Thursday, 11 June 2015
The exponential growth in Cloud services has been catalysed by the government’s heavy investment in high-speed connectivity and the £3,000 Broadband Voucher Scheme. The Government has estimated that for every £1 it invests in faster broadband, £12 will flow back into the British economy. The Broadband Voucher Scheme has enabled smaller businesses to capitalise on these new opportunities giving employees access to real time company information without being tied to their desks. This is providing much better opportunities for home-working, making decisions in front of clients, speeding up the sales process and enabling employees to work together wherever they may be, creating a much more dynamic and collaborative workforce.
On a bigger scale the movement of in-house servers, file storage and telecom systems into the Cloud is giving businesses the space and resources to focus on growth and development. This scalability and flexibility means that new ideas and solutions can be implemented much faster without the need for huge initial investment.
Whilst the Government are keen to promote the benefits of high-speed broadband – and there are many - a serious consideration for businesses must be the reliability, guaranteed uptime and Service Level Agreements of their connection. As many businesses are now so reliant on broadband for e-mail, voice and data access, a key question any business must answer is ‘Can my business still function without broadband?’.
The good news is that Ethernet services – those with guaranteed uptimes and Service Level Agreements – are no longer only available on Leased Line private fibre connections. Ethernet grade services levels are now available on fibre broadband and even over standard copper lines and with the growth of 4G availability over mobile networks, there are now a wide range of opportunities to guarantee you will have the connectivity you need, when you need it most.
At 9dots we have seen a shift in the discussions we are having with our clients over the last few years when talking about broadband. Whereas a few years ago people were ‘happy’ with their speeds and just wanted to see how they could reduce cost, nowadays clients are doing whatever it takes to make sure the connection they have is fast, reliable and going to be there when they need it. Even if this means an increase in spend. Quite often these additional costs can be written off by the cost-savings gained by migrating phone lines to SIP and moving to the Cloud but as one client said to us recently: ‘If it’s going to cost me an extra £2,000 a year to help my staff work effectively and get them off my back when the broadband slows down then that’s a sound investment.’
Check out the video below and get in touch with 9dots if you’d like to find out how you can benefit.
Written by Martin Kershaw - 09/03/2015
