The power of the cloud has been the go-to buzzword at tech events for the last few years. In fact, even if you don’t know it, you’re likely already using it to some capacity in your personal life. Many modern smartphones backup some of your data so you can switch to next year’s model with little hassle. How can using the same kind of cloud technology benefit your business though?
Scalability
Most small business face unpredictable levels of growth early on. Having a scalable business model is the key to surviving these notoriously difficult first few years of operation. For example, if you initially thought your business would need 1TB of data storage, you may run into a situation where you overestimated your market demand. If you were using a traditional file server rather than cloud storage, this would mean being stuck with extra hardware you no longer need. Being on a cloud storage data plan, though, easily allows you to change your data allowance on a monthly basis to scale with your business as it develops. If you are concerned about the Amazon EC2 instance pricing while scaling then fear not as there are millions of ways to reduce your costs with cloud computing.
Backups
Most of the people reading this will be tech-savvy enough to know the importance of backing up their data. However, knowing the risks doesn’t mean you’re likely to actually take the time to do it. Physical backups are time consuming and recent statistics show that most employees don’t make regular backups of their work, with 15% saying that their most recent backup is up to a month old. Even if you were to backup your work to an external hard drive on a daily basis, though, you still aren’t protecting your data from the risks of natural disasters or break-ins. Using a cloud-backup plan keeps your work secure on an off-site location.
Mobility
Finally, being able to access your data from any kind of device wherever you are is crucial for modern businesses. Sending a document is as simple as sending a web link. If you’re concerned about security, take a look here to learn differences between the private and public cloud. You could also explore other cloud computing options including a hybrid or multi-cloud network architecture which may have the same flexibility and scalability benefits as various public clouds, whilst also retaining the security of a private cloud. The days of being restricted to the office are long gone, and getting real work done while travelling or at home is now much easier. Because of this kind of technology, we’ve seen significant growth in start-up companies working from home.
Technological innovations like this have mean that even small businesses can have big impacts in the marketplace. Try using cloud technology to your advantage and see the effects it could have.