In a world that’s become ever more digital, IT personnel have become the unsung heroes of the office. The sheer number of platforms, applications and devices we use seems to grow on a daily basis. It falls to IT staff to keep everything copacetic —  and on the most challenging days, that can be something of a high wire juggling act.

We rely on IT personnel to protect networks, ensure that digital infrastructure runs properly, help fellow employees with tech support — and save the day if an unforeseen emergency strikes.

So why not make their job easier by switching to cloud computing?

How Cloud Computing Improves the User Experience

Ask any IT worker to identify the least pleasant parts of her job, and you’ll likely hear the same familiar litany of woe: Endless help desk tickets, integration problems, device management issues, user security lapses and downtime complaints.

Many of these problems can be directly tied to the use of creaking legacy IT systems. Some businesses — whether due to organizational inertia or a desire to avoid change — continue to apply band-aid solutions to their legacy systems in an effort to help employees stay current with evolving business practices.

Switching to cloud computing eliminates the need to approach updates and upgrades in a piecemeal fashion while also significantly improving the user experience. That’s something that will make for happier employees, and less harried IT staff.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the key benefits that can be reaped by migrating to the cloud:

• Modern, streamlined design. Many of today’s workers are digital natives who grew up in an era of seamless, on-demand mobile services and high level UX. Clunky legacy IT, with its hodgepodge of outdated operating systems and software, hardly provides the modern, consumer-grade experience to which many workers are accustomed. Switching to the cloud can help deliver the kind of intuitive, mobile-optimized user experience that earns employee loyalty and helps people stay productive.
• Reduced complexity. Unnecessary complexity is the enemy of great user experience — and legacy IT is often absurdly complex. Cloud solutions allow organizations to reduce (or mask) this complexity by allowing users to interact with systems without advanced knowledge. This can also significantly reduce the costs and time expenditures associated with training, freeing up IT staff to work on higher value tasks.

• Greater flexibility. Today’s workers want the freedom that mobile offers. Using a cloud solution allows them to escape the “tyranny of proximity” — having to remain on-premises simply because that’s where the necessary infrastructure is located. Given larger trends toward workplace mobility and remote working, migrating to the cloud plays a critical role in ensuring that companies are aligned with modern worker preferences. Employees can get the job done virtually anywhere and anytime.
• The power to collaborate. Innovation and collaboration go hand in hand. Yet today, it’s no longer necessary to huddle around a desk or a conference room table to get the collaborative juices flowing. Moving to the cloud allows workers to share, edit and access files and documents from anywhere and communicate across a variety of channels. By using these tools, updates can happen in real time, work is finished faster and everyone involved is instantly reachable if their input is needed. With cloud, collaboration doesn’t have to stop at the office door — which is great because the best ideas often occur during off hours.
• No worry about software updates. The pain of having to deal with frequent updates on an older (and often unwieldy) system is resolved by migrating to the cloud. Updates occur automatically, freeing up workers to focus on less vexing and more important tasks. Overall, moving to the cloud reduces or even eliminates the burden of worrying about out-of-date applications, conflicts and general maintenance headaches.
• Security, recovery and peace of mind. Given our ever expanding lists of log-in credentials and devices, practicing good security hygiene is a challenge for many of today’s users. By that same token, dealing with the fallout from security lapses is an equally stiff challenge for IT staff. Switching to cloud helps mitigate these risks. Backup data is stored on offsite servers, sensitive data can be wiped remotely and the process of managing credentials is simplified. Should catastrophe strike, whether via a natural disaster or systemic failure, a cloud solution can help businesses recover lost data. By helping provide greater security, cloud computing offers users greater peace of mind.
• Greater business continuity. Let’s face it: Everyone hates downtime. By moving to a cloud provider that uses offsite servers, the risk of downtime is reduced and workers can avoid dealing with frustrating outages.

The Takeaway

Given the range of powerful benefits offered by cloud computing solutions, it’s hardly surprising that so many firms have decided to mothball their legacy IT systems.

If your organization would like to profoundly improve user experience — while easing the burden on the unsung heroes of your IT department — we encourage you to take a closer look at what a modern cloud computing solution has to offer.