Just a few short years ago, cloud services didn’t even exist. The term “cloud computing” was first coined in 1997. Since then, cloud-based systems have become vital to the online world, offering huge benefits for businesses and individuals alike.
In a nutshell, cloud-based technology enables you to connect to someone else’s hard drive – one that’s a lot bigger and better than you could ever afford. And this brings with it many advantages, especially if you’re a multi-national company or are thinking about expanding internationally, by setting up an offshore company for instance.
No capital expenditure
Cloud computing service providers have all the hardware, so there’s no need for capital expenditure at all. And because most of them are on a ‘pay for what you use’ basis, businesses have minimal operating expenses.
Wherever I lay my laptop…
As long as you have internet access, you can work from anywhere in the world. So if you’re abroad on business, you can continue to access everything from work whenever you want – gone are the days of waiting for the office back home to open so someone can email that important document across.
One file, multiple users worldwide
International companies work in different time zones, which can make collaborative projects quite tricky. Cloud services enable everyone in your company to access the same centralised files, and even to chat to each other whilst making changes. Stronger collaboration increases efficiency, and will therefore improve your bottom line.
Disaster averted
You know how frustrating it is when your system crashes and suddenly nobody can do any work. One survey conducted by the Aberdeen Group found that companies using cloud-based services can be back up and running around four times quicker than those that don’t. And because of the pressures on cloud companies to provide ever faster and more efficient recovery, the number of incidents has decreased by twice that of non-cloud users.
Increased security
By using cloud technology, you’re no longer dependent on your hardware. So even if you get into the office one morning to find a freak flood has rendered your computers useless, or your laptop is lost or stolen, all your data will still be there.
Is the IT crowd necessary?
According to research in 2011, UK organisations spend an average of 143 hours (18 working days) per month just managing on-site security solutions and related problems. This time drain can easily be eradicated by cloud-based services, allowing SMEs access to enterprise-class technology that means they can act as fast as, or even faster than, big, established competitors.
Saving more than just time and money
A recent report from the Carbon Disclosure Project concluded that companies that streamline operations to improve IT performance will not only reduce capital expenditure, they’ll also save energy consumption and carbon emissions. It’s estimated that, by 2020, US organisations that move to the cloud could save $12.3 billion in energy costs (the equivalent of 200 million barrels of oil).
It doesn’t matter if you’re a one-man band or a large multi-national: you can’t afford to ignore cloud-based technology if you want to take your business forward.
Image of cloud from Flickr
