From nebulous beginnings, the cloud has grown into a platform that has gained universal acceptance and is transforming businesses across industries. Companies that have adopted cloud technology have seen significant payoffs, with cloud-based tools redefining their data storage, data sharing, marketing and project management capabilities. The easy availability of affordable cloud infrastructure has made it so easy to set up new businesses that the economy is all set for a start up boom which has its head, so to speak, in the cloud! For more information, check out courses in Cloud Computing.
With the advent of this new technology, complete newbie’s in the market are able to hold their own against established market players—by achieving an amazing quantum of work using skeleton manpower resources. Recently, a popular ad doing the rounds on TV showed a long haired youth conducting business from a cafe on his HP Pavilion laptop, where he is ridiculed by some well heeled middle-aged businessmen on their coffee break. Back at their office, they find that this youngster is the new investor that their boss has been heaping accolades on. “Where’s your office?” one of them asks the young man…to be laughingly told that he carries his entire office in his laptop!
And that, typically, is how the new-age start up business looks. We have heard many stories of how a clever idea has turned a tidy profit for a smart entrepreneur working out of his laptop. While cloud computing is pushing the boundaries of science and innovation into a new realm, it is also laying the foundation for a new wave of business start ups.
5 Reasons Your Startup Should Switch To Cloud Storage Immediately
1) Cost-effective
Probably the strongest argument in cloud’s favor I is the cost-effectiveness that it offers. This cost-effectiveness becomes possible because cloud eliminates the need for physical or hardware storage and doesn’t require additional IT professionals for equipment maintenance.
This can significantly reduce costs because even though physical storage devices, hard drives and paper may not be expensive on their own, they lead to occupation of useful office space and also require administrative efforts for maintenance.
According to a study, by switching from paper to mobile a field team of 5 people can save up to 12,000 USD each year. Therefore, moving to a virtual storage not only becomes financially feasible but also avoids unnecessary administrative hassle.
Additionally, cloud storage allows you to pay for what you use and only when you use it. This is because with cloud you need not anticipate how much storage space you might need in a year’s time and then pay for it in advance. Instead, you can merely adjust your storage capacity via your service provider as and when needed and pay accordingly.
2) Mobile
Cloud storage is spearheading the transformation of traditional offices by providing an unprecedented degree of mobility. With cloud, the only thing your employees need to stay informed is internet connectivity.
Previously, businesses used to favor SaaS platforms because they could be accessed anywhere with a computer and internet access. However, today it has become impractical to restrict yourself to a desktop-only software especially since cloud offers better accessibility than SaaS platforms and at a fraction of the cost.
The reason is that cloud allows you to access and modify your information via laptops, PCs as well as mobile phones and tablets. This functionality makes cloud ideal for any business that wishes to move beyond a traditional office setup to reap the benefits of remote teams and telecommuting.
In addition to this, cloud also supports the development of website and mobile applications that further enhance your work flexibility and communication.
3) Secure
Physical storage devices are prone to system malfunction, a hazard that is overcome almost entirely when you move to cloud storage. While nothing is 100% secure, cloud does offer the safest available way to store data which protects information via firewalls, encryption as well as malware protection.
The level of security provided by cloud supersedes that which is provided in-house because of the fact that information security is among the primary responsibilities of cloud storage providers. For this, they deploy technology experts along with a wide array of specialized equipment that are over and beyond what businesses are capable of implementing in-house.
The entire security framework also includes enhanced encryption protocols, biometric locks and surveillance equipment. It is for this reason that nearly 85% of small business are reported to be confident in their cloud storage provider’s ability to provide a secure environment for their data.
In addition to safeguarding against cyber attacks, cloud storage also comes packed with a wide variety of backup and disaster recovery provisions so that even if a mishap does take place, your data would stay untouched. This is because it allows for constant duplication of your information which can be retrieved if something were to happen to your current storage platform. To kick-start your career in cloud computing, enroll in KnowledgeHut courses in Cloud Computing.
