In recent years, one of the fastest-growing areas of the computer and tech industry has been cloud computing. With the tremendous advances made in terms of the sophistication of our devices and vastly improved connection speeds (both fixed-line and mobile 5G), we sit at the dawn of a new age of mobile computing – largely powered by the cloud.

Make your workforce truly mobile and move to remote working

If you’re looking for ways to improve your firm’s agility and embrace the new revolution of remote working heralded by COVID-19, there are few better ways to streamline your operations than by moving your company’s digital services to a cloud computing service provider.

However, for many company bosses and managers, the prospect of outsourcing their IT can seem both daunting and perhaps even a little scary. After all, if your company is like most firms these days, data will form the backbone of your services and be a fundamental component of pretty much everything you do.

The benefits of cloud computing

If you’re sitting on the fence trying to decide whether a move to the cloud could benefit your company, below are just a few compelling reasons that show how embracing cloud tech will improve your overall business operations and processes.

Using cloud services will drastically reduce your operating overheads

In the not-so-distant past, companies looking to enhance their operations by having greater integration with IT and tech had to invest considerable sums of money setting up internal networks. Moreover, the costs didn’t stop there – after investing in the hardware, companies typically also had to take on staff to look after and maintain these expensive machines.

All firms these days need some level of IT to stay competitive. However, in the past, the costs of setting up and running these internal networks often proved prohibitive and prevented businesses from investing in the tech (and staff) they needed.

With cloud computing, your company could outsource all these costs and requirements to a third-party provider, slashing your expenditure and freeing up resources that could be put to better use. Modern cloud services companies make huge investments to ensure they run the most up-to-date and powerful kit – little wonder when you consider this is often a key deciding factor that can sway a potential client into choosing them over their competitors.

Also, rather than facing the prospect of potentially having to employ a dedicated IT department, you could instead have just one IT manager – particularly if you put them on a cloud enablement program to learn your network inside and out and have the skills to oversee your operations.

Most cloud providers provide dedicated support staff (more later), but it’s still a good idea to have someone on the ground in your team that understands your network and can manage resources locally.

The power to be truly agile and proactive through scalability

Because cloud companies invest so heavily in the most modern and capable machines, they are also able to offer a range of different plans and services that can be tailored to your firm’s precise needs. This tech also means that scalability (up or down) is possible, based on your particular requirements at any given time. No company stands still and your IT needs will likely vary from year to year – if not month to month. For example, in a downturn, you may want to reduce your IT overheads to cut costs and remain competitive – or, similarly, in times of growth, you may find yourself needing to employ more staff, thereby increasing your digital requirements.

With a cloud computing plan, you can quickly and effectively adapt to changing market conditions, as and when they happen. Upscaling or downscaling resources can be as quick as making a short call to your service desk – and some providers even allow clients to make the changes themselves through an online, backend control panel. Cloud computing gives a far better return on investment (ROI) than trying to handle things yourself.

The coronavirus effect and how cloud computing helped companies stay operating

Through the recent lockdowns and isolation enforced by COVID-19, companies had little choice but to move to cloud computing to stay up and running. However, while the worst of the virus may well be behind us, most employment experts suggest the virus has caused a change in the employment expectations of workers, with many employees reporting increased productivity and enjoying a better work/life balance afforded by the new-found freedom of working from home.

Habits, once adopted, are often hard to break and the workforce of the future is likely to expect – if not demand – at least some level of flexibility in how and where they work. Moving to cloud networking now will help future-proof your firm for the changing work model of tomorrow.

Online protection

The costs of cybercrime globally are forecast to be $6 trillion in 2024 – and up to $10.5 trillion by 2025. Indeed, taking like for like, the revenues generated by online crime make it the third-largest economy, narrowly behind the USA and China.

Any company that operates online to any degree these days is potentially open to a cyberattack – an attack that could not only stop it from operating but also, very possibly, affect its suppliers and consumers. Industry experts suggest data is now the world’s most valuable commodity – even outstripping previous heavyweights like oil and gold. Truth is, for most companies, if your IT network goes down, you won’t be able to function. From the one-man firm to the global multinationals, the driving force behind most companies these days is their data.

With a cloud provider, you’ll have the security and peace of mind of having dedicated 24/7/365 cover and support on tap, as and when you need it. Better yet, should the worst happen and you fall victim to a malicious attack or intrusion, you’ll be safe in the knowledge your cloud firm has backup copies of all your data to reinstall.

Collaborative working

If there’s one thing the COVID-19 pandemic taught us, it was the value of working together – even while based in separate locations. Recent advances in cloud tech, video conferencing and project management software have enabled employees to work together on projects, regardless of where they happen to be based. Gone are the days when employees huddled together under the same roof with pen and paper. Instead, these days, modern applications make it possible to collaborate on jobs with real-time updates, online meetings, scheduling and target-based deadlines.

Using cloud computing tech will enable your team to work together on jobs, no matter where they happen to be.

The power of remote processing

The benefits of cloud computing don’t just stop at storage, safety and collaboration. By utilizing the processing power of remote machines, your staff will be able to transform even the lowest-power handheld into a supercomputer by running software on remote machines – far more capable and powerful than the device they might have in their possession.

Modern cloud servers can be formatted to run any software and any Operating System (OS) to run applications far beyond the native capacity of the device that connects to them – transforming even the most basic mobile device into a processing powerhouse.