The cloud spreads over businesses across the world. More and more companies are moving to it and use it as a safe haven for their data. Although you might associate cloud technology with big international corporations, it’s actually small and medium enterprises that need the opportunities the cloud brings the most. Take a look at the overview of its 6 major advantages.
Cost–Effectiveness
Let’s start by refuting the misconception that cloud technology is a luxury for most developed companies. Given all the advantages that cloud computing brings, you might expect it to be generally more expensive. This is, however, not always the case, and reduced cost is one of the main reasons why companies are turning to the cloud.
Cloud technology saves you the time, expense, and hassle of developing an IT infrastructure internally. It
eliminates the cost associated with developing and maintaining the server infrastructure. There is no
need for investing in data centers and large IT departments to operate them. With traditional computing, a company can spend millions before it gets any value from its investment in the data center. Cloud software providers usually offer multiple pricing packages you can adapt to your company’s needs and capabilities.
Flexibility
The flexibility of the cloud starts from its cost. Companies pay for as much cloud capacity as they need at the certain point. No need to pay for large server capacities in advance and allowing it to lay idle and wait for the influx of data. On the other hand, with cloud technology there is no need to stress out when data suddenly becomes too big – it’s capacity is unlimited. This means that businesses can freely adapt to changing circumstances, introduce new features and change their business plans if only such need arises.
Moreover, the implementation of cloud software is usually considerably quicker than deployment of any other technology.
Unurdening Servers
Thanks to the cloud, employees are empowered to operate self-service resources entirely by themselves. It takes the burden off the IT departments and even decreases the need of taking on large IT staff.
Moreover, as all the operations are performed in an externally-operated cloud, less focus is put on setting up, maintaining and fixing of internal servers. You skip the risk of ineffective or inefficient IT that can severely harm your competitiveness. Consequently, you can invest your attention in critical business operations and management.
Global Cooperation
Public clouds offer services that are available on standard web browsers wherever the end user is located, via desktop PCs and mobile devices. It means that you can now take all data sets with you, for example visiting your client’s headquarters in a different city or having few spare minutes waiting in the airport.
With users all over the world able to easily access, view and modify shared files, business operations are performed faster and more effectively. All workers belong now to one, global team.
Security
Although the cloud can accommodate and store almost unlimited volume of data compared to personal computer hardware, the idea of moving sensitive corporate data to off-premises cloud-based warehouse may keep some risk-averse managers awake at night. The fear of sacrificing data security is often the factor that stops companies from implementing cloud solutions.
However, security is in fact increased in the cloud due to strict standards that cloud providers must comply with, in addition to the regular security audits. This means no more worrying about lost laptops with confidential data. Moreover, the process of backing up and recovering data is simplified as it is no longer located on a physical device. Various cloud providers offer reliable and flexible backup and recovery solutions.
State-of-the-Art Cloud Tools
Cloud technology brought about the popularity of self-service online tools that apart from data storage itself offer your business an added value. One of them is data visualization software provided by datapine that enables you to convert data into actionable dashboards filled with colorful charts. You connect your data sources (databases, CSV files, Facebook, Google Analytics etc.) to the tool and with the help of an intuitive drag-and-drop interface you create dashboards that visualize the data you need.
All changes in the original data source files are recognized in real-time and your dashboards update
automatically. Charts are also actionable and interactive which means you can modify them on the fly, drill down for more details and share with your colleagues via e-mail or URL. Innovative data visualization software helps you produce engaging presentations and makes data easier to digest and thus apply in business decision-making process.
Don’t miss out on the opportunities the cloud technology brings. In the long run, it will be cheaper to
maintain services in the cloud than to invest in the constant updating of hardware and software. With
the growing volume of data being generated, it’s no surprise that the unlimited capacity that cloud offers, maximum mobility of access and other benefits it provides, are indisputable arguments in favor of implementing cloud solutions to your business.
