Top 10 Reasons the Cloud is Better
A storm began brewing decades ago in the rolling hills of Silicon Valley. It was the idea that data could be stored and transferred wirelessly over a network. The birth was long, 15 years of labor, but the cloud is here and nothing will be the same.
Alright, so it’s not quite as dramatic as all that, but cloud computing services have already substantially changed the way that we store and traffic data over the Internet. Businesses are adopting cloud services into their operations at a rapid pace and the action has analysts predicting a $241 billion industry by 2020. That’s all you had to say to wet the mouths of tech entrepreneurs looking for a piece of the pie, but there are many and varied reasons why the cloud is taking the planet by – ahem – storm.
- Space is always a concern for companies. Whether that space is physical or digital, it always seems like there’s never enough. Cloud infrastructure provides clients with a scalable space solution that expands and contracts based on necessity. Cloud storage is essentially a living hard drive that grows with you.
- The cloud is (pretty) convenient. Storing files in a remote server that can then be accessed by any web device with functionality allows for entire home hard drives to be recalled on a smartphone or tablet, thereby reducing the risk of loss on a portable hard drive or multiple devices.
- In many ways, the cloud is cost-efficient. In terms of storage and processing, services only charge for what you use instead of a blanket about on an entire server if which you’ll only use 60%.
- Save on the number of people you have to pay to maintain an aging system. Cloud providers have their own staffs trained in specialized tasks so that you don’t have to hire a team of ITs to tend to your server.
- There is also no need to upgrade any part of your operating system while using the cloud. Over time you will find the need to upgrade to another program. This has to be done in order to change with the way business is done. Cloud allows you to build what you need as you need it.
- Cloud also helps backup your system. Many people who manage their own systems have to pay for extra storage in addition to their own computing network. Each backup system is tested to make sure there are no problems.
- The cloud is comprised of racks on racks of computer servers built to redundancy. If the server holding your information goes down, the information on that server is backed up to one of the thousands of other servers so any data loss crisis can be resolved quickly.
- Trying to merge two systems into one is a major headache. The cloud is available on many of your devices already. Check your email today? That’s probably your most used cloud service. All this is to say that you can get the cloud right now with the hardware you have.
- Security is a huge concern these days. Identities are stolen and systems are hacked into on a regular basis. The cloud is not popular because of its stalwart security. In fact, many people cite potentially disastrous data breaches as a deterrent to adoption. While nothing will ever be 100% secure, the cloud offers a backup option that is run by professionals so that in the event of disaster, your fate will fall into the hands of pros and not Norton Antivirus 2.5.
- The cloud makes information accessible to a degree previously impossible. The explosion in mobile technology has been a huge driver for cloud tech and getting to one pool of files via any of the various wireless devices we use now is a natural progression in data storage.
Using the cloud is a great opportunity for people to expand and save at the same time. It is changing the way people do business every day. Time will help define the difference between cloud users and those whose parades are going to be rained on.