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Businesses have been forced to adapt their ways of working almost overnight in-light of the coronavirus pandemic and those with cloud-based systems had a significant head start to those that did not.
38 percent of businesses have scaled infrastructure to meet new levels of demand during the lockdown periods, highlighting how the pandemic has accelerated businesses’ digital transformation plans, according to Aptum.
While cloud-based platforms have existed for more than a decade, adoption of instant access for users to an organisation’s data anywhere at anytime in business has been relatively slow. The coronavirus pandemic, however, has quickly revealed how working in the cloud can allow organisations to respond to change. Businesses are now operating differently and communicating to customers and wider digital communities via multimedia content on social media, web or app platforms.
The pandemic could have easily brought business processes and productivity to a stop, yet managed cloud services provide business leaders with the confidence to maintain and adapt their business strategies to cope with the new way of working.
As well as enabling staff to work from home efficiently – without clunky connections or slow servers – cloud-based systems also encourage collaboration, with many people able to access, annotate and review corporate documents simultaneously. This approach ensures transparency, with teams better able to manage their workloads and alleviates traditional document sharing headaches, such as file locking and overwritten data.
As we navigate the economic effects of the pandemic, there is certainly a requirement for non-cloud enabled organisations to consider adopting appropriate cloud technologies post-COVID-19, to drive business resilience. Now is the time for businesses to ensure any response measures that were put in place quickly are now robust and enterprise-grade. This will allow them to continue to accommodate long periods of remote working and distributed workforces.
Today it is easier to accept that cultures and processes must change to allow cloud computing to work properly. The acceptance of cloud computing within most businesses is a major shift and organisations that embrace the changes are likely to adopt new technologies that were once mere thoughts on the horizon, such as cloud, artificial intelligence, digital transformation, etc. This acceptance and desire for change and disruption will allow the business to become more agile, and thus respond better to customer and market dynamics.
So, what are the benefits of Cloud Services?
Efficiency and cost reduction – By using cloud infrastructure, you do not have to spend huge amounts of money on purchasing and maintaining hardware, facilities, utilities, or building out a large data centre to grow your business. Cloud also reduces costs related to downtime.
Data Security – One of the major concerns of every business, regardless of size and industry, is the security of its data. Data breaches and other cybercrimes can devastate a company’s revenue, customer loyalty and brand positioning. Cloud services offer many advanced features that guarantee that data is securely stored and handled.
Scalability – Cloud services are ideal for businesses with growing or fluctuating bandwidth demands. If your business demands increase, you can easily increase your cloud capacity without having to invest in physical infrastructure. This level of agility can give businesses using cloud computing a real advantage over competitors.
Mobility – Cloud services allow mobile access to corporate data. Users can get access to their work on-the-go, 24/7, via any devices of their choice, in any corner of the world as long as you stay connected to the internet. On top of that, all upgrades and updates are done automatically, off-sight. This saves time and team effort in maintaining the systems, tremendously reducing the IT team workloads. See our Prism solutions for more details.
Disaster recovery – Data loss is a major concern for all businesses, along with data security. Storing your data in the cloud guarantees that data is always available. Cloud-based services provide quick data recovery for all kinds of emergency scenarios – from natural disasters to power outages.
We have seen many businesses, including some of our customers, realise the potential the cloud to rapidly scale and deploy new services, particularly in terms of remote working.
Through Lumina’s cloud portfolio, we will look after your data and services off-site. Our cloud solutions revolve around your business. We will manage and support all aspects of your system, allowing you to reduce capital expenditure, slim your asset base and make your IT more flexible.
Do not let fear stop you from doing what is best to enable your business. Talk to Lumina today about moving to the Cloud.
Lumina Technologies have taken the time to understand the requirements of our business and work as our strategic IT partner, enabling us to concentrate on delivering a high quality service to our clients and focus on our growth strategy. They have delivered a 100% cloud solution to our business with no underlying infrastructure costs or maintenance, which gives us scalability for our planned growth. It also means our business critical applications and data are securely accessible from virtually all our user devices. Lumina’s professional approach and strategic expertise is highly valued and their management of our IT – based on their in-depth knowledge, leaves us confident that our systems are available 24×7.
Luke Harrison
Keidan Harrison LLP
Lumina have supported us so well through the difficult circumstances of 2020. They worked extremely hard to ensure we were able to work remotely and continue to operate our business successfully. The support team are very friendly and knowledgeable, and have excellent response times.
The team have also enhanced our cyber security which is so important in the legal sector, and they continue to provide high quality advice to help us move forward with our IT goals.
Robin Illingworth
Managing Partner, Adams & Remers LLP
The quality of IT Support provided by Lumina Technology is of the highest standard and is complemented by effective client liaison with impressive response times. Trap Oil Group plc has no hesitation in recommending Lumina as a dedicated and specialist group of IT professionals.
