What does the Cloud mean for Businesses?
The ‘Cloud’ is certainly the talk of the business world, with so many applications, technology, software and even entire organisations getting involved. However, the concept still continues to cause confusion, especially in small to medium business. This is unfortunate, as it’s ideal for them, because of the simplicity and benefits it offers.
To help your understanding, here’s all you need to know.
What is “The Cloud”?
Since its mainstream conception, The Cloud has been adopted by the global business world at quite a large scale over the last few years. From an IT perspective, The Cloud can be explained very simply as utilising hardware, software and services where the actual computing occurs across several locations, but is delivered to you on your own computer via an internet connection.
Think of it this way:
If your employee is working on their computer on a file or document, and their computer was to fail, then normally, they would lose their work stored on the machine and the machine probably wouldn’t continue working. However, on The
Cloud, that computer is connected to several others, all based in different physical locations. If your business’ computer failed, your employee could continue on and no work would be lost, because the other computers in the network would pick up the
slack.
In reality, it’s a set up of physical infrastructure with computers inside warehouses around the world. So, instead of you storing information only on your computers in your office, you use the internet to access others which allow you to store it off-site. This is often referred to as Cloud Computing.
How does this work in business?
For smaller to medium-sized businesses (SMEs), cloud computing helps your operation to be more efficient, flexible and accessible. Storing your data and accessing software and applications remotely via The Cloud can remove some of the direct costs of hardware ownership, as well as the indirect costs of maintenance, storage and time involved in both acquiring and managing your own IT in-house.
Does your business use Cloud already?
This whole concept of The Cloud may seem a little daunting or overwhelming to your business. Sure- you can see the benefits, but it can often feel a little out-of-reach when you’re a smaller enterprise. However, the truth is, given the way technology is integrated into our lives today, your business is probably using it already without even realising. It’s used in:
- Google Drive to share documents between users
- Backup systems and security
- Web-based email services
- Software and applications
- Storing files, music, videos and data
And much more.
Chances are, your business may already be ready for the advantages The Cloud has to offer.
Is your business Cloud ready?
Cloud computing technology is a service which offers your business a lot of versatility across many functions of your business; so it’s worth learning more about what it can offer you. However, your business may be ready to take advantage of the Cloud than you realise.
