Terrific Reasons To Move Your Most Important Business Data To The Cloud

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If your business hasn't yet incorporated cloud computing, you may be missing out. Hosting both applications and information repositories on cloud servers is wise for many different reasons. These systems make accessing company info and resources fast and easy from almost any location with an internet connection. In this article, you'll learn about some of the best reasons for today's global businesses to move operations to the cloud.

Better Reliability

Think back to the last time your business systems went down. If you've never experienced a downtime, calculate how much money you might theoretically lose if you were without resources for two to four hours. How about if systems were down for four days? That's a lot of business to lose and a lot of productivity that is likely to suffer.

Cloud computing helps to protect your productivity, even when computer systems go down. If a hard drive fails, or the office's internet connection goes out for the day, employees can easily work from home or a different machine because all information is kept off-site. This lowers downtime and ensures that customer websites and portals remain up, even when an outage occurs.

Easier Access for Global Employees

When using non-cloud resources, employees need to log into a localized machine each time they want to access your network. This is self-limiting, and can prevent your business from making use of telecommuting and freelance workers. Furthermore, it can result in lockouts and the need for complex hardware management on-site. Simply put, the cloud takes your existing network and stretches it to allow connections from almost anywhere.

By using the cloud instead, employees can be given a login that allows them to access only some, or all, of your server's architecture. The system can be set up with permissions in much the same way as a localized computer, ensuring that each individual is able to access only what they are permitted to access. Furthermore, if someone forgets a password or locks themselves out, your IT manager can simply log in and reset it from a remote location.

Nearly Instant Disaster Recovery

Cloud services can also provide you with almost-instant disaster recovery, thanks to the fact that backups are stored off-site. Additionally, mirrored cloud servers can provide an instantly-fetchable duplicate version of applications, websites, and tools in situations where the original becomes unusable. Useful during power outages, hardware failures, and even natural disasters, this creates seamless access to the majority of your business data at all times. 

So what makes the cloud truly special in this area? To understand this, you'll need to understand two important IT terms. The first, recovery time objective, refers to exactly how long it takes you to recover from a disaster like hardware failure or power outages. The second, recovery point objective, refers to how far back you want to be able to recover data-wise. Ideally, the shorter the recovery time objective and the longer the recovery point objective, the better. 

Even if your business takes regular on-site backups, you shouldn't assume you are protected. If a regional issue like a natural disaster or outage occurs, your backups could still be destroyed or lost. Cloud backups and mirrors are reliable, stable, and a trustworthy way to prevent data loss. When issues occur, the network can be programmed to quickly switch over to the exterior server, preserving uptime save for a few short seconds.

No Up-Front Capital Required for Installation

While it is technically possible to set up your own cloud server, most individuals rent or otherwise pay for an outside service. This has dramatic benefits for small-to-medium and new businesses, as it cancels out the need to spend precious capital on expensive server equipment. The majority of cloud-based computing services charge either by the month, or based on volume--so you can adjust your budget as you grow over time. It's a grow-with-you solution that can be pared back or expanded on short notice.

Using cloud servers to host business information is incredibly wise. With advances in technology and security, there is little to no difference between cloud computing and on-site server infrastructure. For questions about creating a network, or to learn how you can make the internet work for your business, contact your ISP today.


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