Businesses are moving their focus to using existing technology to accomplish their 2018 business targets. Although cloud services have been around for a while, many organisations hesitated to make the move. But recent enhancements such as cost-effectiveness, portability, agility, and faster connectivity have grabbed more attention from new and not so famous organisations. So, if your organization is looking for ways to achieve greater heights and you are exploring healthy investments that benefit your organisation then, your first choice should be cloud computing as the on-premises server system is fading away.
You don’t need any proof to agree that cloud computing is playing a vital role in changing the way businesses work today. Organizations have started looking for cloud options to widen their businesses’ reach (read revenue, growth, sales) and to run more efficiently (read cost savings, bottom line, ROI).
There are three major cloud options that growing businesses can look at:
- Public Cloud
- Private Cloud
- Hybrid Cloud
A Gartner report states that by the year 2020 big vendors will shift from cloud-first to cloud-only policies. If you are wondering what could fuel this predicted rise in cloud adoption, look no further.Below are some factors contributing to this trend of businesses adopting cloud computing.
1Cloud offers increased flexibility
One of the most beneficial aspects of adopting cloud computing is its flexibility no matter the size of the organization or the location your employee is placed at. Cloud computing comes with a wide range of options from modifying storage space to supporting both in-office and remotely located employees. This makes it easy for businesses to increase and decrease server loads along with providing employees with the benefit of working from anywhere at anytime with zero timezone restrictions.
Cloud computing services, in a way, help businesses focus on revenue growth than spending time and resources on building hardware/software capabilities.
Cloud computing is cost effective
Cloud-backed businesses definitely benefit on cost as there is no need to maintain expensive in-house servers and other expensive devices given that everything is handled on the cloud. If you want your business to grow, you just need to spend on storage space and pay for the services you use. Cost transparency helps organizations plan their expenditure and pay-per-use is one of the biggest advantage businesses can leverage. With cloud adoption you eliminate spending on increasing processing power, hard drive space or building a large data center. When there are less hardware facilities to manage, you do not need a large IT team to handle it. Software licensing cost is automatically eliminated as the software is already stored on cloud and businesses have an option of paying as per their use.
2Scalability is easier with cloud
The best part about cloud computing is its support for unpredicted requirements which helps businesses scale or downsize resources quickly and efficiently. It’s all about modifying your subscription plan which allows you to upgrade your storage or bandwidth plans as per your business needs.This kind of scalability option helps increasing business performance and minimizes the risk of up-front investments of operational issues and maintenance.
3Better availability means less downtime and better productivity
So with cloud adoption you need not worry about downtime as they are reliable and maintain about 100% uptime. This means whatever you own on the cloud is available to your customers at any point. For every server breakdown, the cloud service providers make sure of having a backup server in place to avoid missing out on essential data. This can barely be achieved by traditional on-premises infrastructure, which is another reason businesses should switch to cloud.
All of the above mentioned mechanism makes it easy to share files and documents with teammates, thanks to its flexible accessibility. Teams can collaborate more effectively when they can access documents anytime and anywhere. This obviously improves workflow and gives businesses a competitive edge. Being present is office to complete tasks is no longer a requirement for productivity; a work/life balance is an added side-effect of such an arrangement.
In short, you need not worry about operational disasters and you can get the job done without physically being present in office.
4Automated Backups
One major problem with an on-premises data center is that everything depends on the functioning of your physical system. In cases where you lose your device or some kind of disaster befalls your physical system, it may lead to loss of data as well. This is never the case with cloud as you can access your files and documents from any device or location no matter the physical device you use.
Organizations have to bear a massive expense for regular back-ups whereas cloud computing comes with automatic back-ups and provides enterprise grade functioning to all sizes of businesses.
If you’re thinking about data security, cloud is a safer option as each of the cloud computing variants (private, public, and hybrid) has its own set of benefits. If you are not dealing with sensitive data, choosing public cloud would be the best option whereas for sensitive data, businesses should opt for private cloud where they have total control of the security policies.
On the other hand, hybrid cloud allows you to benefit from both worlds. So, if you are looking for scalable solutions along with a much more controlled architecture for data security, hybrid cloud architecture will blend well with your business needs. It allows users to pick and choose the public or private cloud service they require to fulfill their business requirements.
Migrating your business to cloud definitely has more advantages over disadvantages. It helps increase organizational efficiency and fuels business growth. Cloud computing helps reduce time-to-market, facilitates product development, keeps employees happy, and builds a desired workflow. This in the end helps your organisation achieve greater success.
It doesn’t hurt that the cost you saved thus is available for you to invest in areas that are in dire need of some cash inflow!
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