Businesses of all sizes, industries and scale are porting to the cloud. This is not a fluke; the latest statistics show that cloud adoption for businesses is more than 93% up since 2019.
The cloud is being adopted by businesses and individuals alike, it is the technological equivalent of having peace of mind. While services may differ between different cloud service providers, it remains a sound business decision, to find out about the different cloud service providers and which one suits you best, check out the article below.
Related: An Introduction to Cloud Networking
The cloud is a great way to run a business since it offers many advantages and only a few disadvantages. Before we dive into the benefits a company can achieve by adopting cloud infrastructure, let’s take a quick look at what exactly cloud & cloud computing is, and how can companies migrate to the cloud.
What exactly is the Cloud?
“The cloud” refers to servers that are accessed over the Internet, and the software and databases that run on those servers.
Simply put, it’s the core parts of your computer accessible to you over the internet.
Cloud computing on the other hand is the process involved with using those core parts of your computer over the internet, this term covers everything you can do with the cloud.
With cloud computing, you can host programs, databases, software and platforms on the cloud, all these resources will always be available to you anywhere, anytime on any device if you have an internet connection.
To sum all this up, The Cloud is a sustainable, secure and remotely accessible server containing your data and virtual tools.
Here’s a list of key benefits an enterprise can expect to achieve when adopting cloud infrastructure.
Efficiency / Cost Reduction
This is one of the greater advantages of porting to the cloud, every year business spend good money on IT equipment purchase and maintenance. The cloud completely eliminates the need to buy or maintain most of the equipment businesses need.
You don’t have to invest in hardware, facilities, utilities, or building out a large data center to grow your business. You do not even need large IT teams to handle your cloud data center operations, as you can enjoy the expertise of your cloud provider’s staff.
Most companies even provide after sales services called managed services that eliminates the need for hiring any IT person to be on site.
Data Security
Every business regardless of size and industry is concerned about the security of its data, everything a business does is simply generating data for what it plans to do. Data breaches and other cybercrimes can devastate a company’s revenue, customer loyalty and brand positioning.
Cloud storage providers implement baseline protections for their platforms and the data they process.
A good example of this is Microsoft Azure, Azure insists on a two-factor authentication process, with other fail safe’s like; the ability to set different levels of sensitivity on documents or the ability to recall a mail or document sent.
Flexibility
Another great advantage of the cloud is that it allows you to build your IT needs to scale, different companies have different IT needs a large company of more than 1000+ employees won’t have the same needs as a start-up. Using cloud is the perfect solution, it allows any business to efficiently scale up and down as demanded.
If your business demands increase, you can easily increase your cloud capacity without having to invest in physical infrastructure. This level of agility can give businesses using cloud computing a real advantage over competitors.
This flexibility minimizes the risks associated with in-house operational issues and maintenance. You have high-performance resources at your disposal with professional solutions and zero up-front investment. Flexibility is probably the greatest advantage of the cloud.
Seamless Collaboration
This one is cool, the cloud allows for you to store documents from any device into a central depository, it also allows for anyone with access to pull out said documents from said repositories.; But it takes it one step further, with the write tools several people can collaborate (work) on any single document anytime, anywhere from any device.
A great example of a tool that allows this is Microsoft Teams; Microsoft teams allows for unlimited participants to hold meeting and work on documents even as those meetings are going on, you can share, type or take action on your ideas in real-time, all through the cloud.
Related: Microsoft Teams: The Answer to Remote meeting and Collaborations.
Disaster Recovery
While some people feel that this is a derivative of Data Security, it is still a pretty big advantage all on its own. When people store their data on site, a big worry is what will happen in the event of a disaster. What will happen is there’s a fire? If there’s a virus? Or a flood?
Businesses solve this problem by having another repository located elsewhere but synced to their primary server. This is not only a money pit, but it also just duplicates the problem on another location. The problem is that your data is susceptible to these dangers, but the cloud solves that perfectly.
Clod service providers have data farms built to withstand all forms of disasters, you data is stored in a place that is geographically stable with a group of professionals dedicated to ensuring its integrity.
Data Control
Having control over sensitive data is vital to any company. You never know what can happen if a document gets into the wrong hands, even if it’s just the hands of an untrained employee.
Cloud enables you complete visibility and control over your data. You can easily decide which users have what level of access to what data. This gives you control, but it also streamlines work since staff will easily know what documents are assigned to them. It will also increase and ease collaboration. Since one version of the document can be worked on by different people, and there’s no need to have copies of the same document in circulation.
Momentum
Every business chases a goal, has a mission, was started because of a vision. Most business fail because they do not have what it takes to reach their goals, but a business will only ever be good as its people and its tools.
The cloud is the future forward way to do business, all cloud service providers have tools that when properly used can automatically cover your leaks and introduce you to business best practices.
Statistics show that the cloud is having a more than 27% positive impact on all businesses that adopt it, that is 27% more fuel for those business to reach their goals. Technology is the application of knowledge for practical purposes, the cloud and its providers are now the foremost technology partners of all businesses.
With each new year cloud adoption rises, business are porting to the cloud and it doesn’t take effort to see why. Businesses recognize cloud computing benefits and see how they impact their production, collaboration, security and revenue.
By using a cloud-based solution, any business can prevent a lot of problems that plague organizations that rely on on-premises infrastructure.
If you have any questions about how to effectively adopt the cloud for your business, or how to optimize your cloud performance and reduce costs, contact us today to help you out with your performance and technology needs.
