How to Scale Your Cloud Services When Employees Work Remotely

Making the switch, even temporarily, to a remote workforce can seem like an arduous task. But if your company is already leveraging cloud services, you're in a great position to absorb any changes the transition may present. A skilled Managed Services Provider can easily deploy or scale your cloud resources, securely incorporate personal devices and home office workstations, and ensure your employees don't miss a day of work.

Here's how tools such as Azure AutoScale and Microsoft Teams accommodate changes in your workforce:

Scaling Up Service with Azure

Azure AutoScale is a feature that Microsoft built into their cloud and mobile services, virtual machines, and websites. Autoscale ensures applications perform optimally despite changing demand. This means your applications run smoothly at peak hours, and conserve memory during downtime. AutoScale allows you to set metrics based on your unique business data. For example, if you experience high mid-week site traffic, AutoScale will increase your applications' availability. Users can also pre-plan metrics around major events such as product launches, or holidays like Black Friday. Customization allows your business to:

• Scale by any metric

• Maximize application responsiveness

• Anticipate loads with different schedules

• Save money by conserving server usage

• Dev-test during the day, and shut down at night

By attenuating application use, your business can better allocate IT spend. You can scale down mobile services and virtual machines on the weekends, when employees have clocked out, then resume normal operations come Monday morning. Beyond cost savings, AutoScale allows you to set alerts for unexpected changes and response times. These proactive alerts help you address concerns before they impact your employees and customers. 

Ease Employee On-boarding and Collaboration with Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams combines the best of today's collaborative tools for a unified user experience. The platform offers next-generation Voice-over-IP telephony, smart chat, hosted meetings, AI-powered transcriptions, notes, and more. These features work together for:

• A faster, more efficient user experience

• Content archiving and retention for easy discovery and data compliance

• Interactive meetings featuring real-time communication, files, and project boards
  
  

The Teams interface makes it easy to create projects, invite team members, and share files. Employees can keep track of deadlines, provide real-time feedback, and use the "command box" for smart search. Administrators can leverage scheduling and shift management features to delegate tasks and monitor progress. Teams also integrates with Outlook, allowing employees to move conversations from one application to the other, maintain updated calendars, and set personal reminders. 

As part of the Office 365 suite, Teams delivers the latest in advanced security for employees and clients. Teams enforces two-factor authentication at the individual, group, and organization level. The application features single sign-on through Azure Active Directory, which provides access and identity management for users of cloud-based applications. Teams also encrypts data both in transit and at rest, and all files are stored through Microsoft SharePoint. 

For more information about leveraging tools such as Azure AutoScale or Microsoft Teams, reach out to iCorps for a free consultation - and get your remote employees on track for success.