Cutting The Costs Of Cloud Use

Moving more of your business operations to cloud-based solutions can save your company a lot of money but optimizing your cloud use can save even more. Most cloud-as-service providers can offer you a variety of tools and tips to help streamline your cloud use and optimize it for your purposes because these things will also save them money, but there are things your company can change about physical processes which will help streamline the digital ones to save you even more.

Prevent Duplication of Data

The biggest cost in terms of storage space and running speed for cloud-based solutions is the de-duplication of data. This term refers to the generation of redundant data and copies of files on your system. These duplicate packets can slow down processes, produce false positives in analyses and reduce the accuracy of malware detection. Ridding the system of duplicate packets can free up space you can use for increased security, moving more processes to the cloud and much more.

System Security

System security is not a place you usually want to cut costs because that can put your company in the headlines in the worst way, however, there are smart ways to determine if you are paying too much for the security that you have. It is important that your cloud services provider have a security system certified by a reputable third party such as the Cloud Security Alliance or the government’s Cyber Essentials Scheme. This can give you confidence in eliminating duplicate security measures that are slowing down the system. Taking a tour of your provider’s security system can point out ways you can save money on streamlining the processes you have in place and eliminating redundant measures.

Billing and Metering

As with the problem of redundant data packets, there are apps available from your service provider and from third-party developers to help with billing and metering. Most service plans will have this information included in the dashboard app provided to you, some with metrics such as what your current and average monthly usages are, what speeds you are seeing and what percentage of capacity you are taking advantage of.

Customer Management

If you have plenty of room in your service plan for more processes, then moving things like customer management to a cloud-based system will help you cut costs. Many providers have this function already built into the dashboards you have access to or can easily add it. One of the benefits of having cloud-based Customer Relationship Management software, CRM, is that it can be accessed from almost any device, giving you flexibility in the field when helping your customers with their accounts. It can also eliminate misplaced invoices, send out automated payment reminders and save you from the cost of multiple software licenses for performing the same tasks.

Team Collaboration

The cloud is one of the best places for team collaboration whether you all work in the same office, are spread in different office buildings or are working remotely. Using communication software included with your service plan can save you on having a separate teleconference license fee, commute time to and from in-person meetings, and much more. You can even save time with collaborating through a team chat app which can be monitored and updated while focusing on other tasks instead of dropping everything for a meeting. Since most service plans include cloud-based communication solutions, not using these apps can be costing you more money than if you started taking advantage of them.

Moving as many business processes to a cloud-based system as possible can save you money in terms of physical data storage space, employee time on tasks and customer service relationship maintenance, but there are ways that a cloud service plan can cost you when not used carefully. Redundant data and file copies can slow down your system, unmetered company usage can result in higher billing and under utilizing the platform can mean paying for some software licenses or processes more than once. Finding the right tools to analyze and optimize your cloud use can cut costs.