9. Cost Cutting
Every small business is looking to reduce costs of running a business. Cloud Computing is a great way to cut the costs. Services and software are charged on what you use. Large capital investments in IT equipment and software can be minimised or even eliminated. The costs of upkeep of the systems is eliminated. The cost savings don’t stop there, without the need of onsite servers and large racks of equipment, you can save on energy bills. Down time issues are a thing of the past allowing Staff to work more efficiently. IT teams or contractors can now focus on proactive business support instead of always putting out fires.
8. Built-In Redundancy
One of the biggest things we see in small business is the lack of backing up data correctly. We see people use USB keys, USB drives and network storage, but it has no redundancy. There is not more than one copy, with the 2nd copy somewhere safe. We see now more crypto locker attacks, this can lock you out of your data. The recovery from lost data of any sort, from drive failure to malware attack is one of the worst things a business can go though. In the cloud, your data is replicated across a numerous datacentres. If something does happen on premises and you lose a device or worse. The data is not lost you can access it off a different device, the business doesn’t have to worry about having to rebuild a database or restore access for uses.
7. Security
One of the major drawbacks that have slowed the integration of cloud computing into business systems has been the issue of security. However, cloud based applications are much more secure than onsite applications, and this holds true mainly for small and medium business. There is no denying the fact that taking care of the security of a business infrastructure is difficult, because the infrastructures and applications involved must be monitored, patched and maintained, more so now with the increasing cyber-attacks. This needs huge expense and expertise, which a small business will not be interested to undertake. Then there are the other areas of security that we should address, failure of networks, common human errors, like losing a USB key with client data on it. The major security risks have already been assessed and address by cloud computing providers, they invest significant time and money in to security, infrastructure, redundancy and best practices so the small business doesn’t have to.
6. Scalability
The one business advantage that cloud computing has over traditional in-house services is scalability. It is the fundamental key that cloud computing brings. Being able to increase resources when you need, and scale back in lean times. The on-demand nature of cloud computing means that business owners can have a fluid and dynamic IT environment with minimal cost. A business can have the same IT environment that was once in only the realm of large enterprises, allowing business to services customers better.
5. Updates
Ever have to plan for down time while you update all the services you run in your business? It is costly and stops people from working. By using cloud services, this is done for you, the services are updated and don’t affect your business. The cloud provider has done all the planning, put the time and effort in so they don’t disrupt your business leaving the business free to focus on growing and being competitive.
4. Standardisation of IT services
Like many small businesses there is often a large range and age of equipment all running different software versions. To maintain a standard platform in bigger companies this takes an IT department that small and medium businesses don’t have access too. Using a suite of cloud services everybody is working with the same software; the business is no longer tied to what physical software licences it has on premises. As the cloud as grown and continues to grow small business can now have that leverage of complex technologies and software to choose from. They can pick and choose which best suites there needs and have trust they are now able to compete on equal footing with larger business that use the same services. As the cloud continues to expand and the number of services grow the opportunities also grow.
3. Ability to Work from Anywhere
Technology has given us smaller and lighter devices, that can now connect to the internet from anywhere. We are no longer bound to a single place of work. You can have a team that is no longer just local but national or international, all working with the same data and same services. This allows the small business to open new business area’s and expand their market.
2. Business Agility
The more business invests in cloud services we see those business able to take advantages in shifts in the market place or better respond to competitive pressures. By not having the large overhead capital expenses for on sight services, a business with cloud services can quickly adapt and to the new business environment.
1. Improved Collaboration and Communication
With cloud services, all company data is kept accessible for everybody who needs it. That means a team is not slowed down, by a person that sick or away has the files kept on their computer or taken away on a USB key. You can use team members and staff in different locations allowing you use skills that might not be at any one single site. Being able to easier share and collaborate on files, see updates in real time, allowing small business to streamline meetings either in house or web conferencing. Giving the staff more time to get more done.
Business are realising that running an IT department is not their core strength, they are better, Doctors, Accountants, or plumbers. Buying cloud services, like Microsoft’s Dynamics for the hold business is often more cost effective, and more reliable than running it internally with an extra person or two for whole department. So what sort of clouds are there?
There are 3 types of clouds:
Public Cloud: Generally, the services provided are via the internet. The office greater efficiency than other clouds but they can be vulnerable. The Public cloud is chosen when:
- The standard workload for applications is used by lots of people, like email.
- You have Software as a Service from a vendor, like Office365
- You need to be scalable. Expand and contract with busy and lean times.
- You do collaboration projects with other teams or companies.
For those companies that are more focused and concerned with security
Private Cloud: these are more secure, and the services provided are built for your company exclusively, but they are costlier, and not as flexible.
Hybrid Clouds: A hybrid cloud uses a private and public cloud. This allows the business to take advantage of cost saving cloud services as well as maintain a private cloud. It is also possible to add physical onsite equipment in to this type of cloud.