4) Integration
One misconception that discourages startup owners from migrating to cloud is that they may lose some of their legacy information or have difficulty integrating on-premise and SaaS platforms with cloud. This couldn’t be farther from the truth because cloud in no way requires labor-intensive extract, transfer and load (ETL) procedures.
In fact, IT service providers can very conveniently extract information from SaaS tools and on-premise systems and integrate them with public and proprietary data sources. Moreover, there are numerous solutions that offer APIs that are capable of being connected to software that perform other tasks thus allowing you to improve your business’s bottom line.
5) Collaborative
The ubiquitous use of internet has enabled start-ups to expand their operations to the farthest corners of the world by making efficient use of remote teams a capability which has in many ways been facilitated by the use of collaborative tools such as cloud.
Cloud-based document sharing allows on-site and off-site team members to work simultaneously on a file causing the time cost of projects to reduce considerably. Moreover, cloud-based document sharing is much more secure than email correspondence as it only allows authorized individuals to access and modify documents.
How Moving to Cloud Can be a Wise Decision?
New ventures in general suffer from a lack of infrastructure, manpower and funding…and all these three concerns are categorically addressed by the cloud. Moving to the cloud minimizes the need of huge capital investments to set up expensive infrastructure. For nascent entrepreneurs, physical hardware and server costs used to be formidable given the limited budgets at their disposal. Seed money was also required to hire office space, promote the business and hire workers. Today, thanks to cloud technology, getting a new business off the ground and running costs virtually nothing. Most of the resources and tools that new ventures need are available on the cloud at minimal costs, in fact quite often at zero costs, making this a powerful value proposition for small businesses. A cloud hosting provider such as AWS can enable you to go live immediately and will even scale up to your requirement once your business expands.
Small businesses can think and dream big with the cloud. When it comes to manpower resources, it takes just a handful of people to work wonders using the online resources that are at their disposal. If you have a brilliant idea and have a workable plan for execution, you can comfortably compete neck to neck with market leaders. The messaging sensation WhatsApp was started in 2009 by just two former Yahoo employees who leveraged the power of the internet – and this goes to show that clever use of technology can completely eliminate the need for a sizeable manpower pool.
Cloud Computing and Resource Management
Start ups have always been more agile than their large scale counterparts, and the cloud helps them take this a step further. Resources can be scaled up or down in no time, whereas in traditional environments it would have taken many days, considerable planning and funds to add hardware and software. Cloud computing also helps improve collaboration across teams, often across geographies. Data sharing is instantaneous, and teams can work on a task together in real time regardless of their location.
Powered by the cloud, small businesses operate with shoestring budgets and key players in different continents. All their accounting, client data, marketing and other business critical files can be stored online and are accessible from anywhere. These online tools can be accessed and utilised instantly, and underpin all the crucial processes on which these businesses thrive. Strategic financial decisions are made after garnering insights from cloud-based accounting software. E-invoicing helps settle bills in a fraction of the time of traditional billing systems, and client queries are answered quickly through cloud-based management systems—saving precious time and increasing customer satisfaction levels to an all-time high. Whether at home, on vacation or on the phone, businesses can oversee sales, replenish products and plan new sales strategies. That’s a whole new way of doing business, and seems to be very successful!
An estimate by Cloudworks has put the anticipated cloud computing market at over $200 billion by the year 2018. As Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, succinctly put it, the cloud “makes it easier and cheaper than ever for anyone anywhere to be an entrepreneur and to have access to all the best infrastructure of innovation.” With cloud technology rapidly levelling the playing field between nascent and established businesses, it is anybody’s guess as to just how many new start ups will burst into the scene in the next few years.
Conclusion
In the days to come, cloud storage and computing will cease to be an option so it is imperative that you jump aboard the cloud bandwagon as soon as possible so that you can not only capitalize on its advantages but also evolve alongside a rapidly evolving technology. Hoping that the blog has helped you gain a clear understanding of the importance of Cloud Computing. To gain more knowledge on what cloud computing has to offer, take a look at other blogs as well as the AWS certifications that we have to offer or enroll yourself for the AWS Certification Training course by KnowledgeHut.
