If you operate or own a company, you might have switched over to a cloud-based model. However, maybe you’re hesitating. Some CEOs or entrepreneurs haven’t switched because they don’t know enough about the cloud and the potential benefits it offers.
Crafting a resilient future with a cloud-first strategy becomes possible if you learn about this option’s benefits and accept its limitations. If you don’t know all that much about the cloud, we’ll discuss it in detail in the following article. When we finish, you can easily decide whether implementing the cloud for your particular company makes sense.
What Does “The Cloud” Entail?
The term “the cloud” sounds rather mysterious, but it means something very simple. When someone in IT uses this term, they mean a distributed server collection. The servers provide you with an infrastructure and host software. You can access them via the internet.
In other words, you can buy into a cloud as a business and allow your workers to access software and your company’s online infrastructure. Once you allow all of your employees access, they can work on projects from many disparate locations.
If you are embracing the work-from-home model, the cloud might appeal a great deal for that reason. However, you should know about several more reasons why using the cloud makes sense.
You Have Multiple Different Cloud Options
There’s not just one cloud you can use as a business, but many. You can use a public cloud. Parent companies run public clouds. They make these clouds accessible if you pay a service fee, usually each month, though you can also pay quarterly or yearly in some cases.
Public clouds use the software-as-a-service model, sometimes abbreviated as SaaS. When you pay the parent company, you can access the cloud, though many other companies might use it as well. You can’t access their information, though, and they can’t access yours.
Using a public cloud model makes sense because the parent company will take care of all the software updates, patches, and security measures. This way, your IT department doesn’t have to do it.
You might also use a private cloud. You must purchase and set up this cloud yourself, and you must handle all the patches and software updates, too. You might do this if you have a more complex business model or a lot of proprietary or trade secrets, and you must protect your data very carefully so no hackers or industry spies can get it.
You might also use a hybrid model, where you have partial private cloud and partial public cloud use. If you have some exclusive resources that you want on your private cloud and also some less confidential ones you do not mind having on a public cloud, this model might make sense.
You should know about several other reasons why a cloud-based model can work for you, though.
Mobility
If you use the cloud, you must protect and care for your servers if you have a private model. If you use a public model, the parent company watches over those servers wherever they are located.
Whichever one you choose, though, you can enjoy mobility as part of your cloud usage. If you have a reliable cloud setup from a trusted entity, that allows your workers to access the cloud and all of your resources from all around the country, or the world.
They can log in, get past the security protocols you have put in place, and work at their leisure while you monitor their activities. They can easily communicate with each other in real-time as well.
Notable Cost Savings
Setting up and using the cloud can also save your company money. If you do this, you don’t need onsite servers. Setting up and maintaining those servers can get expensive quickly, not to mention that you must guard them. You needn’t do any of that, especially if you get a public cloud setup.
Handy Automatic Software Updates
If you use a public cloud, you can also enjoy automatic software updates. They work just like the ones on your smartphone. The parent company waits for a time when they feel the updates won’t interrupt your workflow all that much, and then they install them. When you fire up the cloud the next morning for work, you will see the updated software.
Ease of Use
There’s also no denying that companies that set up a cloud-based model can work together more easily than those that don’t. Remote teams that need to share data love the cloud.
The cloud also instantly saves any changes that your workers make as they collaborate on a project. This way, if someone logs off, they will find their work saved when they continue later that day or in the days to come.
Their other team members can also monitor the changes they’re making. It’s truly collaboration on a much grander scale than most businesses could imagine previously.
What About Any Possible Drawbacks?
It’s true the cloud comes with some potential risks as well, and they’re worth mentioning. If you utilize the cloud, you should know about possible data loss. This can happen if someone hacks your network.
However, if you have strong authentication practices in place, this likely won’t happen. You can also encrypt the data you’re sharing via the cloud. Even if someone does hack the network, they can’t understand the messages you’re passing among your employees unless they’re skilled codebreakers as well as hackers.
You can also run into compliance issues if you use the cloud. In some industries, you must comply with very strict regulations. Sometimes, your cloud setup might not necessarily comply with those rules or laws.
Again, though, you can counteract this. If you know about those regulations, you can make sure your cloud setup doesn’t violate them. You just need to pay attention to make sure you understand the most updated rules.
Most company owners feel that using the cloud has more benefits than drawbacks.
