Every small business needs to operate as efficiently and effectively as possible to attain success in a competitive marketplace. Technology is invariably a key enabler for SME success, regardless of industry, and cloud computing is one key example of how the right technology can provide multiple benefits for the business. Let’s take a look at some of the most compelling reasons for small businesses to migrate to cloud services.
1. Cost savings
This is one of the first benefits that entrepreneurs typically notice about cloud services. By buying in remote data services, businesses no longer need to maintain their own expensive data centres with private servers and the staff needed to maintain them. Instead, an affordable monthly cloud service licence allows business bandwidth needs to be appropriately matched with the right price. With the cloud, businesses only pay for what they use, without waste.
2. Security
Cloud solutions help to protect your business data and information, storing it remotely and digitally off-site and reducing the risk of hacking and data theft. Cloud services offer data security and backup, supporting your business risk strategy.
3. Scaleability
Previously, small businesses were required to contingency plan by keeping a margin of computing needs idle in case of growth. This led to depreciating assets and unnecessary costs. However, cloud computing solutions are infinitely scalable both up and down, so the business can buy exactly the capacity and services that it needs on a flexible licence basis, knowing that these can change over time as the business does.
4. Document management
Local network storage tends to lead to multiple document copies, local duplicates and general inefficiency with storing and archiving. Cloud computing services take this problem away by only opening the latest version of a document and archiving the rest. There is also the option for simultaneous document collaboration where this is required.
5. Budgeting
The monthly cloud computing licence cost is far easier to account and budget for than the traditional IT investment cycle, which tended to see large-scale capital investments on a rolling cycle and accompanying depreciation of assets. Now, businesses do not need to own servers and associated infrastructure – they just licence the software services themselves.
6. Mobility
Most people are now used to getting online wherever they are and whenever they need to. Cloud computing services allow your staff to connect to your business from home, from the train or from remote sites on a flexible basis. This allows small business owners to offer highly desirable flexible working perks, knowing that staff can always have the ability to work effectively wherever they are. This flexibility also allows some small business to lessen their fixed working space requirements, saving further overheads.
7. Integration
Another key benefit is that modern cloud services are comprehensive and designed to integrate with a whole host of other existing services, allowing your business to become highly integrated and efficient and removing the old problem of silo and legacy systems which failed to communicate with each other. This positions your business well for further growth, technological adoption and better management as it grows – and as new solutions continue to come on board.
What other benefits of cloud services has your small business witnessed? Our Glasgow IT support team is always interested to hear how our clients are using the cloud to grow their operation – so let us know how it’s working for you!
