FlickrIt’s a question on the lips of many business owners in 2016. Should I be moving my business into the cloud? And if so, how much of it should I be moving into the cloud? What things would work better up there than down here? Now, of course, I’m not referring to business owners thinking about tying balloons to their office so it can fly away into the sky. I’m talking about cloud computing.
Cloud computing is one of the best things to have happened for small businesses in years. The amount of money you can save by using things in the cloud instead of buying expensive hardware is incredible. You don’t need the physical infrastructure for servers and storage systems. Cloud-based programs come cheaper than the licenses for boxed software. For a company that is just starting out, it can be a lifesaver.
You probably already know about how much money your company can save if you move to the cloud. So what are the other benefits? Aside from price, are there actually any other reasons to put more of your workload into the cloud? What if the money savings isn’t enough to sway you? It’s true that it can be quite a lot of effort to make the transition.
But no worries. Here’s a quick list of the benefits that cloud computing can bring to your business.
Increased flexibility
Along with the saving of money, cloud computing can save a lot of time. These things sound good, of course. But these benefits don’t exist in a vacuum. What’s the use of increasing the amount of time and money your company has if you’re not actually going to use those things?
You must remember all the benefits that having more of both of these things can mean for your company. Usually, things that save time end up costing you money. But with cloud computing, you have the best of both worlds. And when businesses are trying to pursue a new idea, what are the things that usually hinder them? A lack of time and money. Big or small, your company will have more flexibility to pursue new ideas if you have more time and money.
Stronger collaboration
With cloud computing, office collaboration is much easier. With all the documents you need up in the cloud, there’s no need for everyone to open and edit a document one at a time. Cloud-based work allows everyone to get in on the exact same project and make the changes they need to make.
A lot of companies are experiencing these benefits with things like Google Drive. Look at one of its programs – Google Sheets – for example. Microsoft Excel was once the standard in all offices when it comes to spreadsheets. But with its increased flexibility, Google Sheets is quickly taking over. And it’s not just spreadsheet work that is being helped. New and powerful collaborative document management software is appearing all the time.
Less complexity
What cloud computing does for businesses is it helps standardize things. Before, you would get employees using all kinds of different software. And whenever that local software would run into a technical issue, it was a real headache. You’d have to get tech support to come and look the particular issue. And the issue wouldn’t just be dependent on the software. There would also be the employee’s various computer settings to take into consideration.
With cloud computing, this isn’t as much of an issue. Because everyone’s work is centralised, any problem can quickly be tackled by the owner of the cloud software. And if there are any new employees joining, then getting them hooked up to this system is a piece of cake. It’ usually just a case of getting them the right login details.
Are there any downsides to going with the cloud?
There are quite a few worries that business owners have in this area. Cloud computing isn’t the perfect haven that many people make it out to be, after all. There are several faults that are inherent in the method that causes understandable worry for people.
Security, stability, and data ownership are often causes for concern. While cloud services are often much easier to fix, the problems will usually affect employees in quite a widespread way. If the service goes down completely, it leaves your business and your customers potentially unable to work or use your service.
However, these worries can be negated if you’re careful with who you sign up with. Review the terms and conditions thoroughly to be sure who the entered data belongs to. You can also check customer reviews to see what the reliability of a given service is like.
