You’re perhaps hearing about all your friends and competitors using cloud services & solutions to tap into all the exponential benefits. Even so, you also know the cloud is best for those with certain business circumstances.
It’s easy to get confused if you think you absolutely need to migrate to the cloud, yet you’re not completely sure if it’s the right move.
So how do you know? What’s important is to look carefully at what’s working in your company operations and what isn’t. This can entail a lot of areas, so it’s best to do a thorough self-audit of what’s been occurring.
Before getting to the benefits, it’s better to weed out why the cloud possibly isn’t a good choice at present. If your existing setup seems to run fine without needing constant maintenance or in demand of scalability, then maybe it’s best to hold off for the time being.
Migrating to the cloud, though, has far more benefits than any disadvantage. Let’s see what you’re experiencing now so you can make a more educated decision.
Increasing Demand
If you’re a small business, it’s inevitable you’re going to experience growing pains eventually. At the moment, you’re maybe starting to feel the pain of this through increased customer demand. The latter situation alone could happen virtually overnight due to publicity in the media. But would you be able to handle growth if it occurred in one day?
When you have these sudden bursts of growth, you want to scale your network immediately so it doesn’t encounter problems at the worst possible times. When you’re maintaining your own server that isn’t instantly scalable, you’re asking for severe downtime due to crashes or slow speeds.
Migrating to the cloud gives you instant scalability when you encounter a sudden customer surge. It’s a great security blanket for you and your customers so things keep running optimally when you hit the big time.
Needing to Reduce Operational Costs
On the flip side, most businesses need to cut operational costs, especially if they have a sudden customer downturn. IT costs frequently cover up to 15% of expenses for every company, so it’s important to look at the realities of what you’re spending money on.
One of the worst expenses is maintaining your own on-site server that requires constant maintenance and physical technology. Migrating to the cloud cuts costs exponentially since it doesn’t require maintenance or extra equipment to give you optimum service.
Needing Extra Storage for Data
It might seem impossible that a company would still use paper documents in today’s time, though some still do. You’re possibly one of them, and it means quickly running out of space to store those documents within your office space. However, even digital files can become overwhelming if relying on a server with limited storage capacity.
The cloud has unlimited storage space so you have a place to safely store your data without bursting at the seams. Fast scalability once again applies here so you can handle an eleventh-hour data influx.
Needing More Disaster Recovery Protection
Not enough companies take disaster recovery seriously, though you’re hopefully different. Giving some forethought to what you’d do in a disaster is essential, and you may realize what you have wouldn’t get you back on your feet fast enough.
Using the cloud, you have a safe third-party server to store almost your entire business contents. Since many “as a service” functions are available in the cloud, you can run hardware and software there that are easily recoverable after a disaster strikes. Anywhere you have an Internet connection, your data is quickly accessible as a major business lifesaver.
Download our free Business Owner’s Guide to Cloud Computing to learn more about cloud services and how to choose the right cloud solution.
