Not everything belongs in the cloud. We'll tell you what does.
Email, files and desktops usually move well. The one application holding your business together sometimes doesn’t. Knowing the difference in advance saves you a lot of money and a very bad month.
We plan, run and look after the cloud side of your business – Microsoft 365, cloud desktops, hosted accounts software, backup and recovery – for businesses across Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch, Blandford, Ringwood, Southampton and the wider Dorset coast.
Migration planned and run by our team, not handed to you as a checklist.
"The cloud" is a shopping aisle, not a product
Nobody actually buys the cloud. They buy email that works on a phone, a desktop that follows them home, accounts software that doesn’t depend on a box humming in the corner, and a copy of everything in case the worst happens.
Those are four different jobs with four different answers, and a business can do one of them brilliantly while the others stay exactly where they are. Most of the disappointment we get called in to fix comes from someone being sold all four as one decision.
So we start the other way round. What do your people actually do all day, what’s holding them up, and which single change fixes the most of it?
What we look after
Microsoft 365
Email, Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive – set up properly, migrated without a lost mailbox, and managed from then on.
Windows 365 Cloud PCs
A personal Windows desktop for each person, living in Microsoft’s cloud instead of on a laptop. One fixed price per user, per month.
Azure Virtual Desktop
The flexible option – people sharing pooled machines, extra power for CAD or design work, capacity that scales up for a busy season and back down.
Sage Cloud Hosting
Sage 50 Accounts and Payroll running from the cloud, so your bookkeeper and your accountant get to the same live data from wherever they are.
Backup & Disaster Recovery
Automated, encrypted copies of your data and a tested route back – for ransomware, hardware failure, or someone deleting the wrong folder on a Friday.
Data Centre Colocation
For the kit that genuinely can’t move: your own hardware in a Tier III data centre with redundant power, proper cooling and round-the-clock security.
What's worth moving, and what isn't
Nobody else is going to tell you this bit, so here it is.
Move email first, every time. Microsoft 365 is the change with the shortest argument attached. Mailboxes stop being tied to a machine, files stop living in six versions called Final_v3, and Teams gives you one place to find a conversation from March. If you’re doing one thing this year, do this.
Desktops move well when hardware is the challenge. Ageing laptops, contractors who need access for three months, a new starter who needs a working setup tomorrow, or people using their own devices – a cloud desktop answers all four, and nothing sensitive ever sits on the device itself.
Line-of-business software depends entirely on the software. Sage hosts beautifully. Plenty of older industry packages don’t, and forcing them into the cloud makes them slower and more fragile than they were. We’d rather look at yours and say so.
Some things should stay put. If you’re running kit with strict data residency rules, a system with a hardware dependency, or an application whose licensing makes cloud hosting a bad deal, colocation or keeping it on site is the better answer. That’s a recommendation we make regularly, and it costs you nothing to hear it.
Once it's up there, it still needs looking after
Moving to the cloud changes where the risk sits. It doesn’t remove it.
It needs protecting
A Microsoft 365 tenant on default settings is an open door – sign-in controls, mailbox rules and alerting stop an intruder using a stolen password.
It needs backing up
Microsoft protects the platform. Your data inside it is your responsibility – as people find out the first time they need a file from four months ago.
It needs a connection that holds
Every cloud application in your business runs over one line. If that line wobbles, so does everything else.
It needs someone answering
Round-the-clock monitoring, updates applied without drama, and a person on the phone when something isn’t behaving.
Working with us
We’re a Bournemouth IT company that happens to be good at cloud work, rather than a cloud specialist who’s never seen your server cupboard. In practice that means the same team knows your network, your desktops and your Microsoft 365 tenant – so nobody spends a week deciding which one is at fault.
Our engineers are here on the South Coast, and we come out when coming out is what’s needed. We support businesses across Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch, Blandford, Ringwood, Southampton and the wider Dorset area.
And we size the move to your business rather than to a package tier. If half of what you’ve got is fine where it is, we’ll tell you that on the first call.
Getting started
1. We look at what you've actually got
Your setup, applications your team can’t work without, how many people and where – usually a conversation and a look round, not a three-week audit.
2. We plan the move, in order
What goes first, what goes later, what stays. You get the plan in plain English with the costs attached, before anyone touches anything.
3. We move it, then we look after it
Data transferred, everything tested before you switch, your old setup kept running until you’re happy. Then it’s monitored, updated and supported.
Plan your move to the cloud
Or call 01202 237 273 and ask what we’d move first. It’s a ten-minute answer.
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Common questions
The things businesses ask before they move – timescales, disruption, cost, and what happens to the systems that can’t go anywhere.
Not covered? Tell us what you’re running and we’ll give you an honest read on it.
Can you move our existing systems to the cloud?
Yes – assessment, migration plan, data transfer and testing, all handled by us. We’ll also tell you up front if part of your setup is better left where it is.
How long does a migration take?
It depends on the size and shape of what you’re running. A typical Microsoft 365 move is measured in days rather than months, and the work that affects your team happens outside working hours wherever we can manage it.
Will we be offline while it happens?
Very little, if at all. Your current setup keeps running while we build and test the new one, and we only switch over once everything checks out – at a time that suits you.
Will this reduce our IT costs?
In many cases, yes – mainly by removing server replacements, maintenance and the electricity that goes with them. But it becomes a monthly investment rather than a five-year one, and we’d rather show you real numbers for your business than quote an average. [add proof point]
Is our data safe up there?
It sits in Microsoft’s data centres with encryption and access controls as standard – but the settings matter more than the platform. We configure sign-in protection, multi-factor authentication and monitoring, and we back your data up separately.
What about the system that can't move?
Then it doesn’t move. Colocation puts your own hardware in a proper data centre, or it stays on site and we look after it there. Either way it carries on talking to everything else.
Do we have to take our IT support from you as well?
No. Plenty of businesses use us for one piece of this and nothing else. If you want to bring more across later, that’s your call.
How it's gone for other businesses
Every move looks different – a server nobody wanted to replace, an accountant who couldn’t get at the accounts, a team that went hybrid and never quite recovered.
Here’s how a few of them turned out.