3 REASONS TO USE THE CLOUD IN YOUR BUSINESS

If you are still wondering if it would be worth the effort to move to the Cloud, then perhaps you may not know that you have most likely been using the cloud already – with your Gmail, Dropbox, Skype and YouTube.

If you own a business, particularly a small business, cloud computing is a service in which you should consider investing. Not only can the cloud allow your business and its employees to work more productively—and away from the office as is often necessary these days—it also can save you money in overhead costs. You also may find that, by using cloud computing services, you and your business can help the environment.

The great thing about cloud computing is that it’s not an all-or-nothing proposition. Even if you already have servers and an IT staff, you can pick just one application that you think would be better served in the cloud.

Here are more reasons why the move is worth considering.

Cloud computing can improve employee productivity.

Using tools like Online Exchange and SharePoint, employees can easily access documents and emails while away from the office. Many small businesses have employees working remotely, and need both mobility and flexibility. Cloud computing is a straightforward and affordable way of addressing those needs, especially when you are using intuitive, familiar software that your employees already know.

With the Cloud, you get better performance, more features.

Since cloud providers are providing services to many different companies, they buy large, high-performance systems that offer performance levels much higher than a small company can afford to run internally. They typically have the most capable versions of software and site licenses, so they’ll also have access to features at much lower costs than you’d be able to get in-house. Their experienced administrators are more likely to know how to optimize performance than your company is–especially if your IT department consists of one person who also doubles as the art department.

Cloud computing is secure.

In fact, cloud computing can be more secure than a traditional IT infrastructure. Numerous studies have shown that more than 50% of small businesses will go out of business within a year of a major data loss. In a cloud environment, if you lose your laptop – or worse, your whole office – you can get back to business in no time. All your business information and files are securely in place.Cloud computing providers build multiple levels of security and redundancy into their data centers.