With the rise in remote work and increasing security threats, cloud computing poses many benefits for businesses of all sizes. With this increase in popularity, key business decision-makers are keen to learn more about the advantages, here’s how cloud IT services can make a difference for your business…
What is cloud computing?
Cloud computing is an on-demand way to access different services through the internet including tools such as data storage, servers, databases, networking and software.
What is cloud computing used for?
Cloud computing has many helpful use cases for businesses, here are some of the most popular:
- Cloud storage – data can be stored on a server and accessed remotely via the internet. Usually, the server is owned and managed by the cloud service provider and businesses pay a subscription fee to access their data.
- Cloud backup – this method of data backup stores a copy of your data on a remote server that can be accessed 24/7.
- Software as a Service (SaaS) – this allows businesses to access software without owning it outright and paying a large fee. This allows a flexible approach and requires less input from the business.
- Cloud hosting – instead of relying on a single server for your website, the load is balanced across multiple cloud servers.
What are the benefits of cloud computing for businesses?
Cloud computing boasts plenty of benefits for businesses to take advantage of, allowing for more flexibility and ultimately peace of mind.
Cost-saving
As a business, being able to cut costs for more benefits is always good news. Cloud computing can significantly cut down your costs as you won’t need to own, run or maintain on-site servers. This means that you only pay for the services you actually use, meaning you can invest money into other areas of your business.
Improved security
In today’s world, cyber security is of utmost importance to all businesses. With everything being done and stored online, you need to know that your valuable data is safe. Cloud computing providers have incredibly robust security procedures that encrypt data, making it difficult for unauthorised users to access. With security updates happening automatically, you can rest assured that your data is safe.
Flexibility
As you won’t own the software and host a local server, cloud computing services are much more flexible. You can pick and choose which services you require, without committing too much time and money to it. The pay-as-you-go model makes it much easier to add or remove services when you need to.
Scalability
All businesses tend to grow and cloud computing can easily scale up as you do. Whether you need increased storage capacity, computing power or other virtual resources, it’s simple to increase the service as and when you need to. You won’t need to spend money on new hardware or software to set up, instead, it can be done almost instantly. What’s more, you only pay for what you use, so if you ever need to scale down, it’s not a problem.
Disaster recovery
No matter how well you run your business, there’s always a risk of disaster due to downtime that’s completely out of your control. Cloud data backup solutions prevent a disaster from completely wiping out your business and damaging your reputation. Cloud computing offers a cost-effective way to back up your data on multiple servers, so even if your primary server fails, your data is still safe and sound.
Productivity
As remote and hybrid working becomes ever more popular, staff need to maintain productivity and collaboration, even when working all over the world. A cloud-based solution minimises any downtime or technical issues throughout the day with the ability to sync up all work documents so that team members can work on them simultaneously. This saves time sending files back and forth and keeps systems updated automatically, with no waiting around for lengthy updates.
More sustainable
All businesses need to focus on reducing their carbon footprint and cloud computing is a great way to do this. By having everything stored virtually, it removes the need for physical products, improving energy efficiency. Having expensive hardware in physical locations damages the environment, cloud computing allows businesses to reduce their footprint as the data centres focus on energy efficiency.
Automatic updates
Having to remember to keep up to date with all of your IT systems isn’t easy, especially when you’re running a business. Yet you don’t want to get left behind by failing to keep your technology up to modern standards. Cloud computing automatically updates your systems to the latest and greatest software; from security patches to new features, you save time and money.
Cloud computing is a highly adaptable and agile solution to many of the challenges modern businesses face. By working with cloud-based systems, you are saving money, boosting security whilst making your business run smoother.
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