5 Ways Cloud Technology Benefits SME Needs

Cloud technology has motivated many businesses to adopt a smarter way of computing. Revolution and Innovation in Cloud computing have allowed small and medium businesses to climb to the top. SMEs are getting opportunities to grow and take their business operations to new heights.

Cloud Technology has opened a door for small companies, wherein a few years back, large organizations were ruling. As everything became on-demand and need-based, it gives SMEs significant competitive advantages and allows them to compete in a much larger business space.

The most significant advantages of Cloud technology are data security, storage, managing customers, and resource optimization. Businesses often use the cloud to store and manage their business data using SaaS. Cloud-based services help small businesses reduce costs, and it gives them access to IT services.

The survey tells that only 30% of small businesses are using cloud technology, and 10% are not familiar with cloud technology (Source: Microsoft).

5 Benefits of Cloud Technology

Cloud services have been an impressive lift in recent times. The report says that the average spending on cloud services will continue to grow in 2020. If you’re still not sure about it, then here are reasons why cloud technology has become a revolution for SMEs.

Mobility

With Cloud technology, you can work at any time from anywhere through any devices using the internet. The individual can access the data from anywhere. It helps businesses a lot to save their time and concentrate more on sales. Moreover with Cloud technology, all the resources are optimized on-demand at very minimum cost. Mobility can give an opportunity to grow in a rapid way.

Flexibility

Cloud Technology is the best solution for organizations that are growing or have future expansion plans. The level of activity provides SMEs a real competitive advantage. Flexibility is one of the core reasons why many companies are preferring cloud solutions for their business.

When adopting CRM systems, most businesses are likely to start with only the features that can help them in their current work and needs. However, the company grows, and you may decide that you need advanced modules or new features. In this case, Cloud CRM can instantly update to satisfy your needs. And you won’t have to wait until the new program is written.

Security

Cloud solution providers can secure your data in an efficient and more robust way. Data storage in the cloud will ensure that experts will take care of your data, and they can take the necessary precautions to protect it from hackers. The cloud not only protects your data but also back up your data from any possible data disaster.

Cost-saving

Cost Optimization is one of the best features of cloud systems. There is a zero capital-expenditure fee. A subscription-based model is very much affordable. You have to pay as per your users. The cloud-based software has a reasonable cost and there will be very less maintenance cost. In the case of traditional software, you need to spend a lot of cost on maintenance.

Accessibility

Cloud-based programs are more accessible than hardware-based programs. It allows employees to access data from anywhere so they can continue their work on-the-go. Some programs even have mobile options that can instantly be accessed. The cloud also facilitates greater collaboration between teams, allowing various groups to access and update the same data continuously.

Challenges Tackled on Cloud Adoption

Many enterprises adopt cloud computing technologies to manage their applications and data efficiently without maintaining an on-premise IT infrastructure. Here are the challenges to tackle cloud adoption.

Security issues

Security risks of cloud computing have become the top concern. To ensure your organization’s privacy and security, the SaaS provider has user identity management, authentication, and access control mechanisms in a single platform. The security risks of cloud computing have become a reality for every organization whether it may be small or large. That’s why it is important to implement a secure BI cloud tool that can leverage proper security measures.

Cost management

Cloud computing itself is affordable, but tuning the platform according to the company’s needs can be expensive. The expense of transferring the data to public clouds can prove to be a problem for short-lived and small-scale projects. Companies can even save money on system maintenance, management, and acquisitions.

Lack of expertise

One of the clouds’ challenges companies and enterprises are facing today is the lack of resources and expertise. Organizations are increasingly placing more workloads in the cloud, while cloud technologies are increasing rapidly. Due to these factors, organizations are having a tough time keeping up with the tools. These challenges can be minimized through additional training of IT and development staff.

Performance

When a business moves to the cloud, it becomes dependent on the service providers. The next prominent challenges of moving to cloud computing are to expand the partnerships. Nevertheless, this partnership often provides businesses with innovative technologies. On the other hand, the performance of the organization’s BI and other cloud-based systems is also tied to the performance of the cloud provider when it falters. When your service provider is down, you are also down.

For the data-driven decision-making process, real-time data for organizations is imperative. Being able to access data that is stored in the cloud in real-time is one of the imperative solutions an organization has to consider while selecting the right partner.

Cloud adoption and usage

Most organizations did not have a robust cloud adoption strategy in place when they started to move to the cloud. Instead, ad-hoc strategies sprouted, fueled by several components. One of them was the speed of cloud adoption. Another one was the staggered expiration of data center contracts, which led to intermittent cloud migration. Finally, there were also individual development teams using the public cloud for specific applications or projects.

Migration

One of the main cloud computing industry challenges in recent years is concentrating on migration. This is a process of moving an application to a cloud. And although moving to a new application is a straightforward process, when it comes to moving an existing application to a cloud environment, many cloud challenges arise.

Conclusion

The future of cloud lies upon introducing industry standards that will help in addressing management, and technological matters. Today’s businesses are moving more and more of their data and applications to the cloud. A recent report predicted that, by 2020, 83 percent of enterprise would be based on the cloud. The trend entirely surprising and giving the many benefits that cloud services providers, including enhanced scalability and accessibility, as well as cost reductions.