The adoption of cloud computing continues unabated, particularly within mid-size and large multi-national corporate organisations. The strategic benefits of cloud IT services are well proven. Almost every industry is leveraging the power of cloud to become more agile, innovate quickly and offer new digitally enhanced products and services. All of which helps accelerate business growth and stay ahead of the competition.
Smaller sized businesses have been somewhat slower to move their primary IT servers and storage systems to the cloud. Software as a service (SaaS) applications have been successful in the SME market, however. SaaS is enabling small businesses to upgrade important applications such as accounting, payroll, CRM and e-commerce. SaaS is easy to procure, set up and enables critical business operations without the headache of worrying about system integration or skilled IT staff to maintain the underlying server, software operating system, storage and network equipment. The monthly subscription fee also overcomes the burden of paying significant capital costs upfront on new hardware and software.
The success of software as a service for businesses highlights the case for smaller enterprises to follow in the footsteps of big corporate. There is very little need or justification to continue to run server and storage computer systems within your office environment. These large racks of metal boxes fill valuable real estate, consume costly electricity for power and cooling (not to mention are very noisy!) and, in most cases, are an easy gateway into your business should a cybercriminal decide that you are their next ransomware victim.
The business case for small businesses to move to cloud computing is as simple as it is compelling. Cloud IT provides significant value versus the money drain of procuring expensive computer equipment, installation services and support contracts to maintain it:
- Cloud computing services are more cost-effective than running IT in house
- Cloud computing services are more secure because the IT systems are operating within a highly secure, purpose-built data centre environment, which is looked after by IT professionals who are experts at managing IT to strict service level agreements
- Cloud computing allows business owners and their staff to focus on strategic initiatives and growth
What is Cloud Computing?
Simply put, cloud computing allows for the delivery of different services such as compute (servers), data storage, databases, networking and software applications through the Internet. For example, cloud-based storage makes it possible to save files to a remote database and retrieve them on demand.
Cloud computing technologies empower small-to-medium size businesses to innovate fast, lower costs and use IT as a strategic advantage.
Why Cloud Computing is Important?
Cloud is changing the way businesses think and do business, and here are eight reasons why:
- Cost Savings: Perhaps one of the most important reasons for businesses to go for cloud adoption is the significant reduction in IT costs. By using remote resources, servers and other equipment, companies can take advantage of the economies of scale which cloud computing provides.
- Scalability: Cloud Computing is great for businesses with fluctuating demands and requires a solution to meet their changing compute and storage capacity requirements.
- Performance: Because cloud computing runs in purpose-built data centres, they are constantly being upgraded to keep up with technology. This means businesses have access to very fast, high-performance hardware and software applications.
- Increased Collaboration & Productivity: Having data on the cloud enables company employees to access it from anywhere there is internet access. This also allows for a wider degree of collaboration between peers online. This is extremely useful for businesses whose employees are now adopting a hybrid work model since the pandemic. Also, using cloud computing frees up IT teams from the time-consuming burden related to IT administration so they can focus on more strategic initiatives supporting business goals.
Radiata supports small to medium enterprises by providing them access to industry-leading cloud computing technology which includes, storage, archive, block storage, disaster recovery and more. To learn more about the cloud computing solutions that we offer, start your free trial by contacting us today.