4 ways the cloud will improve your business

If your cloud strategy is still up in the air, it’s time to look beyond your desktop to maximise the benefits of moving key business data and services online.

Cloud services aren’t just for large enterprises; they’re priced to suit any budget and can help small but savvy businesses punch above their weight.

1. Stay productive away from the office

Embracing the cloud helps your staff break the shackles tying them to their desks.

Cloud-based services can be securely accessed from almost any device, anywhere at anytime — offering a major productivity boost.

This makes it much easier to empower and manage a mobile workforce, letting your people stay productive on the road. Cloud services also make it easier for them to collaborate on documents and projects, whether they’re on the ground across town or across the globe.

Along with mobility, a shift to the cloud also delivers enhanced flexibility. It’s easier to grant staff more flexible work hours, perhaps working outside of the office, while making sure they’re productive and accountable members of the team.

Breaking the link to a physical desk also gives you the freedom to trial flexible workplace policies such as hot-desking and job-sharing.

Want to stay on top of invoicing while on the go? Read more here.

2. Do away with regular updates and security patches

Switching to cloud-based services ensures your staff are always running the newest release with all the latest features and security patches.

This takes the pain out of managing business-wide upgrades for your mission-critical software. It also frees your IT people to deal with more important matters than installing software updates and security patches across a fleet of computers.

3. Manage your costs

A budget-friendly Software as a Service (SaaS) subscription lets you turn a significant upfront capital expense into a much more manageable monthly operational expense.

This significantly reduces your upfront outlay when getting a new business off the ground and hiring new staff, freeing up your cash reserves for other matters. It also helps smooth out your cash flow, especially as you no longer have to pay for major software upgrades every few years.

The cloud subscription pricing model also puts enterprise-grade software within the reach of small businesses, levelling the playing field with your larger competitors. It’s easy for small businesses to ramp their subscriptions up and down as required, to help them ride out peaks and troughs in customer demand.

4. Store data in enterprise-grade data centre

When high-availability is important and downtime is expensive, a network of servers in an enterprise-grade data centre can be more reliant than the single PC sitting on your desk.

There’s no shortage of business disasters lurking in the shadows, from fire and theft to something as simple as a burst water pipe or failed hard drive. Realistically your data is probably safer in an enterprise-grade data centre offering Service Level Agreements and multiple layers of redundancy.

The flexibly and mobility offered by cloud services can save the day when disaster strikes. Easy access to critical systems and data offers the cornerstone of a business continuity plan, helping you keep the lights on while you put your disaster recovery plan into action.