Moved your systems to the Cloud yet?

The recent floods that ravaged parts of the UK including Leeds, Manchester and York once again prove it to us how insignificant we essentially are in front of the wrath of nature. The sudden rain made it very difficult for people to take steps to ensure their safety. Streets, homes, shops and other buildings were left flooding in a sudden onslaught of the rains that hit UK in the last week of December 2015.

News reports suggested that a large number of business data centres in the UK were also affected. Flood water entered many of these centres and damaged the existing computer systems. A significant number of these centres were in a state of complete shutdown and the associated businesses suffered huge losses due to it.

Any unexpected shutdown/restart of any computer system is usually followed by routine processes to be taken up by the recovery team. These procedures could take anywhere between a few hours to an entire day, so as to completely restore the system. This shutdown time could lead to huge amount of losses in cases where the business operation is highly time-critical (Eg: Stock trading firms, E-commerce sites etc.).

Which makes us wonder, is it the right time to move your systems to the cloud? Traditional on-premise systems have always been the preferred choice for customers, an inclination that is fast changing. A system that is hosted on a cloud assures better security features when compared to a traditional data centre. A cloud system is always run and maintained by a team of highly skilled individuals and is backed by a disaster recovery contract agreement, in case of a mishap. A world leader in the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solutions, SAP also has a robust domination in the cloud segment. SAP, one of the pioneers in the technology world, with its state-of-the-art data centres spread across all the major geographies, promises a very safe and secure environment for your data. A sophisticated array of computers encased in solid walls is backed by redundant power supply and internet connectivity. The centre has an in-house set of power generators and batteries in case of extreme emergencies. All of this data is continuously replicated in a separate data centre across a different location to prevent data loss in case of earthquake, fire or flood. The centre even has a biometric system for each area to prevent un-authorised access to the computers. We never know what the forces of nature may thrust upon us – but ensuring corporate data is secure and safe, should be high on everyone’s agenda.

Check out this short video Introduction to SAP Data Centres.