The past two years have seen cloud computing dramatically transform the landscape of business IT. Everywhere you look, "the cloud" is lowering costs and allowing companies to do more with less, and Liberteks is working to find the best solutions for its customers.
The differences have been particularly striking with regard to software packages. Most of us now use cloud-based applications that, for a low monthly fee, replace the expensive application sets we had to purchase and upgrade year after year for a long time. That means we get newer, better versions of just about everything, and without making big cash outlays at unpredictable intervals.
But while applications like office productivity software and accounting packages moved into the cloud a few years ago, cloud-based antivirus software is only starting to become popular. Is it something your company can or should rely on? Let's look at a few of the positives:
Cloud-based antivirus software packages are less expensive. As with most cloud technologies, the primary driving factor for most businesses comes down to cost savings. When you're dealing with the cloud, you're almost always going to see a net decrease in expenses. As an added benefit, you get to trade those big antivirus upgrade expenses for a small monthly cost.
You can forget about time-consuming installations and patches. Because changes to the cloud-based antivirus software package are made remotely, you don't have to pass disks around your office or wait for downloads to finish and install. The software company's engineers adjust formulas and make patches on their end, and you simply log in to enjoy the benefits instantly.
Upgrades and new protections are integrated automatically and instantly. Traditionally, when new threats have been discovered, antivirus companies have had to develop a patch, and then have you install it, before you can be protected. Since they can now make the changes instantly on their end, adjusting to new security issues, viruses, and other concerns is a lot faster, and doesn't require any conscious effort from you or your team.
So what are the drawbacks to cloud-based antivirus packages? The one potential issue that worries some companies, and their IT teams, is the possibility that cloud-based antivirus might not protect as well against local threats (that is, viruses and malware that come to you through flash drives, for example), and that some of the packages aren't as effective when you aren't connected to the Internet.
However, these risks are relatively small and haven't really played out that significantly in the real world yet. For most companies, then, making the switch to a cloud-based antivirus software package is probably safe and beneficial. And for those that still have concerns, cloud-based antivirus can be a strong (and inexpensive) way to get even stronger protection than what they've gotten in the past.
Want to find out more about cloud-based antivirus packages, or learn about other ways we can help you use technology to increase your productivity and lower costs at the same time? Call a member of our team today and ask for a free consultation… you'll be amazed at how quickly we can show you ways to get more from your technology.
Tags: antivirus programs, cloud computing, managed IT services
