Our thoughts on the future of digital innovation and the cloud.
Why cloud computing? Why are so many businesses moving to the cloud?
These are two questions we still get on a daily basis.
Cloud technologies are becoming one of the major investments for all sizes of organizations. The goal generally includes plans to to reduce costs, consolidate billing, ensure server availability and plan for disaster recovery.
Cloud computing increases efficiency, helps improve cash flow, and offers many more benefits.
According to Gartner Group, the total public cloud market was $182.4 billion in 2018. This value is expected to rise by 17.5% and reach $214.3 billion in 2019. Statista reports that the Infrastructure as a market (IaaS) is leading the charts, showing a growth of 20.2% between 2018 and 2022, followed by Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS).
- Flexibility
Cloud-based services are ideal for businesses with growing or fluctuating bandwidth demands. If your needs increase, it’s easy to scale up your cloud capacity, drawing on the service’s remote servers. Likewise, if you need to scale down again, the flexibility is baked into the service. This level of agility can give businesses using cloud computing a real advantage over competitors. - Low-Cost Disaster Recovery
Businesses of all sizes should invest in robust disaster recovery, but for smaller businesses that lack the required cash and expertise, this is often more of an ideal than the reality. Cloud computing is now helping more organizations buck that trend. - Let the Cloud Update Your Software
The beauty of cloud computing is that the servers are off premises, out of sight and out of your hair. Suppliers take care of them for you and roll out regular software updates—including security updates—so you don’t have to worry about wasting time maintaining the system yourself. This leaves you free to focus on the things that matter, like growing your business. - Capital-Expenditure Free (Opex vs Capex)
Cloud computing cuts out the high cost of hardware. You simply pay as you go and enjoy a subscription-based model that’s kind to your cash flow. Add to that the ease of setup and management, and suddenly your scary, hairy IT project looks a lot friendlier. It’s never been easier to take the first step to cloud adoption. - Increased Collaboration
When your teams can access, edit, and share documents anytime, from anywhere, they’re able to do more together and do it better. Cloud-based workflow and file-sharing apps help them make updates in real time and give them full visibility into their collaborations. - Work from Anywhere
With moving to the cloud, if you’ve got an internet connection, you can be at work. And with most serious cloud services offering mobile apps, you’re not restricted by which device you have on hand. - Document Control
The more employees and partners collaborate on documents, the greater the need for watertight document control. Before the cloud, workers had to send files back and forth as email attachments to be worked on by one user at a time. Sooner or later—usually sooner—you end up with a mess of conflicting file content, formats, and titles.
And as even the smallest companies become more global, the scope for complication rises. According to one study, “73% of knowledge workers collaborate with people in different time zones and regions at least monthly.”
When you make the move to cloud computing, all files are stored centrally and everyone sees one version. Greater visibility means improved collaboration, which ultimately means better work and a healthier bottom line. If you still rely on the old way, it could be time to try something a little more streamlined.
- Security
Lost laptops are a billion-dollar business problem. Potentially greater than the loss of an expensive piece of kit is the loss of the sensitive data inside it. Cloud computing gives you greater security when this happens. Because your data is stored in the cloud, you can access it no matter what happens to your machine. You can even remotely wipe data from lost laptops so it doesn’t get into the wrong hands. - Competitiveness
Wish there was a simple step you could take to become more competitive? Moving to the cloud gives everyone access to enterprise-class technology. It also allows smaller businesses to act faster than big, established competitors. Pay-as-you-go service and cloud business applications mean small outfits can run with the big boys and disrupt the market, all while remaining lean and nimble. David now packs a Goliath-sized punch. - Environmentally Friendly
While the above points spell out the benefits of cloud computing for your business, moving to the cloud isn’t an entirely selfish act. The environment gets a little love, too. When your cloud needs fluctuate, your server capacity scales up and down to fit. You only use the energy you need, and you don’t leave over-sized carbon footprints.
References:
Why Cloud Computing: Gartner Says Worldwide Public Cloud Services Market to Grow 17.5 Percent in 2019 | gartner.com
Why Cloud Computing: Public cloud services five-year compound annual growth rate worldwide, from 2015 to 2020, by segment | statista.com
Why Cloud Computing: Why Cloud Computing Is Ideal for Small Businesses | thebalance.com
Why Cloud Computing: 8 Reasons Why Cloud Computing is Even Better for Small Businesses | readwrite.com
Why Cloud Computing: What is cloud computing? | azure.microsoft.com
Parallels | parallels.com
