Everybody talks about Cloud power nowadays, when you go to networking meetups or socialise with clients and colleagues you will certainly hear about this new technology trend, you will also notice that everybody seems to have an opinion about it. Some love it and tell you all the good stories, others will warn you about the security and losing control over your data issues.
The question whether you adopt a Cloud solution or stick to your on premises solution will depend on a few factors, including cost saving, industry rules and regulations and staff training.
For a small business owner, one of the biggest issues is maintaining positive cash flow, this means reducing capital expenditure and avoiding big up front infrastructure costs. The Cloud power does exactly that, it offers a pay as you go payment model and is very well suited for all those who don’t want to tie up their valuable cash in a big investment in hardware and infrastructure resources.
The other main benefit of the Cloud over a on premises solution is the capacity which can be increased on demand. Imagine you are running an advertising campaign on your eCommerce website and expect an increased number of customers in the next few weeks, with Cloud power you can easily scale up and down without investing or committing to long terms contracts.
In summary Cloud power offers cost savings, flexibility, scalability, large storage and high demand.
However if you are a business where Internet connectivity is an issue, Cloud power may not be a suitable option or if you are in the health, legal and banking sector you may need to look at the industry guidelines and enquire about data protection and privacy.
Some of the popular cloud services for small business are Drop box, Google Drive and One Drive for your file storage, Office 365 and Google Apps for your document management, Skype for your instant messaging and video conferencing, Zoho CRM or Microsoft Dynamics for your customer management, Xero and Quick Books online for accounting and last but not the least Amazon and Microsoft Azure for your website and Cloud applications.
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