A decade ago, the idea that you could outsource most of your IT requirements to a third-party provider and save time, money and effort was just a dream; it would be great, but it wasn’t possible. That idea is now a reality and one that companies big and small are benefiting from, after they learn the advantages of a cloud-based system.
The cloud offers many benefits depending on the nature of your company, but here are its main advantages:
Cost Reduction
Significant reductions in a company’s IT budget are the big reason for the cloud’s widespread increase in use. Using a cloud system doesn’t require you to purchase and install servers, since the host provides everything, eliminating thousands of dollars of expenses. Cloud hosts only charge customers for the types and amounts of services they use, allowing you to customize your hosting package to your specific needs.
Accessibility
As long as users have Internet access, they can reach their cloud files from any location, whether it’s at the office, the airport or a client’s boardroom. You don’t have to worry about losing a file just before a meeting. Cloud technology also allows smartphones and tablets to reach information as well. When someone updates files, they’re propagated to all team members so everyone’s aware of changes or new insights.
Flexibility
Since cloud hosts charge clients on a pay-per-use basis, it’s easy for a company to increase its cloud services during busy times and then scale back during slower moments. What makes this so advantageous is that these changes are all done seamlessly, requiring no hardware or software purchases to deal with changes in capacity. The cloud provider handles everything; just requisition a different amount of resources and that’s it.
Constant Backups and Reduced Downtime
Data backups fall under the responsibility of the provider, who must make sure that client files are protected and secure under its cloud backup service. When a failure occurs, the host brings a mirrored site into action to reduce downtime, which eliminates the need to purchase storage devices for backups and then verify that everything’s still there.
Focus on Business
In addition to being an intensive part of a company’s budget, IT requires a team of knowledgeable staff who must be able to handle problems when servers go down, an email application isn’t cooperating or when a backup plan goes awry. By offloading all these responsibilities onto a cloud host, it enables your company to tighten its focus on its core business goals and not be encumbered by IT setbacks.
The cloud is becoming a popular solution for organizations of all sizes and for good reason. It allows companies to be more streamlined and efficient, and it removes a variety of expenses that any company would be happy to be free from. The cloud is providing a big step forward in a growing evolution within the IT industry for companies around the world. Even enterprise companies are adopting cloud strategies, which means that smaller businesses have a great deal to gain now that this technology has arrived, allowing them to be able to compete with those same larger businesses. Once again, a decade ago, these kinds of opportunities weren’t on anyone’s radar, but cloud computing has now put them easily within reach.