Cloud computing and services offer businesses the chance to combine various business-related technology applications and business functions into one grouping, called a cloud. Using the cloud for your small business offers a number of benefits, which is prompting many companies throughout the country to consider cloud services as part of their business plan. Not only is it a more convenient way to do business, but many small business owners are finding additional advantages to using the cloud system.
Here are 5 benefits of using the cloud for your small business.
1) Save on IT infrastructure costs – When you utilize a cloud for your small business, you stand to save tens of thousands of dollars in IT infrastructure costs. With the cloud, you will only be paying a monthly fee to the cloud provider as opposed to buying operating systems, services, and additional applications for your IT department. This benefit can make it worth it to consider the cloud, especially for businesses that are just starting out and have limited capital.
2) Save on utility costs – Another cost saving feature is the proposed utility costs if you did not utilize a cloud for your business data center. Rather than having your own data center, you are merely sharing a part of a much larger data center with other businesses, thus making the related utility costs significantly less. Cloud data centers are typically more modern with additional cost-cutting solutions that become an advantage for each company utilizing the data center.
3) Great for bootstrapped, under-capitalized start-ups – If you are a business owner of a fairly new company, you are more than likely short on capital to offer for your IT infrastructure. In this case, the cloud computing system offers you the ability to take advantage of the many features it offers, while not being required to pay an extensive fee up-front. Most clouds are pay-as-you-go so you only need to meet the monthly fee, rather than coming up with a large amount of money beforehand.
4) Greater access – One of the largest benefits that business owners sometimes overlook is the amount of access you will have, regardless of where your business is or relocates to. By using cloud computing, you will have immediate access to all of your company’s data from nearly anywhere in the world, including important documents, files, folders, spreadsheets, emails, and other types of data correspondence. This makes it easier for small business owners to travel around the world and still have the same access to their company’s data as staying in their home office.
5) Real time collaboration – As an extension of the greater access benefit, collaboration with co-workers and colleagues is readily available with cloud computing. In order to complete many important tasks and projects, you may be required to collaborate with other business professionals on occasion. Cloud computing offers the ability to take advantage of real-time collaboration with data that is accessed from anywhere in the world. This enables collaboration possible on a larger scale and in a more immediate way.
Choosing to utilize a cloud for your business data needs is a big decision and one that should be carefully thought out. The benefits of cloud computing offer your company a number of options that may prove to be useful.
