10 Smart Reasons Why Your Business Should Upgrade to Cloud Storage
Is your business still doing things the way they did in 2012?
While sticking to your guns can be a good idea most of the time, when it comes to technology, and especially digital storage, that is a losing strategy.
Over the past few years, cloud technology has advanced considerably, and is now as (if not more) reliable than physical storage. The best cloud storage services now boast serious advantages to server or hard-drive based stand-bys.
Source: Rob Christain Crosby (DTS)
Your business can’t stop the tides of change. If you’re still looking for reasons why your business should make the switch to cloud storage, here are 10 factors you should consider in deciding if your company would benefit from plugging into the cloud:
1. Convenience & Accessibility
Security is one of the major reasons companies decide to stick with traditional in-house storage.
While this is sometimes more secure (not always nowadays), what you make up for in privacy you lose in convenience and accessibility. Requiring employees to use company computers plugged into an intranet locks workers into a strict set of boundaries.
Perhaps an employee is out of office and would like to share a file from a personal device? What if a worker on holiday needs to access a file to make an edit or approve publishing? Suddenly, workflow grinds to a halt.
Not to mention creativity strikes at random moments and certainly not just in an office chair. Plus, flexibility often leads to happier workers and more productivity. Cloud storage allows employees to connect and access information at all times without limiting production to the confines of the office.
2. Collaboration
Gone are the days of lone-wolf authorship and invention. Today’s complicated economy requires many minds and skillsets working together.
Cloud storage allows for sharing and co-working in a flash. Allowing multiple users to work on the same spreadsheet or doc at the same time encourages a speedy exchange of ideas with minimal friction.
Source: Daniel Farò (DTS)
3. Backup
What happens when you or a coworker accidentally deletes a file off a computer hard drive or company server? Nothing. That’s it, the file is gone along with all the time, energy, and other investment pumped into it.
Many modern cloud storage services, like Internxt, are beginning to switch away from a centralized data model. This means that information is now encrypted and spread across a peer-to-peer service and recorded in blockchain. If your computer goes down, your data is safe. If another member of the service goes down, your data is still safe. This system is more resilient and less likely to experience data loss.
Also, pairing cloud storage with local hard storage gives you the best of both worlds. Free up space by backing up exclusively to the cloud or keep backups on your chosen cloud service and on your company’s own hardware for maximum insurance.
4. Security
Yes, keeping everything in-house can be very secure. But only as secure as your weakest link or connection point. An employee loses a company computer and that’s it, game over. The intruder can now access your network and view information in its raw form.
Some of the newer cloud services on the market offer end-to-end encryption of all data uploaded, stored, and shared on their platform. As soon as you upload your business file they are immediately encrypted, fragmented, and scattered until retrieval and you (the user and who you decide to share the info with) are the only one with a key.
Not even your cloud service can access your company’s data. Most businesses often store their trade secrets in the cloud so as to protect them from getting stolen or exploited.
5. Remote Work & Mobility
The pandemic changed much more than our hand-washing habits and drink-sharing etiquette. The world has seen a dramatic rise in remote work as a result of Covid-19 lockdowns. Working from home is here to stay.
With cloud storage, company employees can access information and files anywhere with an internet connection. By allowing employees to work from home, businesses can rework spending and downsize office expenditures. Remote work is popular with workers and has been shown to have little negative effect on overall productivity when you embrace advanced remote working tools.
Source: Tino Renato (DTS)
6. Sourcing Talent
No longer does your business need to only recruit locally or pay moving expenses for highly-qualified workers. Going along with remote work, cloud storage enables companies to begin to rethink hiring strategies.
If your local market doesn’t have the talent you need, freely hire employees from around the globe. Nevertheless, you can take help of sophisticated tools and technologies for the hiring process. Cloud storage creates a single workspace that can be shared across any state or geographic divides.
7. Centralize Files Across Platforms
Investing in a single cloud storage service creates a virtual center of your business not tied to any one physical location.
Finding files is as easy as searching the platform. Sharing between departments is as easy as sharing a paper file across a desk. Eliminate the time wasted in searching the right system for the exact file.
8. Save Time
It’s pretty evident how cloud services save time in terms of organization, but what is less noticeable is the amount of time businesses can shave by eliminating needless back and forth on files.
With a collaborative cloud service, employees can all work on individual docs and files in real time. Explaining issues or revisions often takes as much time as fixing them. Being able to show or highlight exact problem areas in doc eliminates tons of confusion and effectively reduces the risk of miscommunication to almost zero.
The clearer your employees can communicate, the less frustrated or bogged down they become and the quicker your work can be polished and finalized.
Source: Maresa Smith (DTS)
9. Affordability
Maintaining an IT department or a server center is an expense you can easily offload with a solid cloud storage provider. Those savings can be reinvested in more quality employees or new ways of producing growth. Have a problem with uploading, just contact the cloud companies support.
Many of the better providers offer excellent customer support that’s as efficient as any homegrown technology department. These customer service reps are also afforded the advantage of specializing in digital storage, rather than that area of expertise being only one part of their day to day responsibilities.
10. Scaling for Growth
Eliminate virtual growing pains by offloading your storage and data to the cloud. The baked in costs of updating your hardware and infrastructure with every rise in sales or users can essentially be eliminated. Simply call up your provider and upgrade your plan to accommodate your new situation.
Business is Better with Secure Cloud Storage
Moving to the cloud just makes good business sense, plus the benefits of investing in cloud storage far outweigh any risks. Whether your concern is data security, online privacy, fueling growth, or remote work and collaboration – a cloud service provider is offering the right solution to meet your company’s needs.
Secure your company’s future, push your business forward, and back up your company to the cloud!
Author bio: Fran Villalba Segarra is the CEO of Internxt – the world’s most secure cloud storage. Since 2020 he has been working hard to create powerful tools for a safer and more private internet that respects users. Feel free to connect with Fran on Linkedin.
