Being a small business owner is stressful. Certainly, it’s wonderful being your own boss, growing your own business, and watching your dreams come to fruition; however, the constant pressure of having to make critical business decisions on a daily basis can be thoroughly exhausting.
For example, at what point should a small business owner turn to cloud storage and computing – if at all?
In this article, we’re going to highlight some of the irrefutable benefits of cloud computing for small business owners to help make the decision as easy as possible for you. Here’s what you should know…
1. Unrivalled data security
The fact is, cybercrime costs the Australian economy an estimated $42-billion each year. Many of the businesses affected were subject to malicious digital threats which is precisely why your cyber security should be at the forefront of your priorities.
Don’t make the mistake of assuming that your business is not a target because you are small and growing. For any would-be cybercriminal, it’s the small businesses that are the easiest to take advantage of.
However, with a large and reputable cloud technology provider on your side—forever researching new threats, developing innovative encryption solutions, and constantly monitoring your data storage for potential intrusions—these threats can be avoided altogether.
2. Easy access (for you)
Cloud storage enables remote access for you and your employees.
So long as you have the appropriate login credentials and a Wi-Fi connection, you can access valuable, critical decision-making data on the move!
This invariably leads to improved flexibility and productivity which can contribute to your future growth and expansion.
3. No maintenance on your part
If you were to decide to handle all your data storage in-house, you will need to take care of all your security, up-keep, and maintenance requirements. This includes expensive software updates, licensing, and network management (to name a few).
Why bother when you can delegate those tasks to the professionals instead?
4. Lower IT costs
As a small business, it’s always worth having an IT professional in-house. However, there’s only so much a small department of one or two individuals can handle. Add data storage and security to the list and your IT costs are going to be far greater than they need to be.
With cloud storage and computing, you can justify keeping a smaller IT department in-house and allow them to focus their efforts elsewhere.
5. Disaster recovery
It’s not just cyber threats you should be worried about, but the million and one other things that can go wrong at any time.
With your data storage on-site, what happens in the event that you have an office fire? Or if your hard-drive gets damaged in an earthquake? Or a water pipe bursts and compromises everything?
It could be the end of your business.
However, with cloud storage, your crucial data will be backed-up on external hard-drive thousands of miles away, thus minimising your business downtime and protecting your most valuable asset.
Final thoughts
There are many ways in which Australian cloud providers can benefit your business. Cloud computing can boost collaboration and transparency between departments, it can help you scale your business by using only the data storage you need when you need it, and so much more.
If you were on the fence before, we hope this article has inspired you further. In any case, we wish you the very best of luck with growing your business into the future.
