Companies both big and small are discovering the benefits of adopting cloud computing, as they seek to operate more efficiently and take advantage of cloud service providers that enable them to keep their data safely backed up, facilitate collaboration and harness as much storage space and computational capacity as they need via the Internet.
Businesses that are using cloud computing strategically to improve their business accounted for 26 percent of the users who responded to a survey for the 2013 State of the Cloud report released by RightScale, a cloud management services firm. About 23 percent of respondents are implementing some for of cloud projects, while 28 percent are still relatively new to using the cloud and are at most working on their first projects or doing proof-of-concept studies about how the cloud will help them achieve their goals.
Off-Site Backups Made Easy:
If your company’s IT department has set up a backup procedure that only maintains local copies of all your company’s data, you stand to lose valuable information in the event of a fire or flood at your facility, as well as to criminals and vandals who have trespassed at your facility.
When data is the lifeblood of your business, you owe it to yourself and your employees to make sure that you have multiple off-site backups using the cloud. It is a snap to automate the backup process to the cloud, just as you previously did with only your local computers.
If you lose access to your local data, you can quickly access it from your service provider and get back up and running in no time.
Foster Collaboration:
Cloud computing helps businesses foster intense collaboration, as you can put shared assets in a virtual private server. A Cloud VPS host will provide you with encrypted storage options, ensuring that only authorized users will have access to your data.
This means that you can hire the best workers for a project, even if they live in different geographical regions or are spread out across multiple time zones because they are travelling to your field offices, conferences or meeting with new clients and customers.
Pay Workers Even During a Disaster:
One important aspect of using the cloud for business is the ability to continue to meet your company’s payroll, even during a calamity such as a natural disaster, fire on the premises or terrorist attack.
When a company uses cloud computing to manage its payroll, the data is stored on a distant server, along with multiple redundant backups to ensure continuous access to the data. This means that even if your workers are forced to do their jobs with laptops at an evacuation center, hotel or at home after a hurricane or earthquake, you can continue to pay them as disaster relief personnel sort out the damage.
Access to Software You Need, Affordable :
Cloud computing’s benefit to businesses is easily seen in the advent of the use of software as a service. Even a company with a severely limited budget can take advantage of applications that are hosted in the cloud. An entire suite of applications for the office is one example, with your workers simply logging in with a standard web browser to access and create word processing documents, spreadsheets and other crucial business files.
For more advanced computational efforts, your company can pay only for the amount of time it needs to access certain high-performance software, such as to use in a data mining project. As the requirements of your project change, you can add more server space too via the cloud, instead of paying for upgrades to your local servers.
Companies that take the time to integrate cloud computing into their infrastructure will become more nimble and efficient when compared to their competitors who rely on local servers and resist putting data in the cloud. This competitive edge will only become more pronounced as more services become available from cloud services providers.
