Many strata management companies still run on‑premises servers for email, files, and strata platforms, but the true cost of this infrastructure is often underestimated. When you factor in hardware, replacement cycles, power, cooling, backup media, and the IT time required to manage it all, on‑premises environments can become a significant and growing burden.
On‑premises infrastructure appears simple on the surface: buy servers, install them in a rack or cupboard, and run your systems. In practice, strata companies face ongoing costs for hardware refreshes, power and cooling, backup tapes or disks, and the IT labour required to patch, monitor, and troubleshoot these systems. These costs compound as the business grows and more schemes, users, and data are added.
Servers, storage, and network equipment require significant upfront capital investment and typically need replacing every few years. Budgeting for these refresh cycles is often reactive, leading to unexpected costs or ageing, risky hardware.
On‑premises servers consume power 24/7 and generate heat that must be managed, adding to electricity bills and sometimes requiring dedicated air‑conditioning or server room upgrades. Physical space for racks and cabling also becomes a constraint as the business grows.
Patching, backup management, monitoring, and troubleshooting on‑premises infrastructure consume valuable IT time that could be spent on strategic initiatives. For strata firms without large IT teams, this overhead diverts focus from scheme administration and client service.
AWS changes the cost model from large, irregular capital expenditures to predictable, usage‑based operating expenses that scale with your business. Instead of buying and maintaining servers, you pay per user, per month, or per workload, with no surprise hardware replacement costs and no single points of failure. This makes IT spend more transparent and easier to align with portfolio growth and revenue.
AWS and associated cloud services such as Microsoft 365 allow you to licence and provision resources on a per‑user or per‑workload basis. As you add or remove staff and schemes, your costs adjust accordingly.
Cloud hosting eliminates the need for large upfront server and storage purchases, turning IT into a more predictable operating expense. This improves cash flow and reduces the risk of unexpected capital outlays.
AWS provides redundancy across multiple systems and facilities as part of the platform, reducing the need for costly duplicate on‑premises hardware for backup and disaster recovery. This improves resilience without proportional cost increases.
AWS provides detailed cost reporting and budgeting tools so you can see where spend is going and forecast future costs more accurately. Microsolve helps configure these tools to align with your financial planning cycles.
Moving to the cloud is about using your IT budget in a strategic manner, and not just reducing cost. Savings from reduced hardware and maintenance can be redirected to security, compliance tools, and strategic IT initiatives that directly support business growth and risk reduction for strata companies.
Freed‑up budget can be used to implement stronger identity and access controls, email security, immutable backups, and certification frameworks such as SMB1001. This reduces ransomware and data breach risk while supporting compliance obligations.
Cloud savings can fund projects that improve efficiency and client service, such as workflow automation, better reporting, or owner portal enhancements. These initiatives directly support growth and differentiation in a competitive market.
With less time spent managing servers and backups, internal IT or support providers can focus on optimising applications, improving user experience, and supporting strategic change. This increases the return on every dollar spent on IT.
Microsolve does not treat cloud migration as a purely technical project. We design migrations and cloud environments to deliver measurable cost and risk benefits for strata firms. This is done by a thorough investigation into and understanding of your current infrastructure spend, pain points, and growth plans. We then build a cloud model that reduces total cost of ownership while improving resilience.
Microsolve reviews your existing server hardware, support contracts, power and space costs, and IT labour spend, and maps these against your risk profile and growth plans. This forms the basis for a cloud cost model and business case.
We design the target AWS architecture and associated Microsoft 365 and backup services, and create a detailed cost model that compares current and future states over a multi‑year horizon. This helps leadership understand payback, savings, and risk reduction.
Microsolve manages the migration to AWS and continues to review usage, rightsizing, and licensing to ensure you realise ongoing savings. Periodic cost and architecture reviews keep your cloud environment aligned with business changes.
Still unsure of how cloud migration can take stress off your IT budget? Chat with an expert to get a clear understanding that is dedicated to your organisation.
The main cost drivers include server hardware and replacement cycles, power and cooling, backup media, and the IT time required to patch, monitor, and troubleshoot systems. These costs often grow as the business adds schemes and users.
AWS uses a usage‑based, per‑user or per‑workload pricing model that scales with your business, turning large capital outlays into predictable operating expenses. This makes it easier to budget and align IT spend with revenue and portfolio growth.
Many strata firms reduce total cost of ownership by eliminating hardware refreshes, power and cooling, and excessive manual IT overhead, while gaining better resilience. The exact savings depend on your current environment and how cloud is designed and managed.
Savings can be redirected to security and compliance tools, certification frameworks such as SMB1001, and strategic IT initiatives that improve efficiency and client service. This turns cost savings into competitive advantage.
Microsolve assesses your current costs and risks, designs a cloud architecture with a clear cost model, and manages migration and ongoing optimisation to ensure you continue to realise savings. Periodic reviews keep your cloud spend aligned with business needs.
