Save yourself money, time and worry by using the potential of the cloud to grow your small business
The cloud has been an incredible asset to businesses big and small, saving them the expenses and time that come with building data centres and managing servers. By outsourcing their storage to the cloud, organisations can scale their infrastructure up and down as demands change, saving them even more cash. But what can the cloud offer a small business; one that’s so far been more or less satisfied with a less advanced but well established office server. If a few back up applications and the knowledge of a solo IT professional has worked up to this point, why change?
Well there’s plenty that the cloud can offer even the smallest of businesses, whether an independent retailer, cafe or financial advisor. Read below to see the benefits of incorporating it into your company, courtesy of the professionals at Syntax IT Support London.
Reliability
Lost files, crashed servers and difficulty accessing data are not an inevitable part of running a small business. In most offices and other small companies, files are stored on laptops or desktop computers, which are backed up daily, with every file having to be copied onto a backup server. This is a workable and effective system, but it has many limitations. If a file is accidentally deleted, the backup server goes down and takes a day’s worth of work with it, or – God forbid – the entire network crashes and all your data vanishes, it can have a catastrophic impact on your business.
The cloud negates all these risks. By storing all your data on the cloud at the end of each working day, you are ensuring that everything is backed up. It can also be managed centrally, with employees given access to the documents they need as and when they need them, from any laptop, desktop or mobile (without worrying about losing the document if they leave their phone on the bus). Documents can be worked on simultaneously by a number of employees in different locations, so in an emergency you don’t need to call half your staff into the office after closing time. This unprecedented level of access and reliability can do wonders for your productivity.
Limitless storage
Storage is one of the major headaches of running a small business. Storing documents on a variety of machines, memory sticks and servers can make finding relevant files a frustrating and time consuming task. Having all your data stored in a single place, accessible from any location, can therefore be a huge time saver. The cloud has limitless storage, so you can free up vital space on you computers and in your office. It’s also easy to delete redundant files, so you don’t become inundated with documents you no longer need.
Only pay for what you use
Many businesses only use their servers intermittently, for batch processing and similar, and the rest of the time it lies dormant. The problem is that when you buy your server, you have to pay for it based on the periods of highest demand. With the cloud, you can run a batch job when you need to, wait for it to finish, and then shut it down, only paying for the resources used.
Enterprise support
Cloud platforms are built, maintained and defended from attack by some of the most experienced IT professionals in the world. By using the cloud, your business will have these experts at your back, rather than an in-house IT staff who you pay to conduct simple maintenance work. This could make suspending business for crashed servers and phone calls to IT a thing of the past.
No server is perfect, but cloud servers come pretty close.
