It usually means three things in combination. Files and email move from a server in your office or a hosted box to Microsoft 365 (or Google Workspace), so they are accessible from any device with proper authentication. Applications move from on-premises servers to either cloud-native equivalents or virtual machines hosted in Azure or AWS. Day-to-day IT then becomes about identity, licensing and configuration rather than hardware. The benefits are accessibility, resilience and predictable cost. The trade-offs are connectivity dependence and a different cost structure.
No — that is one of the more common misconceptions. Cloud is usually cheaper on capital outlay and on flexibility, because you avoid buying hardware up front and can scale up or down quickly. Over a five-year horizon, operating cost of a heavily-used environment can sometimes exceed an equivalent on-premises setup. The right answer depends on your usage profile, your growth plans, your appetite for capital spend, and your regulatory position. We model both options before recommending.
Yes — a hybrid setup is often the right answer. Modern productivity (email, files, collaboration, identity) sits in the cloud, while specific legacy applications stay on a managed server either on-premises or in a private hosted environment. The two are connected by secure tunnels and a single sign-on layer so users do not feel the seam. Over time, legacy components are usually retired or replaced when the business case lines up, rather than forced.
For most UK SMEs, Microsoft 365 is the stronger choice because of Office compatibility, Teams adoption, deep integration with Windows and broader third-party ecosystem support. Google Workspace tends to suit organisations already standardised on Chromebooks or with a heavy collaborative-document workflow. We pick the platform that matches how your team actually works rather than the one we sell more of, and we are licensed to deliver and support both.
An SME migration typically runs eight to twelve weeks end to end. The first three to four weeks are discovery and planning — mapping users, licences, data volumes and dependencies. The middle four weeks are pre-staging and pilot migration with a small user group. The final two to three weeks are the cutover, in batches, with hand-holding and post-migration support. Larger environments take longer; the plan is built around your business calendar so we avoid month-end, audit periods and busy seasons.
All major cloud platforms support a data export — files, mailboxes, SharePoint libraries, Teams content. We document the export path and your tenant ownership at the start of any engagement so there is never a question about who owns the data. If you change provider or bring delivery in-house, your data leaves with you in standard formats. We help with the export and the transition rather than holding anything hostage.
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In dialogue with you we can maximise the value of your technology, helping you get optimum results from the investments you’ve already made. From security to reliability, performance to costs, we can help your IT solutions grow with your business.
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