change to your business.

Amongst other things leveraging the new digital trend means shifting to the cloud. How does this apply to your business? How can you shift to the cloud? Should you shift to the cloud? Well, the good news is that the cloud comes in many shapes and sizes with various models where software as a service (SaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is the most widely used. Each model has its benefits but aligns with your business needs and appetite and ability to manage the environment. These services, known as the cloud or a variation of the cloud are nothing but large data centers located worldwide that house rows upon rows of servers and storage. These data centers are used by providers such as Microsoft and Amazon to provide services to their customers. The cloud model enables businesses of all sizes to reduce their on-prem footprint, avoid risks associated with rolling load shedding, theft, etc. and move to a dynamic model that scales as your business needs grow.

Depending on the service model, your provider can manage the entire stack or elements of it.

Microsoft is the leading contender and provides a variety of services in the domain of cloud services. The main ones are Azure and 365 – solutions continually evolving and changing to strengthen your business. The services range from the widely known Windows and Office products and other new features empowering the end-user, reducing daily management and administration load on the IT department and aligned with the bottom line of the business. The strategy here is to digitize and modernize an IT environment’s management, promoting increased productivity, secure collaboration, and remote work while adhering to compliance, governance, and industry and business-specific standards.

Amazon Web Services is another contender offering similar product and service offerings to Microsoft throughout the world. AWS can be considered the second cloud computing giant, with Microsoft currently taking the lead. AWS, among other features, is one of the securest and safest cloud computing technology platforms and has a significant emphasis on artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Google, Alibaba, and IBM are also worthy contenders and are fighting for the top position of cloud provider and data acquisition. The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly seen a substantial increase in the migration to cloud providers for multiple reasons. This growth will continue and only increase going forward.

Every business has unique needs, which is what the cloud and digital transformation efficiently address. At Argent, we redeveloped our team and service offering from the ground up. Aside from implementation and migration assistance, we offer services to assess and plan your cloud journey. Our team of certified professionals is there to understand your pain points and requirements and will translate these into a cloud journey, planned from start to finish. Whether you would like to leverage some cloud-based features, such as cloud collaboration, security, and reliability, we can tailor a solution to fit your needs and budget.

For example, you may need to shift an aging on-prem Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint to the cloud. We can support and implement the build, configuration, and migration for your business, eliminating downtime.  

If you are interested in a ‘no-nonsense’ session with our experts, please do not hesitate to contact us. We would like to understand your requirements and pain points in detail to define a plan that ultimately aligns with your business objectives with a cost-effective service that aligns with your budget. It is never too late to start the journey into a more secure and cost-effective environment. We offer a free consultation to kick-start your journey.

Please don’t wait until it’s too late.