If the former applies to your customers, they have surely already considered whether a cloud solution would be a more cost-effective alternative or addition to their on-premises infrastructure. The short answer to this question: yes, it definitely would!
But we also know that this answer alone is of no help to you and your customers. That is why, as your partner, we want to help you make a sound case to your customers for the cost benefits of moving their IT landscape fully or partially to the Netstream Cloud.
Parallels between cloud and leasing
Imagine you lease a car. What are the advantages for you? With a lease, the focus is on your use of the vehicle, not on owning it. That means you avoid high one-off purchase costs and finance your car on a monthly basis, while benefiting from a current model. «It’s similar when moving from on-premises to cloud technologies – except that with us, the customer can even change the model every month», says Alexander Burkert, Head of Sales & Marketing at Netstream. «Your customer pays us monthly for their cloud infrastructure, and only for what they actually use.»
Reducing long-term fixed assets
In an on-premises infrastructure, buying new hardware such as computers, printers, on-premises software or servers increases long-term fixed assets. From a business perspective, this means tying up capital and thus reducing liquidity, while also taking on business risk, since payment is made in advance of revenue.
Moving fully or partially to the cloud, on the other hand, reduces fixed assets, because the monthly costs of the cloud count as ongoing operating or administrative expenses. Admittedly, all of this sounds very financial. Alexander Burkert explains the significance of this aspect as follows: «We think it’s important that our partners point this out to their customers. Shifting costs from fixed assets to ongoing operating costs is very attractive from a business perspective, as it avoids high one-off investments. It also gives your customer the opportunity to invest in their core business.»
In the long run, the cloud comes out ahead on costs
Next, your customer will certainly want to know specifically: what about the costs? Does moving from an on-premises infrastructure to the cloud mean potential savings for my company?
The cloud scores because, in the longer term, its costs are generally significantly lower than those of an on-premises solution. Cloud services require no server rooms or server maintenance. Costly additional services such as repairs, replacements and licence fees are also eliminated. And Netstream, as your partner, takes care of the complete maintenance and administration of the cloud solution for your customers.
Your customers’ potential savings with the cloud at a glance:
- Server hardware and UPS
- Redundant emergency / backup infrastructure
- Maintenance contracts
- Power consumption
- Staff costs
Prevention pays off
The damage caused to companies by digital extortion using so-called encryption trojans (ransomware) is forecast to reach 20 billion dollars in 2021. Alexander Burkert sees ransomware backup protection as a worthwhile investment that pays off: «Our cloud services give you and your customers comprehensive protection. With a secure backup architecture, they help you save costs in the long term in the event of a ransomware attack.»
Time is money – the cloud as a time-saving piggy bank
The unexpected often happens, as this year in particular has shown: suddenly most employees are working from home and accessing company data over the internet at the same time. If the infrastructure is located in an on-premises data center, performance is often impaired due to the insufficient resources of the on-premises infrastructure. The result: processes slow down and cost valuable working time. In addition, dissatisfaction spreads through the organisation and motivation suffers. Alexander Burkert is familiar with this problem from many customers. However, moving fully or partially to the cloud can prevent this situation. «The cloud allows you to use technologies such as GPUs flexibly to meet increased demands. In addition, the easy creation of virtual machines and additional resources gives your customers the opportunity to cover their performance peaks or availability requirements flexibly. This saves them expensive working time and keeps them flexible in every business situation.»
Business agility as an added bonus
Something that is difficult to express in figures should nevertheless be taken into account when customers ask about costs: the ability, with a cloud solution, to flexibly extend and scale back the IT infrastructure for new projects at any time. In today’s disruptive markets, this factor plays an increasingly important role and has an enormous influence on a company’s capacity for innovation. In reality, many companies have IT infrastructures that restrict business growth because of their rigidity. Alexander Burkert sees the agility of the cloud as an important added bonus that speaks in favour of a full or partial move, as it gives companies an enormous strategic advantage and increases their competitiveness in the long term.
Get in touch with us
Have we sparked your curiosity? Find out more about the benefits of the Netstream Cloud and a partnership with us. Alexander Burkert and his team look forward to hearing from you!
All potential cost benefits at a glance
- Leasing aspect:
the latest model at low acquisition costs - Financial aspect:
shift from fixed assets to ongoing costs - Savings aspect:
lower costs in the longer term compared with on-premises - Protection aspect:
cost savings in the event of a ransomware attack - Time-saving aspect:
faster working with flexible working models - Agility bonus aspect:
greater capacity for innovation through flexible adjustment of the service package
