Why Move to the Cloud? 10 Key Advantages of Cloud Computing

Advantages of cloud computingCloud Computing is gaining traction all around the world. Businesses of all scales and sizes are turning to cloud services to increase efficiency, lower operating costs, improve time to market, and for better collaboration.

According to Gartner, this trend will continue through 2020, by which most companies will have a cloud-first policy.

What is Cloud computing?

To put it simply, cloud computing is the practice of using a network hosted on the Internet, or “the cloud,” to store, manage, and process data. Also, with the cloud, you don’t have to maintain or own any hosting equipment.

This means people can use cloud computing for everything from streaming videos to hosting websites and delivering software. The companies who offer cloud computing are called cloud service providers (CSP). These companies manage everything from cybersecurity to software updates, server issues etc.

As the cloud offers countless advantages, businesses are seeing more potential of expanding their operations globally. Below we have expounded on some of the benefits of adopting cloud infrastructure.

10 Major Advantages of Cloud Computing

 

1. More Flexibility for Your Needs

If your business comes with growing and fluctuating bandwidth demands, cloud-based services are simply ideal for you. You can quickly scale up your cloud capacity when your business demands more, drawing on the service’s remote servers. Again, if you feel the need to scale down, you can do so without any hassle. The flexibility feature is part of the service. In fact, this level of agility gives a serious advantage over competitors and is the top driver for cloud adoption.

 

2. Easier Disaster Recovery

backup and disaster recoveryNot just larger organizations, but businesses of all scales need to invest in robust disaster recovery. Nevertheless, smaller companies who don’t have much resources up their sleeve, cloud computing offers a perfect solution. Small businesses are twice as likely to implement a cloud-based backup and recovery solutions in comparison to more giant corporations. Cloud saves a lot of time, avoid substantial up-front investment and roll up third-party expertise as part of the deal.

 

3. Software Updates Are Managed

With cloud computing, your servers are off-premise and are cared by your supplier. The CSP takes care of the regular software updates, including security updates, which means that your team doesn’t waste its time maintaining the system and can focus on things that matter, like working towards your business goals.

 

4. Lower Capital-expenditure

With the cloud, your business saves itself from the cost of purchasing and maintaining expensive hardware. This drastically reduces Capex costs as you don’t need to invest in facilities, utilities or large data centers. Cloud offers a subscription-based model where you can simply pay for your needs. Also, it is incredibly easy to set up and manage.

 

5. Better Collaboration with your Team

Better colloaborationWith Cloud-based workflows and file sharing apps, you can update your documents in real-time. Your team can access, edit and share documents anytime, from any place and do more together in a better way. Cloud solutions give your team full visibility for collaborations as you interact about essential projects, timelines efficiently.

 

6. Enhanced Data Security

Data breaches can seriously devastate the company’s revenue, brand positioning and overall growth. Cloud offers advanced security features, which ensures that data is handled correctly and stored. You can even remotely wipe data from stolen laptops, add extra authentication, access control and encryption to your devices. Most CSP can customize security measures according to your enterprise needs and bolster cloud data protection, tightening access to sensitive information in the cloud.

 

7. More Document Control

As more teams collaborate on documents, there is a greater need for watertight document control. With traditional computing, employees had to send files back and forth as email attachments, where only one user could access at a time. This leads to building a mess of conflicting file content, formats and titles as the companies go global.

As you move to cloud computing, files are stored centrally, and there is greater visibility leading to improved collaboration. This means better work and a healthier bottom line.

You can easily decide which users have what level of access to what data. This gives you control but also streamlines work as you will know what documents are assigned to which team.

 

8. Get Competitive Edge

Many companies are still thinking to migrate to the cloud. However, the organizations who were early adopters have witnessed a positive impact on their growth. Cloud adoption increases every year, and companies realize that if they implement a “cloud-first” strategy now, they’ll surely be ahead of their competitors.

Not only this, moving to the cloud gives access to enterprise-class technology, which helps smaller businesses to act faster than competitors, disrupt the market, remain lean and agile.

 

9. Sustainability

sustainability with cloudMoving to the cloud isn’t entirely selfish. The environment also gets little benefit out of it. As your cloud needs fluctuate, your server capacity adjusts to your needs. This means you only use the energy you need, and there are no oversized carbon footprints.

Also, you are not investing in energy-intensive physical servers. Moreover, you are reducing paper waster and relying on virtual services instead of hardware. If your employees are working remotely with the help of cloud services, you are also reducing emissions from their daily commute.

 

10. More Reliability and Accessibility

With CSP like GRIP I.T., we guarantee you 99.99% uptime with your virtual cloud. If you are experiencing any trouble 24/7 help desk services are available to provide you with immediate help.

For employees, they can readily access cloud-based drive and download the files without worrying about downtime, disorganization and accidental deletion.

 

Are you ready to jumpstart to cloud? Get in touch with our team at GRIP I.T.