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How Your Small Business Can Benefit From Cloud Computing

2014-08-11by Monique Craig

Nowadays, we're surrounded by cloud – it provides a connection to our online lives when we access our emails or social media profiles, it's there when we shop, make bank transfers and read a newspaper. Cloud computing can be a great solution for small businesses to cut back on IT costs and increase their productivity.

 

Cloud Computing – the Basics

 

First things first, what exactly is cloud computing? Through cloud computing, businesses can rent hosting services, without having to invest in expensive infrastructure themselves. Cloud service is sold on demand, it's flexible (users can employ as much of as they need at a given time) and, the best of it all, it's fully managed by the provider. Another perk – cloud is easily incorporated into month-by-month budget.

 

During the last few years, providers developed three different types of cloud services, each bringing different benefits:

  • Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offers remote access to servers, storage devices, as well as hardware and networking equipment. What does all this mean for your business? No need to worry about hardware maintenance.
  • Software as a Service (SaaS) is a service that offers software for common use, such as desktop applications (think Microsoft Word or Excel), e-mail, or specialized functions like payroll, accounting or customer relationship management (CRM).
  • Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides shared resources – both hardware and software – all of which are available for demand. Businesses use PaaS to host and develop web apps designed for internal use – to help manage e-commerce or digital marketing effort.

 

The Benefits of Cloud

 

Among the many considerable benefits of cloud computing for small business, we find:

 

  • Reduction of cost – this is an obvious one.  Resorting to cloud instead of a physical storage saves lots of capital. Your business will no longer have to invest in infrastructure or licenses – all that money can now boost your marketing budget, for instance.
  • Accessibility – cloud is really easy to use and won't involve any additional costs to train your employees. Accessing and saving files on cloud is a piece of cake, even if the thought of technically-complicated technologies makes your workers shudder.
  • Remote access – cloud services like software hosting, storage and others, are all there to help your office to have a lighter experience with their computer use.
  • Automation – usually, you'd need to invest lots of money into IT support in order to keep your file storage system updated and in shape. With cloud, you can be sure that all your applications will automatically update themselves.

 

How to Use Cloud at Your Business

 

Cloud is perfect for storing your data, as well as your backups – it will update the data as you work on it and create off-site copies of your data so you'll never risk losing it. Other practical side of cloud is that it helps to create a smooth mobile office – data can be accessed and synchronized from all locations. Many offices use cloud for sharing information, which makes collaborating across distance easier.

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Author

Monique Craig

Monique Craig

Ninefold

Monique Rivers is an Australian tech blogger who also loves good food and fashion. She works at ninefold.com. Ninefold is a powerful Ruby on Rails platform, that allows you to deploy Rails apps quickly and easily.

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