Martin David
Technical Director, Trap Oil Group plc
Richard and his team are a real inspiration to anyone who meets them and I have watched Lumina’s growth over the last few years with interest and admiration. Richard has been an amazing supporter of the Hospice of St Francis, being a Gold member of the Corporate Partner Network for almost two years. He takes an active interest in the community and is passionate about his company and his town: nothing is too much trouble, he is always willing to help, to give up his time and to provide business advice when asked. Lumina is an inspiration to any company wanting to set up business in Hertfordshire.
Carolyn Addison
Corporate Fundraising Manager, The Hospice of St Francis
Lumina Technologies Prism Hosted Desktop has allowed our business to centralise our global corporate data, allowing much faster access for all our staff – regardless of their location. We have also been able to simplify and reduce our infrastructure and management overhead. With the new Prism Hosted Desktop solution all staff now have simple and secure access to corporate data using any device they choose. Prism Hosted Desktop has increased the productivity of our staff and given us a single, consistent and familiar experience for all users from any device, in any location, 24/7.
Katherine Roe
Chief Executive Officer, Wentworth Resources PLC
The commercially sensitive and regulated nature of Lambert Energy Advisory’s business requires an IT provider able to maintain the highest levels of integrity and confidentiality, Lumina Technologies has consistently been unimpeachable in this regard over the nine years we have employed them.
Patrick Agar
Lambert Energy Advisory
It has been a great pleasure working with Lumina Technologies over the past two years. They have fully committed to being involved in the local community with volunteering and with professional advice and commitment, helping many local charities along the way. As a growing company it proves that being involved in the local community is helping them attract and retain a talented workforce and I look forward to working with them well into the future.
Cindy Withey
Connect Dacorum
Hawkstone Management Services Ltd is a small company for which IT Outsourcing is realistically the only viable option. Lumina Technologies have successfully performed this role for over fifteen years. They also provide innovative solutions to keep pace with technological progress. I would have no hesitation in recommending Lumina to similar sized businesses.
Stephen Pembury
Hawkstone Management Services Ltd
Charles Douglas Solicitors LLP have been using Lumina Technologies for a number of years now and continue to be impressed by the technical know-how and contemporary knowledge of their senior management, who provide a timely, efficient and friendly service. Whether it is a small issue with one computer, or a strategic IT decision, they maintain a current knowledge of available technologies. Lumina are always at the other end of the phone to help resolve issues and minimise business interference. The technical knowledge of Richard and his senior team means that there has not been a problem that they can’t solve to date. I am sure we will continue to use them in the years to come.
Charles Douglas
Managing Partner, Charles Douglas Solicitors LLP
The team at Lumina Technologies have made the Amoun Travel & Tours office IT transition seamless and problem free. The office set-up has been vastly improved and the IT Support services are flawless. No issue goes unresolved, which is extremely reassuring.
Adam Helmy
Amoun Travel & Tours Ltd
Lumina Technologies has been Salamander Energy plc’s IT provider since start-up in 2005 and has supported us in London during our expansion across operational offices in SE Asia. Their professional approach, strategic advice and close co-operation have been essential in making this a success.
John Bell
Group Technical Director, Salamander Energy plc
Richard and his team at Lumina have provided Perrett Laver Limited with high quality strategic and practical IT Services for over ten years. During this period, Perrett Laver has grown from 10+ colleagues based in London to nearly 100 colleagues located in six offices across the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. Richard and the Lumina team have not just been responsive to our ‘everyday’ IT needs, but have proactively sought to work with us on developing an infrastructure suitable for the type of operation we are today, and are planning to be months and years down the line. I would not hesitate to recommend Richard, especially for small to medium size business with growth in mind.
Clementine McKinley
COO, Perrett Laver Limited
Society Limited has been supported by Lumina Technologies since our earliest start-up phase. From large logistical challenges like an office move, through to smaller fiddly issues like fixing a faulty e-template, we know we can count on their support and advice. They’ve also been able to engage with us strategically on the challenge of scaling-up our infrastructure as the firm continues to grow and evolve. We always feel confident going to Lumina with a problem, since we know they genuinely care about sorting things out and helping us to get on with our core business.
Simon Lucas
Managing Director, Society Limited
The Vita Group HQ staff have worked with Richard McBarnet and Lumina Technologies for over 9 years, with Lumina providing all our PC, server, phone, and software support. The services have included C-level executives based in London, Manchester, the US, as well as supporting home office IT as well. The service provided and intellectual capabilities are outstanding and we would highly recommend Richard and his Lumina team.
Joe Menendez
CEO, The Vita Group
We worked with Lumina on a GDPR Audit. Richard was knowledgeable and professional throughout, and did the best he could to bring a dry topic to life through lots of real life examples and analogies. We were so impressed with the service Lumina provided and the value we got from partnering with them on this project – we couldn’t recommend them enough.
Holly Cottingham, Vintec Laboratories
