For cities and towns, security is essential. They deal with a lot of confidential information and it can be disastrous to an entire community if a breach occurs. This makes many city officials hesitant to trust any kind of cloud storage or computing. Cloud storage and computing allows for cities and towns to store data on external servers. Thus freeing up space and the financial responsibility of internal servers. Experts assert that cloud storage is not only safe and secure but is even safer than in-house servers. Microsoft Azure is a cloud-based services platform that increases efficiency, security, and technical ability. Let’s dig out how Microsoft Azure helps cities and towns.
What is Microsoft Azure?
Microsoft Azure is a cloud services platform. Well, what in the world is that? Great question. A cloud services platform is essentially access to servers and data centers that are off-site.
With Microsoft Azure, you have access to Microsoft’s robust data centers to allow you to build, deploy, and manage services and platforms from anywhere. One benefit of cloud service platforms is that it saves municipalities a lot of money in purchasing and housing their own data centers and provides them with secure access to an expansive network. Microsoft Azure has a continually growing collection of apps and capabilities to aid municipalities with every essential business function.
Are cloud services secure?
Yes, absolutely. Many municipalities are still hesitant to move their services to the cloud. One major concern is the security of their data and information. This is one area where Azure separates itself from other cloud service platforms. Microsoft Azure boasts top of the line security and is an industry leader in data and network protection. Your data is often more security with Azure than on in-house networks. With Microsoft Azure you’re also able to move as many, or as few services to the cloud, allowing for a hybrid option; if desired. This allows municipalities to address some of their concerns about security, reliability, and overall functionality of cloud service providers.
How do cloud services work?
The cloud has been a hot topic in the tech and business world for a while. Most of us have grasped the general concept of the cloud. All the cloud really is, is access to save and store files somewhere other than your personal computer or network. Large companies like Microsoft, Google, and Apple all have massive data centers that allow for users, like us, to save our files there. This frees up space on our computers and eliminates the need for individual companies to house their own data centers. But how do cloud services work?
As a municipality, you need computing power to run processes and functions for your city or town. This computing power requires a lot of equipment, space, money, staffing, manpower, and time. A cloud services provider functions just like cloud file storage but instead allows you access to computing power that is off-site. With Microsoft Azure, you gain access to enormous data centers, applications, and programs that are off-site and much more expansive than what individual organizations could house or afford.
How Microsoft Azure helps cities and towns?
There are several key ways that Microsoft Azure helps cities and towns. The biggest benefit is that you gain access to seemingly limitless resources. Microsoft’s collection of data centers have capabilities, space, and programs that would be unavailable for an individual municipality to house on their own. Therefore, Azure gives your city or town the power that you need to grow and expand.
Secondarily, using Azure will save your municipality significant amounts of money. To create, manage, and house a personal data center is incredibly expensive. Even after dumping ridiculous amounts of money into your own data center, you’d still be left with sub-par capabilities compared to Azure.
Therefore, by investing in Microsoft Azure you’re able to eliminate the headache and financial worry of maintaining a data center. Therefore, with Azure, you can free up your organization and staff to work on more critical projects and tasks.
Microsoft Azure is the way of the business future. For more in-depth analysis of some of the functions and capabilities of Azure, sumologic.com has a great article that gets more technical.
How to get Microsoft Azure?
The process of switching to Microsoft Azure can be tricky. Therefore, it’s best to be done by skilled professionals. Executech has over 100 highly skilled and trained technicians with years of experience working with municipalities and Microsoft Azure. These technicians can help you quickly and seamlessly transition your services to Azure. Executech is the leader in managed IT services in the intermountain west. Also, Executech works with over 70 municipalities throughout the intermountain west and understands the unique needs they possess. With Executech, Microsoft Azure helps cities and towns run more efficiently.
For a free consultation to see if Microsoft Azure is right for you and your city or town, see how we can help your business with IT Services in Seattle, IT Support in Spokane, or Managed IT Services in Utah or Oregon.
To learn more about cloud computing & backup, check out our Ultimate Guide To Cloud Computing!
