If your mind is fogged by all the talk of hosting, Software–as–a–Service and the cloud, let us shed some light.

Migration to the cloud is a manageable and methodical process that can deliver transformational cost savings and benefits to your organisation. Above all, it can extend the full productive power of your Lotus Notes and Domino infrastructure to whoever needs it, wherever they are.

Here's what moving to the cloud can deliver:

• Lower costs – no need to maintain in–house platforms, with all the associated costs of hardware, software, backup and security solutions
• Higher productivity – you need fewer people to manage and maintain your IT systems and they can focus key growth projects, rather than firefighting
• Sustained, optimised performance – you always have the latest versions, with no need for patching and upgrades in-house
• Less downtime, without the in–house cost of maintenance – your service provider is focused on maintaining high availability, with heavy investment in resilience and continuity of service

Strategic planning

Clearly, the cloud needs more than just blue–sky thinking. LAN2LAN will help you develop a detailed strategic plan to make sure you do no more and no less than is required to get the best from the capabilities of the cloud.

The key questions are:

• What are the business drivers for your cloud deployment?
• How does your organisation currently use your Lotus Notes and Domino infrastructure?
• Which elements would benefit most from migration to the cloud?
• How will the infrastructure scale to accommodate future growth?

This analysis of the way your organisation works will allow you to make the changes you need in the right way, at the right time.

LAN2LAN’s experience with IBM LotusLive and LotusLive Notes means you can move to the cloud with a controlled and clear roadmap. You do not have to commit to an immediate programme of capital investment and major disruption.

For example, you can move email services for remote offices to the cloud, while keeping your main email system in–house. We can look after the integration needed to maintain a seamless service, whether users access email via a secure Internet connection, or directly through the corporate network.

The scalable cloud

Crucially, the cloud is not the exclusive domain of the larger enterprise. If you have as few as 25 users, you can talk to us about the integrated IBM Lotus technologies developed specifically for the cloud, including web conferencing, instant messaging, social networking for business, file sharing, task management and more.

The next step

A LAN2LAN Mail Platform workshop will help you to analyse your email needs and patterns of usage, providing you with a series of recommendations. It will give you a close insight into how the cloud can fit into your organisation.