For a business owner, it is crucial to make sure that you are continuously leveraging the most effective, yet economical solutions possible.

Cloud computing is an excellent example of this solution that many people have heard about but few truly understand it. Some have even likened it to a passing trend but that is very much not the case.

The truth is for Businesses, shifting IT operations to the cloud is beneficial in several ways and for improving productivity. Let’s look at some of the key ways cloud computing can boost productivity and drive profits:

1. Say Goodbye to IT Problems
Cloud computing provides the ability to basically outsource the entire operational IT functions to a third-party company. This transfers the risks and burdens related to maintaining IT infrastructure in-house. All the risk and most of the burden fall upon the cloud service provider.

A decent service provider will manage everything from software and system updates, security and even routine maintenance. This saves significantly in terms of time and money for the business, which can, in turn, be diverted to other key areas.

2. Safe and Secure
The hesitation of businesses to shift to the cloud comes from the misconception that keeping IT operations under control in-house is a safer solution. Although shifting to the cloud does involve giving up some control, third-party businesses will be able to look after the data more securely than you could.

Reputed cloud service providers have robust security protocols in place and are capable of clearly outlining their methodologies to you to ensure that you should let them manage your data with complete confidence.

3. An Economical Solution
The main goal of any business is to turn a profit, and reducing operational costs wherever possible is a great method of reaching that goal. The biggest benefit of shifting to the cloud is unsurprisingly a financial one. The financial model used by cloud service providers is predictable and economical. It does not involve an upfront cost, flat-rate monthly fees per user and/or increases or decreases with bandwidth usage.

Moreover, shifting to cloud servers eliminates the need for continual server environment refreshes, decreases the demand for IT support staff and conserves energy use. All these aspects save a significant amount of funds for the business.

4. A More Connected Workforce
Studies show that businesses investing in collaboration technologies experienced an increase in productivity by as much as 400%. Cloud computing enables easy collaboration amongst employees. Workers can easily access files and documents relevant to them from any location in the world, as long as they have an internet connection.

This connectivity eliminates the time-consuming and often insecure process of sharing files back and forth over email resulting in a more streamlined process. The development of a more efficient collaboration system that allows workers to access files from a single central location result in an improved business bottom line.

5. Flexibility, Functionality, and Efficiency
In a continually changing business landscape, it is interesting to observe how some businesses adapt themselves, often a little too late. While certain aspects of a business can be more difficult to adapt to than others, it is important to stay on your toes about such changes.

Cloud computing enables businesses to adapt to changing market conditions with a level of flexibility that is not possible when using on-site, physical solutions. Besides quickly adapting to external conditions, virtual solutions also facilitate quick responses to internal demands. If user demand increases, cloud service can be increased to meet these demands, and then be easily decreased when the demand decreases. This resolves the issue of over-provisioning or IT systems overload.

6. More Disaster Resistant
The loss of crucial data to a fire or some other catastrophe occurring on business premises can lead to financial ruin. Data backup service providers have championed this message for a while now, but due to the availability of cloud service providers, that message is more convenient to heed.

Some of the leading data service providers are focusing on innovation and security to make cloud-based storage even more disaster-resistant. There have even been talks on shift storage to chips rather than disc drives as they are a more secure data backup option.

Virtualization technologies facilitate the incorporation of cloud-based recovery models which create backup versions of your data and make it available at data centers should the data go missing or lost.

7. Greater Business Competitiveness
Studies have shown that around three-quarters of businesses feel that cloud computing gives them a competitive edge. The key reason businesses feel this way is due to cloud services enabling them to respond to opportunities more quickly than their competitors. 

Cloud services enable businesses to develop greater speed and agility which directly impacts its ability to develop products and manage their customer needs. The cloud functions as a facilitator that allows a business to bring products to market much quicker than they could before. It effectively allows small businesses to effectively compete with larger businesses.

8. Makes Big Data Easy to Manage
Cloud computing also makes it easier to manage big data for businesses. Traditional data storage methods aren’t always reliable and have often hindered businesses from conducting effective analysis of their databases. Even in larger businesses, this process can run for many weeks and need the expertise of highly knowledgeable specialists.

The cloud provides all the required tools to sort through massive sets of unstructured data easily and quickly. Yet another aspect of cloud computing that increases profits and productivity.

The post Leveraging Cloud Computing to Increase Productivity and Profit first appeared on Tech Firefly.