Buying Into the Benefits of Cloud as a CFO

The modern CFO role has shifted dramatically along with changes in technology.

In addition to your responsibility to oversee financial decisions, you may feel increasingly responsible for your organisation's wider cyber security strategy.

Financial risk management and cyber risk management have blended over time, requiring you to incorporate cloud hosting and IT security into your long-term financial planning. Wise technology investments are now essential to help you deliver a strong ROI and sustained value for your shareholders plus maintain excellent data governance.

Unfortunately, surveys show that 40% of IT professionals don't believe the C-Suite takes cyber security seriously enough.

• So how can you establish this careful balance between saving and spending on technology? 
• How can you partner with your IT department to be their advocate in the C-Suite, incorporating the latest cyber security technology in a cost-effective way? 

You are uniquely positioned to define and drive your organisation's cloud hosting strategy.

In order to remain competitive while making wise financial decisions, CFOs should carefully consider the benefits of cloud hosting and managed IT services. 

At its core, cloud hosting allows businesses to reduce their IT costs by trading capital expenditures on hardware and infrastructure for the fixed, monthly and easily-adjusted costs of cloud-hosting and software or platform as-a-service.

Many of our customers begin their cloud journey because they have out-of-date hardware and are investigating the costs of an upgrade. After initial research, many of them realise that they're in a perfect window of opportunity for migrating to the cloud.

Perhaps you've been holding onto outdated hardware simply because it has not reached the very end of its workable life, based on initial ROI calculations.

However, consider the risk of continuing operations with systems and devices which are vulnerable to cyber-attack. If a cyber-attack against your company is successful, your minor gains from cutting costs will be entirely negated by major losses, to the tune of £786,000 ($1 million)!

Customers expect your services on-demand backed by excellent security, and without the power of cloud computing, you will simply struggle to deliver on their expectations.

The cloud offers additional benefits including:

• Full compliance with data protection legislation like GDPR and PCI-DSS requirements, supported by technicians who understand the rules inside and out
• Robust DR provision with fast data recovery from secure, secondary sites, so costly downtime can be eliminated
• Agility, flexibility and ability to scale up or down quickly
• Managed IT services delivered by a trusted provider like SysGroup to help your team make the most of every penny spent on cloud hosting or IT security

Here are 3 key tips to improve your cloud ROI as a CFO:

1. Understand the cost structure 

Prioritise your spending on technologies that can scale up or down to accommodate growth or future changes in your business. Despite initial investment, cloud hosting and managed services contracts offer you more flexibility within your overall budget. All costs are clear up front and consistent month-to-month. There are no hidden fees, and 24/7/365 support is standard for SysGroup contracts!

2. Reduce sprawl through cloud resource management 

Cloud hosting can offer you greater control and visibility of your entire IT network, including who in your organisation is using cloud, how much and for what purposes. With user control panels and granular-level reporting from your cloud provider, you can keep a close eye on how your resources are allocated

3. Partner with a trusted vendor

Allocating funds to technology can feel like a big risk. However working with a vendor that can provide you with solutions will certainly ease the worry. Ensure you choose one that is well versed in your sector and understands your needs - after all they'll be taking care of a huge part of your organisation! And finally a key thing to look for is availability - 24/7/365 with monitoring facilities.