6 Benefits Of Cloud Storage for Small Business That Increase Productivity And Profit Off The Roof!
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And when it comes to data storage and protection, the cloud offers a ton of business benefits that you don’t want to miss out on!
In a paper published by Markets&Markets, it was estimated that the market for public and private cloud storage will grow from $13.57 billion (2014) to $56.57 billion (2019).
That translates to a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 33.1%, which is nothing short of impressive!
So why are businesses – especially small- to medium-sized enterprises – switching to the cloud for their storage?
While most of the small businesses start with Dropbox, but there are other Dropbox options that you certainly can look at or considered.
There are many reasons, but I’d like to draw your attention to the following 6:
1. Faster And Easier Disaster Recovery
Cloud storage is the best form of a backup plan, manually. If you prefer to use physical storage because you don’t always have access to an internet connection, it is perfectly fine.
However, you still need to backup your data in the cloud.
In this age, the cloud is not a replacement for physical storage. Rather it is important to store a copy of your data there to prevent any emergency or unwanted situations.
It was in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina demolished the USA’s Gulf Coast. Destroying $200 billion worth of property; decimated the whole communications infrastructure of the whole area; and toppled 1,000 wireless towers along with 11,000 utility poles.
For a business to survive that magnitude of destruction, it needs a good disaster recovery plan (DRP).
Also known as a business continuity plan, disaster recovery acts like an insurance policy for your business’s vital information. With cloud storage and cloud-based services however, companies no longer need to device convoluted DRPs.
However, you need to decide on which storage plan as cloud storage vs online backup is the better suit for your small business.
The cloud storage providers take care of it and they are armed with the know-how and equipment needed to do it faster.
Just take a look at the recent survey performed by the Aberdeen group. The survey looked into the IT disaster recovery trends across companies (of various sizes) that uses the cloud for storing data, creating backups, and disaster recovery.
Here’s what they found out:- Medium-sized enterprises ($50M to $1B annual revenue) accounted for 48% of the users surveyed
- Small companies (Under-$50M annual revenue) composed the second largest group – 38% of the users surveyed
- Large companies (Over $1B annual revenue) represented the smallest group at 26%
Quick Fact:
The mid-sized business – the group with the biggest percentage of cloud adoption – had an average length of time per disaster recovery event of only 4 hours. The large companies, on the other hand, had to endure 7.7 hours of downtime.
2. Easier Maintenance & Increased Productivity
Webroot – the very first internet security service company – carried out a survey that involved 271 IT decision-makers in the UK.
The survey revealed that these companies, which have anywhere from 100 to 5,000 employees – spent 18 working days or 143 hours to manage security services along with software and hardware updates.
Think about that: 18 working days spent in a month just to manage updates. Companies can easily find an income-boosting project or two that can benefit from 18 days of focused effort.
With cloud storage and computing, businesses enjoy reduced IT workloads and costs.
For starters, the service provider is responsible for managing hardware, software, and security-related updates.
This means you can adopt a forward-thinking approach and funnel your staff’s talents and expertise to projects that can boost your bottom line.
3. Better Collaboration & Work-Life Balance
No matter where your employees are, they can work as long as they have a reliable internet connection.
With cloud storage and computing, employees can better collaborate on projects – simultaneously work on shared apps and documents; follow instructions from supervisors; receive important updates in real-time – even if they’re in their pajamas!
In a recent survey carried out by Frost & Sullivan, they discovered that companies that invested in cloud storage and collaboration technologies enjoyed a 400% ROI.
More importantly, however, this level of flexibility afforded by the cloud can help an employee increase his productivity while balancing his professional and personal life.
Find out more on how cloud storage can help to improve your business ROI here.
Matter of fact, a study showed that 42% of working adults are willing to take a 6% pay cut if they can telecommute or work from home.
When you are working on a project, you will have to collaborate either with your employees, or someone from another company.
This kind of project will involve plenty of data sharing and effective collaboration skills. Of course, you can simply use email to communicate and share files.
But in this case, cloud storage will be a simpler and wiser solution.
After you finish your portion of work or you need to share important documents with your co-workers, you simply need to upload the files to the cloud once.
After that, everybody who has access to the storage and needs to access the file can simply download it to their device.
It is much easier compared to sending the file to different email addresses.
4. Unlimited Storage
Most cloud services offer free or low-cost unlimited storage.
It is exactly the thing you need to support your business. Running a business is not easy and as your business grows, you will notice that you have tons of important data and documents.
If you use the physical drive, you will run out of storage very soon and you have to spend money to buy more hard drive space.
Speaking of spending money, there are Free Cloud Storage that does not cost you a single cent.
With unlimited cloud storage, there is no need to sweat yourself about this.
Even if the cloud storage plan you subscribe to is not unlimited, it is still much more spacious compared to the physical drive, and purchasing more space is easier and cheaper.
Quick Recommendation:
If you’re looking for a quick recommendation on the business cloud storage service, we’d go with pCloud. We are using their 2TB + Crypto bundle plan and our cloud storage comparison shows that they excel in comparing with competitors. Read our full review on pCloud here.
5. Easy Combination with Local Storage
Just because your data is located off-site, it doesn’t mean that you will not be able to access all your precious data freely.
It will feel just like your data is stored in your device.
Whether you are managing consumers’ information or employees’ payroll, you can do everything like usual.
Reliable cloud storage will come with a folder that looks just like ordinary computer folders.
To upload data to the cloud simply copy it to the cloud folder. The same goes for when you want to access something from it.
Simply open the cloud folder and you can find everything you have stored there.
6. Cost-Effective
Many small business owners hesitate to use cloud services because they don’t want to spend more cost.
While you indeed need to spend an additional cost to purchase cloud storage, it is a more cost-effective plan compared to using physical storage.
Cloud has excellent scalability. Buying additional cloud space is much more affordable compared to purchasing more storage devices or hardware.
Furthermore, you also don’t have to worry about the maintenance aspect. Since you don’t own any hardware or machine to store the data, the obligation to maintain the storage is not on you.
Cloud storage service also will provide the security system to protect your data so you don’t have to spend money or resources on that.
Taking Your Work with You Everywhere You Go
There are many small businesses that are single-handedly run by its owners.
If you just started your business and you still cannot afford to pay employees, you will have plenty of responsibilities in your hand.
You have to stay focus and it is highly possible that you have to take your work anywhere you go.
By storing your data in a cloud, you don’t have to bring a huge bundle of documents or any portable physical storage.
As long as you have an adequate internet connection, you can access your data no matter where you are.
You can access it from any laptop or even smartphones. Like mine utilizing cloud storage for my Chromebook.
Such a great way to stay in touch with your job while enjoying life.
Summary of the Benefits of using Cloud Storage for Small Business
It is not a secret that cloud storage offers so many advantages for business. Unfortunately, many reasons make small business owners reluctant to utilize this service.
They prefer NAS over Cloud Storage and it’s not difficult to see why.
For example, they feel uneasy about storing their important data off-site.
Security means everything for a business. That’s why the most secure cloud storage is vital for small and medium businesses.
However, cloud storage actually can be very helpful for home or small businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs if you utilize it fully.
As long as you choose a good service, there is nothing to worry about. goodcloudstorage.net here provides some decent advice and recommendations on the best cloud service.
If you are still not convinced, you can take a look at these reviews that are specifically for small business and home users.
To Recap:
If you’re looking for a quick recommendation on the small business cloud storage service, we’d go with pCloud. We are using their 2TB + Crypto bundle plan. Abundance of storage and great security Crypto feature. Read our full review on pCloud here.