4 reasons you should be using the cloud
What’s stopping you from switching over to the cloud? Hopefully, it’s not a reason founded in myths, although cloud computing is not perfect for all situations. For example, it may not be ideal for performance-intensive tasks such as video editing, depending on your needs.
That said, it does offer tremendous benefits across the board. Here’s a look at 4 reasons you should be using the cloud.
1. Anytime/anywhere access
You and your employees can work anywhere and anytime as long as internet access is available. Don’t want to lose a high performer when she moves across the country? With cloud computing, you might not have to. Want to offer mobile work options to attract a higher caliber of job candidates? Cloud computing is one way to do that. When you travel, cloud computing also makes it much easier to stay on top of things.
Another feature of anytime/anywhere access is that employees can start a project on their laptop and continue on their PC, tablet or cellphone. No need to constantly email files back and forth and accidentally work on older versions.
All of the sudden, possibilities open up. For example, you can have workers staffing the business 24/7 across multiple time zones. You can give your salespeople and other employees more tools than ever before, and an integrated experience becomes possible in so many ways.
2. Cost-effectiveness
Cloud computing can come with costs. For instance, if you spent a lot of money developing exclusive, in-house software, transferring it to the cloud may be expensive. In general, though, cloud computing is incredibly cost-effective.
It helps to know what you want and to look at factors such as:
- The degree of software customization you need
- Pricing plans for each cloud application
- Any data transfer costs
- The cost of your in-house IT personnel or managed services provider
- The ease of data transfers from vendor to vendor (for instance, if you don’t like a vendor and want to switch)
To address the last point, it may be best for your business to avoid vendors who use lock-in, proprietary software. It just depends on your unique situation. Learn as much as you can before investing.
Cloud computing also helps you save on hardware and IT infrastructure costs. You don’t have to update computers as often, and there may be no need to worry about maintaining and storing a data server along with the many types of hardware that go along with it.
3. Data security
Concerns about data security are one reason that some businesses take pause when it comes to cloud computing. Good news! Cloud computing offers baseline protections such as access control, encryption, and authentication. Large providers have lots of money to invest in data security. It’s much more money than a small business could ever invest in its own data security.
4. Disaster recovery
Has a business laptop been stolen? Did a water leak or fire damage a number of valuable computers? Cloud computing enables quick data recovery (and data loss prevention). If something happens to your equipment, data should still be on the cloud to access.
Cloud computing has been an ideal solution for many small businesses that want cost-effective secure data and mobile work options. Moreover, features such as anytime/anywhere access enable your business to become more agile and responsive.
Contact your managed IT services provider for help finding and deploying the right cloud solution for your business.
