MAIN-TOOL as a cloud service
Scalability, efficiency and innovation: Public clouds offer many advantages that private clouds do not offer. Gartner analyst Sid Nag therefore expects global sales of public cloud services to increase by 17 percent to a total of $208.6 billion in 2016. Thus, MAIN-TOOL as a cloud service in Microsoft Azure is also very much in trend!
But what exactly is Microsoft Azure? What advantages and security does MAIN-TOOL offer as a cloud service? And what is the concrete benefit for customers? Torsten Staschik, partner and business customer consultant at Microsoft Dynamics, explains in an interview.
What is the Cloud/Azure?
Cloud solutions offer great flexibility, almost unlimited scalability and allow companies to react agilely to new requirements. In cloud solutions, the cloud services provider provides the infrastructure and, if necessary, the solutions that companies want to use. At the same time, the cloud provider keeps its infrastructure up to date and adapts its solutions and offerings to the latest technological standards. In this way, cloud providers relieve the burden on traditional IT and help companies to react efficiently and effectively to new requirements in existing markets and to open up new business fields quickly and reliably! Microsoft Azure was developed as an operating system especially for operating all Microsoft solutions in the cloud. Data is distributed over the enormously powerful Azure infrastructure, fed to the cloud solutions and processed.
How secure is Cloud/Azure?
Cloud solutions are subject to the strictest security standards. Companies like Microsoft, who have made the cloud their business model, set the highest security standards to protect their customers’ data. Data is really secure here – according to German law: Microsoft Azure is operated via two data centers located in Frankfurt and Magdeburg. Accordingly, customers have full access and corresponding sovereignty to what happens to their data. In addition, Microsoft invests 1 billion euros annually in cloud security.
A comparable level of security is difficult for many companies with traditional IT environments to implement and keep up to date. In the cloud, data is secure against unauthorized access and at the same time protected against unforeseen events. Microsoft meets the highest independent national and international security standards for cloud solutions. These include ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 27018, FedRAMP, SOC 1 and SOC 2.
In order to give customers the greatest possible transparency as to which measures are being taken and which standards are being applied, Microsoft has disclosed a wide range of information on the Internet. Interested users can find out more about the Microsoft Trust Center: https://www.microsoft.com/de-de/trust-center. At the same time, Microsoft is actively working to improve standards for the benefit of its customers.
Why should I transfer my IT to the cloud?
On the one hand, resources can be provided for extremely large amounts of data at the push of a button via the cloud. If surprisingly large amounts of data accumulate, they can be processed immediately with the help of the cloud. This form of provision also relieves companies of time-consuming and cost-intensive procurement processes.
If the capacity is no longer required, the resources are reduced again. Cloud solutions are therefore also the backbone of big data applications. Cloud solutions also meet the highest security standards. Data theft from the cloud is virtually impossible. A hard disk, on the other hand, is quickly stolen – or crashes.
Cloud solutions also do not tie up valuable capital that can be used elsewhere for targeted business operations. Cloud solutions are based on monthly rental models and do not burden companies’ investment budgets. In addition, cloud providers always provide the latest technology, enabling customers to benefit directly from innovations. And last but not least, the cloud allows companies to implement and use new solutions quickly and flexibly thanks to a very broad spectrum of special applications.
Why MAIN-TOOL in the Cloud?
MAIN-TOOL as a cloud solution in Microsoft Azure offers many advantages. The cloud service is simply billed monthly. Customers only pay for what they really need, with flexible terms. Investigations have shown Companies using public cloud services save an average of 14 percent of their budget.
MAIN-TOOL in the cloud not only saves money. The Public Cloud solution is above all a big step in IT modernization. The MAIN-TOOL cloud service helps customers to create the strategic basis for new applications and digital business processes. No administration or additional hardware is required. Internet access is completely sufficient.
In addition, MAIN-TOOL as a cloud solution offers the simple and secure possibility to integrate other cloud products such as Office 365 or Internet of Things into the existing EAM solution, and thus receive document management and status data almost immediately. Really a well thought-out, safe and top-functional solution!