For many years, cloud computing and cloud-based services have been one of the fastest-growing sectors of the IT and tech industry – but just what is the ‘cloud’ and how could it be used to transform your company’s processes?
Cloud computing explained
In essence, cloud computing is the delivery of computing services (storage, processing, apps) – typically delivered over the internet and provided by remote machines. In a cloud computing model, instead of housing your IT and networking resources internally, you would outsource your digital requirements to a third-party specialist firm, thereby offloading the overheads, maintenance, security and responsibilities to another company.
The benefits of moving your IT services to the cloud
There are numerous benefits to shifting your company’s IT services to the cloud. While every company is different and each will gain a greater advantage in some areas more than others, following a digital transformation roadmap could bring substantial benefits including:Access to the latest, fastest tech: Cloud providers invest heavily in owning the latest and greatest hardware to give their clients the best service. After all, one of the biggest selling points and swaying influences for winning new clients is being able to lay claim to running the best hardware and networks. Rather than constantly trying to play catch-up with tech, outsourcing your digital services places the cost and headaches of upgrades firmly in the hands of your provider.
Scalability: Your company’s IT requirements likely vary year to year – if not month to month. Commerce has never moved quicker than now and today’s business landscape demands firms can be adaptable and scalable to remain competitive. By embracing cloud tech and services, you’ll be able to upgrade or downgrade your provision – literally at the flick of a switch. Cloud services offer scalability on a scale never before imaginable and at a fraction of the cost of buying and housing tech locally.
Security: Cybercrime is the single greatest threat facing companies in today’s connected world. Given industry experts suggest data is now the world’s most valuable commodity (ahead of even traditional heavyweights like gold and oil), it should be little wonder that data security has become such a priority for firms. By moving your IT services to a cloud computing services provider, you’ll have complete peace of mind that your precious corporate data (and the data you hold on your clients and suppliers) is in safe hands, monitored 24/7/365 with regular backups should the worst happen and you fall victim to a malicious attack.
A mobile workforce: By its very nature, cloud computing operates online – which means, by default, so long as your employees can find an internet connection, they’ll be linked into your network. Gone are the days when all your employees had to share the same fixed line connection under the same roof. Cloud computing also allows connections over mobile devices, vastly boosting the performance of even the lowest-powered handheld by drawing on remote processing speeds, storage and applications.
