If you’re thinking about moving to the cloud but aren’t sure if it’s the right choice for your dealership, consider the following:
- Is your in-house server always down or crashing frequently?
- Are you struggling to keep up with your dealership’s growing data storage needs?
- Do you find that you’re having to spend increasingly more time and money on fixing technical issues?
These might be major warning signs that it’s time to move your dealership’s server from on-premise to the cloud. Relying on your old server is like trying to drive a car with a flat tire; it might get you to your destination, but it won’t be a smooth ride. Cloud hosting is like getting a new tire; it makes the journey much smoother, more efficient, and safer.
There are some major benefits to adopting cloud computing at your dealership. By transitioning to the cloud, you can digitally transform and expand your dealership’s capabilities to improve customer experience in ways that wouldn’t be possible without it. We explore these benefits and more below.
Click to Jump Ahead:
- Move to the Cloud for Enhanced Server Security
- Save Time by Moving to the Cloud
- Cloud Hosting Reduces Your Dealership’s Server Costs
- Cloud Hosting Allows for Faster Disaster Recovery
- Cloud Hosting Gives You Flexibility
- Cloud Hosting Scales with Your Dealership
- When is the right time to move to the cloud?
Move to the Cloud for Enhanced Server Security
Moving to a third-party cloud service provider gives you the benefit of having your system protected by the provider’s security measures.
That’s because cloud providers are responsible for monitoring system security, performing regular backups, and routinely updating the system to protect it against new threats.
Cloud environments are also safer because the cloud server is segmented from the user’s workstation. Typically, hackers enter a network using phishing or social engineering threats via the user’s workstation rather than at the server level.
Because cloud servers are segmented from the user’s workstation, it makes it harder for hackers to enter via the corporate network where the data is held.
Read Next: Five Keys to Understanding Your Dealership Network
Save Time by Moving to the Cloud
Maintaining your own on-premises server takes time. You need to handle the maintenance, backups, and updates yourself.
And if your system goes down, you’re the one that has to figure out how to fix it. That could mean:
- staffing someone to maintain the server,
- hiring a third-party person to repair it, or
- pulling one of your more tech-savvy team members off their regular work to find a solution.
By entrusting a cloud provider, you benefit from having their team on-call to address any system interruptions. They will also be responsible for keeping your system up to date to protect it from cybersecurity threats effectively.
Cloud Hosting Reduces Your Dealership’s Server Costs
Servers aren’t cheap. You can end up sinking a lot of money into maintaining and updating your server.
First, there’s the cost of the hardware to consider. Many dedicated servers are rented for $100 to $200 per month. Servers over 3 years old have a 10% probability of failure, and that number jumps to 20% by year 7. This means you should be replacing your server every 3-5 years.
Then, there’s the cost of software updates. You must ensure your security software is up to date, your data is backed up, and your disk space isn’t full.
That kind of maintenance takes a lot of time and money. If you’ve got an IBM Maintenance Contract, you know how hard it is to get on and expensive to keep. If you don’t have an IBM Maintenance Contract or adequate security measures in place, your server is a sitting duck for cybersecurity threats.
Read Next: Dealership Cybersecurity 101: Dealership Network Strategy, Best Practices, and More
Cloud Hosting Allows for Faster Disaster Recovery
When you’re responsible for backing up your own system, it can be easy for backups to fall by the wayside. After all, you’ve got a lot going on every day at your dealership, and backing up data is tedious.
But if you don’t regularly back up your data, you risk paying the price later if your system goes down. With so many floods, tornadoes, and storms in recent years, dealers who are maintaining their servers on premises are at a huge risk of losing their data.
Your data is backed up every night when your data is hosted in the cloud. This will help your system to get back up and running much faster with up-to-date information.
Cloud Hosting Gives You Flexibility
When your system is hosted in the cloud, you can access your system from anywhere with an internet connection. Web-enabled devices, including smartphones, laptops, and tablets, make it easy for employees to access files without needing to be at their workstations.
That means you can access customer records in the field, manage ongoing service, order parts, and more. Your team will be more mobile and responsive to your customers’ needs. They’ll be able to visit a downed piece of equipment, take pictures and notes, and instantly upload the information to the cloud without having to return to the workstation to do so.
The flexibility provided by cloud hosting allows your dealership to be more agile and responsive to changing business needs and better serve your customers.
Read Next: How to Make Your Dealership’s Customer Service Ready for the Digital Future
Cloud Hosting Scales with Your Dealership
Using servers to store your data and processes will become more costly as your business grows. This is because as new information and data are stored on the server, larger hardware with more processing power is needed to prevent the system from being overtaxed.
With the cloud, you don’t need to worry about hardware costs or overburdening your system – it grows with your business needs. That means downsizing is as easy as scaling up.
For example, if your dealership experiences a sudden increase in traffic, you can easily scale up your server resources to ensure that your website and applications continue to run smoothly. Similarly, if there is a decrease in traffic, you can scale down your resources to save on costs.
When is the right time to move to the cloud?
Digital transformations are happening across all industries. Upgrading to the cloud from an on-premise server is a key component of that digital transformation. This means replacing older methods, such as whiteboards, notebooks, and handwriting, to adopting digital tools, such as cloud hosting, to help your dealership become more efficient and profitable.
So, if your dealership is still running on an on-site server, this is the year to upgrade to the cloud.
Cloud hosting provides the necessary technology infrastructure to improve how dealers do business. It helps dealers store and manage large amounts of data in a secure and cost-effective way, respond to the needs of their customers faster, and ultimately increase the efficiency and profitability of their operations.
With the many benefits of cloud hosting, it’s no wonder that more and more dealerships are making the switch and experiencing greater success in their operations.
