3 Reasons why the ‘Cloud’ Is Good for Business

With the many benefits that cloud computing can provide, it is no surprise that businesses of all forms and sizes have been shifting some or all of their data and application needs to cloud computing environments. According to Goldman Sachs, spending on cloud computing infrastructure and platforms will grow at a 30% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2013 through 2018 compared with 5 percent growth for overall enterprise IT (Coles, 2015). 

So, what are the main factors that attract businesses to use cloud computing?  

 

 

 

        1-      Mobility and Collaboration

The main advantage associated with cloud computing is the unprecedented degree of mobility it provides a business in terms of access to data. Employees can access their business information from anywhere in the world across many different devices meaning that wherever your employee goes, he/she can take their work with them. This also allows for virtual groups dispersed round the world to come together through the cloud and collaborate in real time on projects and business processes ranging from customer service to research and development.

      2-    Cost Savings      

Cloud computing services can provide significant cost savings to a business, especially small to mid-size ones. Using cloud services saves companies the cost of capital investment in their technology infrastructure; that includes spending on hardware, software and licensing. It also minimizes any upfront costs that would normally be required if the cloud service didn’t exist. Furthermore, most cloud services have a pay-as-you-go pricing structure which is tailored to the customer’s demand, meaning that the business does not engage in any long term financial commitments and is not put in a position where they are spending money on program features that they do not need. 

3-      Flexibility and Efficiency

Cloud services allow the user to access the computing resources they need as soon as they need it, resulting in a significant decrease in the time needed to start and complete a project as well as providing the users with a much easier to predict time to market. This flexibility of the services offered on the cloud also allows the business to change the direction or scope of a project with no significant impact on its financials or employees. For example, if a business requires increased bandwidth capacity for a period of time, they can instantly upgrade their capacity on the cloud and the downgrade back later on when the increased capacity is no longer needed.

 (Macquarie Telecom)

Final Thoughts

It is more and more apparent that cloud computing is becoming an integral part of many businesses in today’s connected world, and its impact and utility will only grow from here. The cloud provides potential for smaller companies to compete more efficiently with larger ones by removing entry barriers and providing powerful computing ability at a relatively low cost. The cloud will be a fuel to increased efficiency and competition between businesses and will give rise to many new and different forms of businesses and business processes.

References

Coles, C. (2015, June 9). Skyhigh. Retrieved from Skyhighnetworks.com: https://www.skyhighnetworks.com/cloud-security-blog/11-advantages-of-cloud-computing-and-how-your-business-can-benefit-from-them/