With the Cloud being an integral core of our day to day operations, it seems almost
impossible to survive without it, even for a day. We are well aware of the exciting benefits that Cloud offers making our businesses boom at an unbelievable rate. Cloud has already buried us in its majestic capabilities that make us question our lives without it. Can we stop using our smart gadgets for a even week without informing our friends, family and colleagues? Is it really possible to unplug our lives and live without the Internet? Without the Cloud?  Sounds impossible, right?

Today, many of us depend on cloud leveraged services even for the smallest of our daily chores. As do businesses. Here are some ways that cloud has managed to simplify businesses and help them succeed with lucrative benefits:

1. Collaboration of work

Modern day employees are technological nomads. It is an accepted practice these days to work remotely rather than being confined to their standard cubicles. A recent report published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that “telecommuting boosts productivity, reduces absenteeism and increases job retention”. Leveraging the cloud, modern telecommuters work from home or on-the-go without it affecting their productivity. Such supremacy of cloud enables these “nomadic workers” to work without geographic restraint, even when they are on vacation. Telecommuting also opens a wide spectrum of opportunities for single-parents and those with physical disabilities.

With growing emphasis on cloud-enabled team-work and collaboration, it is not always required that all the teammates should be present in the vicinity of each other for a task to be accomplished. Cloud has opened new horizons for working in these atmospheres, with features like video-conferencing and instant data-sharing on the go, thus, making team work easier.

As per a recent poll by Reuters, an international news agency, “1 out of 5 office employees around the globe practice telecommuting”. In 2015, 37% of US workers have admitted that they have been telecommuting and found it more comfortable and productive.

If it weren’t for the Cloud, such conveniences would never be feasible and all these work facilitations we experience now would just be a work of fiction.

2. Cloud enabled accounting systems

Using cloud as their modus operandi, some accounting software, such as Xero and Intuit (QuickBooks), has gained prominent market as computer accounting systems. These systems manage accounting chores like payrolls and taxes, which are tedious and weariful tasks. Possibly, the only solution to obviate this is to hire a professional. The last thing that small businesses want to do is to shell out their capital for such tasks that can be easily achieved with these modern era Cloud enabled software. Without the use of cloud enabled accounting software, there is a good chance that your tax and compliance laws are not up to date and more importantly, precise.

3. Data storage and backup

Cloud storage has opened a whole new dimension of storage. In conventional storage methods, data was stored in an in-house equipment/facility. However, the inception of cloud changed the whole ballgame; the benefits that cloud offers are unbelievably imposing – accessibility with multiple devices, reliability and rapid deployment are just the tip of the iceberg. All you need is a reliable internet connection and you can avail all the benefits of cloud storage.  Few years ago, a malfunction in the network or a system crash while working, was marked as a very daunting event. With cloud backup in existence, however, these issues may now seem trivial. Cloud backup enables minute-to-minute updates and synchronization, thus, losing your entire work in this era of cloud computing may seem like a very rare or defunct event. Even your salient data is safe and sound in the hands of the Cloud. Cloud ensures that all your data is backed up in secure servers and can be retrieved with just a couple of clicks. Life seems much easier in the realm of cloud computing, right?

4. Data security

Talking about cloud storage and backup – is it really secure? As they say, a coin has two sides. Most good things come at a price. With the Cloud, however, this is not the case. As the global adoption and usage of cloud increases, so do the data security methodologies and procedures. Data and infrastructure security in the Cloud has only strengthened over all these years despite multiple mishaps and breaches. Although, not completely immune to cyber attacks, Cloud has now reached a place where one can exercise more control over its content than ever before, thanks to better and stronger security features. Your data or highly sensitive financial information, are all encrypted and kept behind an impenetrable firewall, which creates a digital fortress to safeguard this data permitting limited and judicial access. As a matter of fact, Cloud has become so secure that not only mainstream businesses or start-ups, but also banks are adopting it because of its exceptional and unbelievable security and other benefits.

In a Cloud Security report released by Alertlogic, there were 30% more brute-force attacks in physical/in-house data storing centers as compared to that after adopting Cloud, thus, resulting in a widespread perception change. A research from Microsoft indicates that 94% of the Cloud adopters found Cloud more secure and less vulnerable than on-premise storage. Had there been no Cloud, we would have to think twice to secure our data and financial information and the risks of data breaches would have been more important than ever.

5. Cloud is cheaper than our own infrastructure

No, you do not have to buy piles of racks and a personalized room to gain access to the Cloud. Cloud computing can be easily rented from over thousands of service providers across the globe according to the needs of the user. And what spices things up is that you do not have to pay a huge sum of cash to them. Most of the cloud providers allow users to rent cloud on a monthly basis for the convenience of their customers. So, you do not have to burn holes in your pockets to reap the benefits of the Cloud.

On the other hand, if there was no cloud, we would have to spend our money in huge infrastructure and its maintenance. Also, what if we had to increase the storage of our in-house storage? This would cost more space on the office premises, more professionals to maintain it and more cost to buy it. Cloud helps you save all these funds that are vital for your business to succeed.

6. Virtual Scalability

One of the most significant features among cloud computing is that it is scalable.

For instance, you have already purchased 100GB of data storage with a cloud provider and you realize after a couple of months that you have bought a huge storage that is not required and want to decrease the capacity of cloud storage to save some money. You can easily do this within minutes. On the contrary, if you want to buy more storage, you can do that as well. Just a few mouse clicks and voila!  What if you were still stuck in the traditional way of data storage? You cannot frequently buy and sell huge amount of hardware as per your needs and would eventually end up spending a lot on managed it infrastructure services.

Needless to say, these benefits of using the Cloud are just the tip of the iceberg. Cloud enables providers and consumers of products to interact much more easily, because they are free from the drudgery of providing the necessary IT support. Businesses have constantly benefited by the world of cloud computing, that too without having to pay through the nose. Even though some of us have been wary to adopt cloud, one cannot deny the fact that we would not have entered this digital age, had it not been for the Cloud! “A world without Cloud could lead us to a technological drought”.