Quite frankly, it doesn’t matter what business you’re in, you need to know about cloud computing. It’s one of those trends, which like the internet and electricity, is going to transform the way you and every other company out there does business. This is what you need to know about the cloud.
It’s Adaptable To Your Business Model
Many startups and young businesses are worried about the costs of computing, especially during the first couple of years. The last thing they want to do is plow vast amounts of their precious capital into computing platforms, only to have those platforms rendered obsolete as their business priorities change. The good thing about cloud computing is that it eliminates this particular risk.
It turns out that cloud-computing services are different to regular IT networks in the sense that they can scale on demand. This means that they are particularly useful for companies who aren’t sure about how much they are going to grow. The cloud accommodates both fast and slow growing businesses by allowing them to adjust the rate at which they use computing services dependent on their particular bandwidth needs.
It’s Familiar: You’re Probably Using It Already
For many businesses, the idea of making the transition to the cloud can seem a little scary. After all, it’s uncharted territory.
Or is it?
It turns out that your business is probably already reliant on cloud services for its basic operations. Do you use Google’s Sheets or Docs? If so, then you’re already on the cloud. How about Dropbox? Do you use that to transfer large files between users? If so, then that also means you’re on the cloud. The question for many companies is whether they want to move beyond these basic applications and link a larger proportion of their software stack to the cloud for the added convenience and reduced price. The fact that you’re already using cloud services makes the idea of doing this a little less scary.
It’s Surprisingly Secure
One of the earliest concerns about the cloud was that it would be insecure against hackers and other malicious actors. But it turns out that, in general, those fears were unfounded. Even the cheapest Windows VPS come with excellent security and very low downtime. Files that are stored on site are always at risk, especially if your business security isn’t up to scratch. But data stored on cloud servers are usually heavily protected in a way that would be too expensive for your business to emulate if you tried to provide your own security.
The best cloud services take steps to protect your data so that no even system administrators can view what you’re doing. This helps to reduce the number of people who could potentially be compromised, keeping your valuable assets safe.
The Cloud Makes Your Employees More Mobile
Even top companies struggle to attract the best talent. For new businesses are startups, the challenge is even greater. The cloud, however, might just make it easier to recruit top talent. The reason is mobility. The best people in any field know that they can afford to be picky. Many don’t want to have to travel into the office every day and sit at a desk and so if they can find a company that pays well and that allows them to work either from home or on the move, then that might be enough to swing it. The cloud effectively makes the office obsolete.
It allows employees to communicate costlessly and collaborate on projects without having to be physically present, meaning that you can attract people to your business, no matter where they are located in the world. This frees you up from having to deal with problems like visas while also acting like a big funnel, attracting all the best people.
The Cloud Protects You From Hard Drive Failure
As many computer geeks will tell you, recovering data from a corrupted hard drive is possible, but it’s expensive and a security nightmare. To recover lost data from a hard disk, you usually have to send it off to a specialist company which will then try to retrieve the data. It’s not usual for these businesses to charge more than $2000 for the service, which is a lot of money to pay out for something completely avoidable.
Moving to the cloud eliminates the specter of corrupt hard drives. Thanks to the fact that most cloud storage providers have multiple redundancies, the chances of losing all your company data are practically zero.
