The amount of data that needs to be stored has increased dramatically due to digital document conversion and long-term file storage in businesses. Data storage has grown to become a challenge for every organization or business type. Whenever you add external hard drives or new devices, you are making an investment upfront. The other fast-growing trend uses the many benefits that come with cloud data storage.
In this strategy, corporate data can be securely maintained, managed, backed up and accessed remotely, as long as permissions are granted. In this article, we present 6 benefits that make cloud storage a good strategy for your business. Check it out!
1. Increased data security
The most common reason a business chooses cloud storage is to ensure easy data recovery in the event of a cyberattack, natural disaster, or other emergency.
Attacks using ransomware are simply one of several scenarios that potentially endanger corporate data. Files would need to be protected in case there was an incident on the premises.
For one, data residing in the cloud is typically in an encrypted form and would need to be unscrambled for an attacker to read the information. But, furthermore, a CSP can offer features like:
- consistent security updates;
- integrated firewalls;
- redundancy (ultra-backup data), among others.
2. Improved operating costs
Businesses have the opportunity to dramatically reduce operational costs by choosing a cloud data storage solution instead of a physical server. Cloud storage can provide a huge benefit by eliminating the upfront investment required to purchase a server and associated hardware.
Cloud storage also reduces monthly maintenance costs and provides a scalable solution for your business. It allows the increment of storage with a huge increase in the future if there is such a need, with no purchase and installation of new servers.
3. Scalability
In addition to being costly and time-consuming, locally hosting your data on your own servers requires valuable office space. Plus, whenever your operation grows, your locally hosted infrastructure must grow as well, which only adds cost, hassle, and space. This creates a scalability problem.
Cloud computing eliminates these challenges because of its easy scalability. The infrastructure has already been built for you in some remote data center, and you just need to negotiate more space with your third-party host. There’s no need to buy more equipment or plan where you’ll put the new servers and how to connect them all together. It’s as easy as click and scale.
4. Little or no maintenance
Remember what we said about the security aspect of cloud computing? Well, part of that security requires regular server maintenance, software updates, and network management. Fortunately, cloud computing takes all of that maintenance off your plate and leaves it in the hands of trained professionals.
Since you’re not hosting anything, you don’t need to worry about having to buy new equipment every three to four years to stay current with everything. Additionally, you won’t have to worry about any of that upkeep, giving you more time for your company and enabling you to concentrate entirely on the good or service you’re providing.
This is the peace of mind one needs, especially in a business just starting out and not having the manpower to deal with major equipment upgrades.
5. Collaboration and transparency
Remember the old days of sharing versions of a document via email without knowing what was being changed and when? Remember when these processes would lead to duplication of effort since no one except the immediate user could view and edit these documents?
All of that is a thing of the past thanks to cloud computing. Cloud computing improves team collaboration, mobility , and transparency of work across teams. Whether you’re dealing with sales strategy or lead management, cloud computing gives you the power to share this information with everyone on your team in real time.
6. Remote access to data
Your email account is probably the best analogy of cloud computing. Provided you have your login information and an Internet connection, you can log into it from any computer. This is what really enhances the appeal of cloud computing to a lot of businesses.
Instead of being stored on your desktop or some local area network server that is not hooked into the Internet, the cloud allows you and your people to access your work from anywhere in the world.
To some degree, this remote access enhances productivity and flexibility in your workspace. If you’re working in an office environment, you’re probably availing yourself of cloud computing when you work from home.
Cloud computing makes daily business possible from anywhere, so you do not have to worry about pandemics, floods, fires in the office building, or giant tornadoes sweeping away your office. Provided your data is stored in the cloud, as long as that is there, you are good to go.
Storage spaces have started to become congested due to the amount of data being generated and downloaded. With predictions like this, providing powerful, integrated storage services that are also strategically designed with security has become one of the biggest challenges for companies providing these infrastructures. Cloud computing alone cannot meet these demands for faster-response data.
The future of cloud data storage is moving information and computing closer to users. Known as Edge Computing, it literally means moving cloud drives to the edge of the network. This type of computing works on the premise of delivering data to a device closer to the user, becoming a mini data center and resulting in a real-time response.