5 REASONS WHY CLOUD COMPUTING IS THE BEST FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Before the internet came along, you would purchase software, usually with a licence, and install and run it on your computers – similar to buying a music CD and playing it in your room. Under the cloud model, the software is run online by a third-party provider, and you access it through your internet browser. You never install anything on your own computer, and you never actually ‘own’ any software: rather than buying a product, you’re renting a service.

And with the rising prices of software, this, alone, is a great reason for your business to move on the cloud – aside, of course from the following excellent reasons why being on the cloud is one of the best decisions small business can make.

It’s a wise and cost-efficient solution

Start-ups and small companies are often undercapitalised and pay-as-you-go cloud computing solutions typically don’t require lots of upfront cash. Even if they don’t end up saving much as the monthly fees add up over the long run, avoiding capital expenditures can be a make-or-break issue for cash-strapped small businesses.

It’s reliable

The cloud is more reliable than most people think. When widely used cloud services and applications have outages, it makes national news. When an individual company – large or small – has a similar problem, they work hard to make sure you never even hear about it. The bottom line, though, is that even accounting for network connectivity hiccups, the cloud is probably a lot more reliable than what small businesses can afford to provide for themselves.

IT is someone else’s problem

First off, there’s just no technology for you to worry about. When you rent a car, the maintenance, repairs and breakdown assistance are all taken care of by the rental company. You rightly expect to be able to jump in and drive off, safe in the knowledge that your car will work. The same is true of cloud services: when you sign up, you get to use the software without worrying about installing it, maintaining it, downloading updates or keeping it secure. You also won’t need a server or any of the other additional IT investment that larger suites of software used to require. All that is taken care of by your service provider.

It makes collaboration with colleagues and clients easier

Professionals today are tech savvy. They are mobile. They are doing business 24/7. They are all over the world, working in teams. They are file sharing constantly. The ability to collaborate by virtue of a seamless, harmonious platform is highly valued by today’s professionals, especially those consistently sharing documents. For professionals and businesses dependent on constantly sharing data, cloud computing delivers and edge. Executives can share insights, recommendations and updates to reports and sensitive documents in a rapid-fire manner – freeing executives to concentrate on greater tasks, like closing deals and generating leads. Today’s competitive businesses want to readily and competently collaborate with internal groups and clients – without a hitch. If smooth collaboration and fluent file sharing is important to you, your clients and your business, the cloud may be right for you!

Security is certainly better than keeping all your data under lock and key!

Cloud computing is very secure – there are various benefits to storing files in the cloud, whether personal documents, business records, employee files, images, videos – anything. Confidential files are well protected in the cloud, where security is paramount. If there is a natural disaster and your computers are destroyed, and all company servers lost, no problem – if you are storing data in the cloud. Cloud hosting utilizes multiple servers, meaning loads of redundancy. Plus, utilising the cloud helps a business reduce spending on its technology infrastructure. With cloud computing, a business can maintain easy access to its data with less upfront spending, allowing for reduced capital costs thanks to a reduction in hardware, software and licensing fees. So, if you or your business would benefit from saving money and boosting data safety, the cloud may be right for you!