Evergreen IT keeps your cloud platform in shape

And it's bigger than you think!

How to keep your cloud platform up-to-date and secure

Evergreen IT has nothing to do with the company that sells lawns, but lawns are actually a pretty good analogy. Taking care of your IT environment is like watering your lawn: if you water a little but often, it will stay green all the time. If you wait too long, it will wilt. Evergreen IT means continuously keeping your IT platform up-to-date through small, frequent updates and iterative improvements to everything from operating systems and clients to applications.

In the past, it was more common for companies to have their own data center and manage everything themselves at their own pace. So they continued for four or five years until the system failed, forcing them to undertake a large and expensive IT project to keep up with developments. In addition to managing migrations, upgrades and new products, we also have to train IT staff and users. The reception of the rapid introduction of new information was rarely enthusiastic. And the more technological developments accelerated, the more the company fell behind between upgrades.

Today, many people have their IT platform in the cloud, and things are moving even faster there. Microsoft 365 and Azure, which are cloud platforms, are constantly developing and sending out new updates and products every month in a continuous stream.

The problem is that while many of the updates are automatic, you can't just sit back and enjoy the wonders of technology. Many of them require human decisions and actions. Someone has to decide which of the new apps, security protocols and network features your organization should have. Selected features often require manual configuration and activation, and then employees need to be informed and trained.

It's not surprising if your business isn't quite keeping up. But it can have bigger consequences than you might think.

What happens when your IT is lagging behind?

Here are five consequences of neglecting your technological lawn.

• Security risks. Microsoft analyzes new security threats every month and introduces new security updates in Microsoft 365 to combat them, but keeping your IT environment secure requires someone to keep track of the updates and take action on an ongoing basis.
• Non-compliance. GDPR and other regulatory requirements are changing rapidly and if your users and platform are not keeping up, you risk compliance.
• Risk of becoming a climate villain. Microsoft keeps track of its customers' carbon footprint and helps them reduce it - but only if you use the tools the platform provides.
• Large, unpredictable IT costs. A big-bang project every three years to catch up with the maintenance backlog risks being difficult to budget for and involves expensive consultancy.
• Inefficiency and loss of productivity. Users are unable to take advantage of new technologies and the ways of working they enable, from new apps to automation and AI support.

So the issue is not just technical, but highly business-critical. At the risk of your competitors unlocking the full potential of their IT platform, you risk being left behind.

But the solution is thankfully not far away.

Maximize the value of your Microsoft 365 environment

Evergreen IT means keeping tools and processes up-to-date at all times. This way you avoid major update projects, reduce security risks and give your employees the support they need to work effectively.

The good news is that if you have Microsoft 365, you already have all the tools you need.

The platform is based on the experience of a lot of companies that you can benefit from, as the users have proven to be very similar.

In short, the Microsoft 365 platform tracks and analyzes emerging security threats, your organization's IT usage and network performance. Based on the analysis, it then identifies problems and needs and continuously recommends concrete actions to help you facilitate best practices.

By keeping your platform green all year round, the whole company gets much more out of it.

So while it's not easy to keep up with the cloud, there are more opportunities than ever for those who know how to leverage their IT and keep it running smoothly.

Read more: How to keep your Microsoft 365 environment secure and up-to-date

Learn more about our premium service Upheads Evergreen