The charity sector has always been an industry where budgets have been squeezed, which in previous years has led to a culture of austerity where technology is concerned; in fact, 58% of UK charities do not have a digital strategy[1]. Traditionally, it was thought that the money would be better spent where these organisations can make the biggest impact, such as front-line services and research. But more recently, many of the UK’s 200,000 registered charities have been looking at ways of moving from CapEx to an OpEx in a bid to make their investments go further. This is where Cloud Computing can really come into its own, breaking the costly 5-year hardware refresh cycle and allowing organisations to better control and account for their costs. So what are the challenges for the industry, and how has Cloud adoption been solving them?
In the new year Microsoft is implementing changes to their Enterprise Agreements (EA) which are set to impact how businesses manage their Microsoft software and services, particularly for those using cloud-based solutions. The changes are in line with Microsoft’s broader business strategy to streamline licensing and emphasise subscription-based models.