5 Ways the Cloud Can Boost Your Business

This is a guest post by Brian Jensen.

Business growth is easier now. Cloud-based services and resources allow you to build virtual computing infrastructure without big bank loans or capital investments. All you need to do, is decide what offerings fit your needs and pay for them as you use them. Nearly everything that you currently use on your desktop PC or laptop is available in the cloud.

1 – “Elastic” Services Meet Your Growth or Seasonal Needs

Cloud services grow like a rubber band stretching to meet your needs, reducing when you don’t need them. Does your business have seasonal growth? Do you hire additional support and phone staff or data entry clerks? Anything on which you can bring up a modern web browser is a workstation. You don’t have to buy hardware or software for temporary staff. If you’re growing, you can do it desk by desk rather than investing in PCs and servers in quantity.

2 – Road Warriors Can Access Business Solutions Anywhere

Call it a fringe benefit, but for some whose life is on the road, it’s freedom from being cut off from company data or using complex VPN access methods. Anything you can access from your office, you can access from anywhere in the world that has Internet. In fact, if your office is unavailable – during a snowstorm or hurricane, your systems are still up and running.

3 – Like Putting Your Servers in a Vault

Keeping your servers and data physically secure requires a lot of know-how. A sprinkler system in the server room, power failures with no alternative, essential data that’s only in one place, all of these are big risks. Moving to the cloud moves your computer operations away from fire, flood, storms, earthquakes, and theft. Cloud-based systems and data are usually duplicated around the country or the world so you have minimum risk.

4 – Change Your Mind, Change Your Software and Hardware in a Moment

What happens if you buy a system that doesn’t meet your needs? At a minimum, it’s a hassle. With cloud services, you can choose not only the amount of service that you need, but the type. You might use an office suite to manage sales with spreadsheets (with minimum hardware requirements), then decide it’s time to move up to a full-fledged Customer Relationship Management (CRM) suite. You can avoid hardware, software, and support contracts, too.

You can move your data in standard formats in many cases, and cloud providers will often help you make the switch to the solution that’s right for you. You can also get a free short-term trial of many services, starting the moment you’re interested.

5 – Computer Problems Are Not Your Problems

Setting up your systems to keep hackers out, patching and updating them as needed and maintaining them is a big headache. Even for a small company, server and network operations is a full-time job, one that is often contracted to a company that may do its best to handle your problems right away. They will still take time to get there, assess the problem, and find a solution.

In the cloud, systems operate in a large-scale, professionally designed facility with specialists attending to them 24/7, ready with spare parts and systems. The power, networking, storage, and computers are all designed for maximum reliability by experts who’ve seen it all.

Conclusion: Have a Cloud Strategy

When you decide to use cloud applications and services, you’ll be overwhelmed at the choice. Before you pick and choose individual services, it’s a good idea to do your research or engage a consultant who can help you plan a strategy for cloud use. You can make the change comfortably, step by step, your way.

Author Bio:

Brian Jensen works with Dell. In his spare time he enjoys traveling, cooking and spending time with his family. He has a passion for learning and writing about all things technology. For more information on Cloud Computing and other business solutions, Brian recommends visiting the Dell SMB solutions site and having a look at their enterprise cloud services.