10 reasons to move SharePoint and Project to the cloud

Cloud computing has established itself as a powerful model for the development of companies of all sizes – from small to large. Check out 10 reasons to move SharePoint and Project to the cloud.

One of the biggest advantages of the cloud solution is to allow access to technology tools and resources without any investment in hardware and infrastructure, only in the service used. In addition, the cloud enables access to the best security technologies, collaboration and mobility features with easy management and access from virtually anywhere with SharePoint development company.

With the end of support for SharePoint and Project 2007 in October 2017, security updates from Microsoft will no longer be available. So there's never been a better time for you to upgrade and migrate your software to the cloud.

But, you may be wondering: why migrate to the cloud, when I can just upgrade? There are, however, several issues to be evaluated before making this decision. In order not to miss the most important thing, we have selected for you 10 reasons and advantages of migrating SharePoint and Project to the cloud.

1.The infrastructure is Microsoft's responsibility

Microsoft provides an infrastructure with redundant and geographically distributed data centers, with continuous data backup, disaster recovery capabilities and a team of engineers dedicated to monitoring servers around the clock and optimizing the performance of the environment.

The on-premises environment, monitoring, maintenance and optimization of the infrastructure is entirely the responsibility of your IT team, which increases the workload and investments in infrastructure.

2.Constant updates without interruptions

With SharePoint and Project Online migration, you'll always have the latest version available, without having to pay to get the new version. You will automatically receive security enhancements and upgrades.

Keeping the software in an on-premises environment you will have to do seasonal updates to get those updates, in addition to having to separate work hours from your IT staff. The environment will still be unavailable for access during the upgrade.

3.State-of-the-art security  24 hours a day

Although more and more companies are embracing cloud computing, there are still security fears. This insecurity is entirely natural, even more so with increasingly daring hacker attacks. But rest assured, your data is safer in the cloud than on physical servers. This is because the resources used by Microsoft on a large scale, such as encryption, secure authentications, 24/7 monitoring of the data center are much more efficient than any individual solution. Not to mention that in the Microsoft cloud, you still have natural disasters, such as floods and electric river failure, for example.

4.More productivity – have the right tool for every need

With the migration from SharePoint or Project, you will have access to many other services in the cloud, without paying anything extra for it. Your team will work more collaboratively and with the right productivity features:

Outlook: familiar to all of us, in the cloud it works on any computer or mobile device.

Skype for business – messaging, phone calls and video conferences – distance and lack of time are no longer obstacles to doing business. Skype allows simultaneous conversation with customers or co-workers from anywhere with a data connection.

File Storage Service : Allows access to all types of documents from any computer or mobile device.

Office 365 : The Office tools you already know like Word, Excel, Power Point, plus solutions to help you be more effective in teamwork and get more done, anytime, anywhere.

Exchange Online : Hosted Email for Business helps protect your information with advanced features: anti-malware and anti-spam filters that protect mailboxes and data loss prevention that prevents users from mistakenly sending confidential information to unauthorized persons .

5.First and last migration

It will be the first and last migration your team will have to worry about. From then on, your SharePoint Online or Project Online will be kept up to date by Microsoft, reducing costs, time and work involving migration between versions of SharePoint or Project in your on-premises environment.

And it is not necessary to migrate all the data at once. The important thing is to assess the needs of each company and establish priorities. Therefore, every migration process must start with the diagnosis of your current environment. And then carry out a planning, a stage in which it will be necessary to map the origin of the content to be migrated and define the migration calendar.

In the case of SharePoint and Project, it is also important to plan the migration of the customizations and the reconstruction of the visual identity, so at the end of the migration, you will have the same identity.

6.Do more with less: Reducing hardware and electrical costs

With the migration from Project Online or SharePoint Online, you will be able to reduce your costs with licensing and purchase of software licenses, in addition to reducing the effort of your IT team, facilitating the development of innovative initiatives.

When calculating the costs of keeping the environment indoors, it is necessary to take into account the depreciation value of equipment and programs that will need to be updated, the expenses with the electricity bill and qualified labor to maintain a server indoors.

Thanks to the cloud, it is possible to use the most advanced technology in the world and keep your software always up to date, paying only for the amount and for the services used. Migration also reduces costs with electricity, physical space, hardware maintenance and license acquisition.

7.Mobility  and Sharing to maximize results

By migrating SharePoint and Project to the cloud, information will be stored on remote servers with very high data processing capacity and available on any mobile device. That is, you will be able to access the data and share it, when necessary, from anywhere.

Microsoft even provides an application for you to connect with Project and SharePoint Online. It's another possibility to keep in touch with your business anywhere, in addition to the possibility of access through mobile device browsers, without compromising your company's security.

8.Easy management and full control

Your data will be in the cloud, but control remains entirely yours. When you move SharePoint and Project to the cloud, you take control almost instantly. Microsoft has a powerful administration console that allows your organization to easily manage resources, policies, and security for all SharePoint Online and Project Online content and resources.

With several pre-configurations already established, the beginning of the work is even more agile, making SharePoint Online and Project Online a great tool for “plug and play” collaboration, with the Backend already configured by Microsoft.

Say goodbye to maintenance by moving SharePoint and Project to the cloud

What do you prefer: a team focused on innovation and new solutions or a team concerned with keeping the environment running? What do you think will bring more results to your company?

By migrating SharePoint and Project to the cloud, you let your team focus on innovation and reduce the time spent keeping your environment available, because using Project or SharePoint Online, server maintenance is automated and Microsoft's responsibility. You'll have your environment always up to date, with the latest features and minimal downtime.

10.Have an always available environment: work without interruptions and failures

Microsoft invests deeply in infrastructure so you can guarantee the longest possible uptime. It offers a service uptime with a financial guarantee of 99.9%. Uptime is the period of time that a cloud-based service is available to the user.

Among the resources used to ensure the high availability of the environment are:

• Redundancy
• load balancing
• Distributed services
• monitoring
• complexity reduction
• 24/7 phone support

As we describe in the text, when you migrate SharePoint and Project to the cloud, you gain: state-of-the-art infrastructure, security, cost reduction, constant updating and improvement of your software, mobility and collaboration, more productivity and tools to work, an environment always available and flawless, easy to manage and maintenance free.

Plan the migration of SharePoint and Project to the cloud and have access to advanced technology resources in an easy, uncomplicated and inexpensive way.