Is the cloud viable for small and medium size businesses?

Joey van Kuilenburg

Is the cloud viable for small and medium size businesses

Technology is without doubt an important business enabler. The most successful businesses today use technology as a key differentiator. Our work environment and patterns are changing constantly, and technology is what enables us to embrace that change. Mobility, and the technological advanced that have put a powerful computer in the form of mobile phones and tablets into our pockets has without doubt been one of the key drivers, making it possible for all of us to connect and work securely at anytime and from anywhere.

A report by IDC predicted that Small and Medium Size (SME) cloud spending would grow by nearly 20 per cent the next five years, with web hosting and hosted email the services at the forefront of SME adoption of ‘cloud computing’ services. Other popular applications used by SMEs include hosted desktop, storage and back-up, accounting and billing, Human Resources and Customer Relations Management.

The key benefits driving cloud services adoption by SMEs are:

Convenience

Most small and medium size businesses what to focus on growing their business rather than running their IT, and are prepared to hand this over to someone else. With the cloud, small businesses can outsource their IT quickly and easily.

Cost-effective

Cost containment is a key concern for small and medium size businesses, particularly in a very competitive and rapidly changing business environment. By delivering cost-effective, on-demand computing services, where the customer only pay for what they use, budget concern are mitigated.

Safe and secure

In spite of the news of data breaches and IT hacks, data stored in the cloud is more robust and secure than a small business is likely to be able to implement. Cloud providers invest significant amount of effort in monitoring their IT environment, preventing authorized users from accessing data with encryption, implementing capabilities that make their service resilient to multiple system failures. The risk to their reputation of a failure or security breach is significant.

Flexibility

Cloud computing has been the key technology enabling remote working. With the cloud, the technology platforms and services needed for this are easily accessible, without the need to worry about installing, configuring, maintaining and licensing your own IT systems. Cloud enables employees to have the same experience whether in the office, while our traveling on business or at home. The experience can be consistent across desktop, mobile and tablet devices.