The Strategic Importance of Moving Your Enterprise into the Cloud

In 10 years, enterprises are forecast to have 58 percent of their compute and data storage in the cloud, compared to 28 percent currently, according to a report in eweek.com.

The adoption of the cloud has exceeded expectations and comes with a host of  benefits to businesses of any size.

These benefits include:

Security – Management of even a small-scale network can be troublesome for businesses. Regular updates, scans, backups, monitoring, and inspections are accessible when a business shifts to a cloud platform. Securing the business in this manner protects employee and customer information, patents and intellectual property, and other vital, private information. Cloud security allows for rapid roll-out and implementation of standardized updates and practices which reduce typical intrusions as well as secure data that could otherwise be accessed from a physical location.

Standardization – Every company wants its processes streamlined to save time and money. Technology grants a business many powerful tools and  opportunities to grow in all areas–from marketing to product development. However, many businesses work off a tangled ecosystem of programs and services that don’t always “talk” with another; this leads to a bottleneck. With cloud computing, a business can deploy services that are standardized across all channels, so employees can more easily shift between workloads and issues, caused by using multiple systems, are eliminated.

Reduced Costs – With the cloud comes incredible savings. Businesses can adjust and repurpose budgets, because a large share no longer is needed for areas, such as hardware, software, and licensing fees. Additionally, costs associated with training new and existing employees are reduced due to the standardization of the systems (as mentioned above) versus a seemingly never-ending learning environment from a constant introduction of hardware and software. All needed resources as well as training from the service providers can be accessed through the Web.

Flexibility – “Technology used in cloud solutions must stay up to date and in line with the newest trends and features. There is no need to ‘rip-and-replace’.” What Christo Erasmus of Unit4 Business Software said is a major selling point of cloud services. The ability to have cater services to your business needs monumentally improves productivity; services are conformed to the needs instead of shaping businesses around the service. You don’t need a particular module and don’t want to get stuck paying for the full package? Not a problem. You can choose what you need and scale at a later time when necessary.

Globalization – Entry into a new marketplace on a global scale can be costly and difficult. With cloud services, the necessary tools and resources are easily accessible to anyone worldwide. A business can source individuals in new marketplaces and quickly equip them with the appropriate resources without troublesome issues such as language barriers, cultural differences, and hardware requirements.

A foray into cloud computing, security, and the variety of software-as-a-service options have already created a monumental shift in business operations. Reduced costs, improved security, flexibility, globalization opportunities, and standardization are just a few. Now’s the time to bring your business into the cloud–from this point forward there is no going back.