Moving to cloud-based solutions offers businesses of all sizes more flexibility and scalability, as well as reduced infrastructure costs. However small and midsize businesses often procrastinate when it comes to migrating data and solutions to the cloud. They cite concerns about loss of control, reliability, and security, while in reality, a shift to cloud computing can improve collaboration, enable remote work, and ensure data is accessible but secure.

Top Reasons to Leverage Cloud Computing

Adopting cloud technology can provide small organizations with cost savings, scalability, accessibility, reliability, and enhanced security and compliance capabilities. Here are the top reasons a business should consider cloud computing solutions:

  1. Reduced Infrastructure Costs: Cloud technology can reduce the need for investing in and maintaining on-premises hardware, which can be a significant cost-saving factor for small to mid-size businesses. Additionally, cloud computing uses a consumption model, allowing businesses to pay only for the resources and services they use. That can help smaller organizations optimize their IT spending. Not only can businesses better budget for IT costs with cost-effective cloud solutions, but they gain access to enterprise-level infrastructure and services with cloud computing that would otherwise be too expensive. The ability to get more for less, eliminate upfront hardware investments, and improve resource utilization can deliver significant savings for small companies and be a key cloud cost benefit.
  • Scalability Supports Agility: Beyond the cost impact of on-demand cloud computing services, many small to midsize organizations find it convenient to scale their computing resources up or down according to their needs with the cloud. Scalability in the cloud means accessing compute power and infrastructure to handle growth without major technology investments. Cloud computing solutions can be spun up quickly, allowing businesses to flex with market changes and opportunities—without breaking the bank. The impactful role of the cloud for business innovation can’t be overlooked, with cloud scalability advantages driving a competitive edge in the marketplace by empowering collaboration, agility, and growth alongside cost efficiency.
  • Accessibility: “Anywhere access” from cloud computing supports remote teams and fosters collaboration. With cloud-based remote access, employees can access data and applications from anywhere, and with secure redundancies that help protect work. Cloud-based information and tools are available to anyone with proper credentials, providing instant access from any location with an internet connection. Plus, with work synced across devices through the cloud, real-time collaboration in the cloud is seamless, a top benefit of cloud tools in today’s work-from-home reality.
  • Cloud Reliability and Disaster Recovery Services:  Most cloud providers pride themselves on “five-nines” availability, meaning they guarantee 99.999% uptime in the cloud. Modern cloud providers rely on redundancy at each data center, as well as across geographies, to support cloud service reliability. Cloud computing solutions also simplify business continuity with data backup supported by dependable cloud providers. Catastrophic data loss can happen at any time due to natural disasters, power surges, or hardware failure. However, with cloud-based business continuity, organizations can store or back up critical data, files, and applications in the cloud, ensuring that information remains safe and accessible regardless of what is happening at the physical address of the business.

Have you downloaded our free disaster recovery plan checklist?

  • Security and Compliance: While many businesses are leery of cloud computing because of security concerns, cloud providers invest heavily in cybersecurity as well as access control for data centers to meet cloud security best practices. That focus on enterprise-class cybersecurity usually means smaller organizations using cloud computing for infrastructure can enjoy more sophisticated protection than they can implement on-premises. Those extra layers of data protection in the cloud can assist organizations governed by compliance standards to meet robust data backup and security requirements. Many cloud providers offer compliance certifications and cloud compliance solutions to help their small business clients meet industry-specific regulatory standards in the cloud, reducing the burden of compliance management.

Note: Cloud computing obviously relies on an internet connection. If remote employees or your physical location have an unstable or low-speed connection, accessing cloud applications and data for work can be impacted. Downtime, compute and load time lags, and errors due to a spotty internet connection may impact productivity and the user experience, causing frustration instead of collaboration. The cost of a high-quality, high-speed connection, which can easily address this cloud computing drawback, may offset cost savings and should be evaluated as part of your decision process.

Every organization should thoroughly vet cloud computing benefits and concerns before deciding if cloud solutions are a fit for their business. But if you are a business looking to control your data, scale infrastructure effortlessly, budget more predictably, and rest easy with advanced cybersecurity safeguards protecting your information, cloud computing may be the right answer.

Worried about security and compliance? Exigent offers a private cloud solution custom-built to alleviate those concerns.

Prefer to leverage a public cloud solution to support other investments in Microsoft tools? Ask how we can migrate your business to Azure.

Before you make a decision about cloud computing, schedule a consultation with Exigent to discuss all your options and what makes most sense for your organization.