Benefits of Storing Your Business Data in the Cloud

Cost-effectiveness and improved security are among the benefits a business can realize by making the move to a cloud storage model

Benefits of Storing Your Business Data in the Cloud

These days most people are familiar with the concept of storing data in the cloud. But what exactly does it mean for a small business?

Whether you are new to SaaS (software as a service) or the cloud or just thinking about making the switch from traditional hosting, you may have some questions. Many of us are most familiar with traditional hosting, where we pay for a set amount of storage space on a server. In this model, the information can only be accessed from specific locations, and the business owner is responsible for maintaining and updating the server. 

SaaS is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis to customers and is centrally hosted by the SaaS company. SaaS is also known as "on-demand software" and web-based/web-hosted software. These are two different ways you can host SaaS software.

When we are using SaaS hosted in the cloud, the software, such as a business management platform like Successware for example, and the underlying customer data can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection. Over the past few years, there has been a shift toward SaaS offerings, and SaaS has been incorporated into the strategy of nearly all enterprise software companies. 

Interested in some of the benefits of hosting your data and software in the cloud? Here are some of the key features SaaS in the cloud can offer your company:

Scalability

The key advantage of cloud hosting is the ease of scalability of resources like bandwidth, storage, RAM and more based on your overall usage. With this, you only pay for what you use or need. Because cloud service providers already have the infrastructure in place, you can easily and quickly add or remove whatever is needed for your business to perform at its maximum ability with just a few clicks.

Elasticity

In the cloud, elasticity is the ability for the cloud to grow or shrink based on your business needs. The cloud will see how much data storage you are using and how many servers it takes to house your data and will increase or decrease these in order to maximize its use of resources. 

Better performance

The cloud offers greater scalability, including auto-scaling, and also offers better performance and the best balance of performance and infrastructure costs.

Reliability and availability

If you’re using any kind of traditional hosting, your site’s uptime depends upon the physical server environment, typically within a specific data center or in your office. If it goes offline, then so does your software application. Even if the data center is designed for availability and to avoid single points of failure, it can’t match the options available in the cloud.  

Cloud service providers have many levels of high availability options. There are multiple data centers, availability zones, and regions, so that your resources or data can be spread across them for very high reliability and availability. If there is a problem with one server, the workload is handled by another, meaning no interruption in your daily job. Even if multiple servers fail or an entire data center goes down, the application can continue to operate or recover very quickly. Auto-scaling further protects the application from unexpected surges in workload/traffic.

Disaster recovery and business continuity

Another cloud hosting advantage is that it makes disaster recovery easier, more versatile, and more configurable. As mentioned earlier, major cloud service providers have multiple data centers in various zones/regions and provide advanced options for data replication and recovery in case of a major event.

Anytime, anywhere access

Mobility and remote access are especially important for companies. Whether staff members work remotely or are on the road, anytime/anywhere access is a requirement for efficiency and productivity. Web-enabled access to email, important documents, contacts and calendars on almost any device, including tablets and smartphones, frees you to work where and when you choose, allowing you to increase efficiency and provide real-time management and action. The mobile capabilities of cloud computing enable managers and stakeholders’ full access to key metrics, reports, and databases regardless of their physical location.

Predictable costs

As a subscription-based, all-inclusive cost with top-notch support, SaaS provides businesses the ability to predict costs accurately. Your business can remove the need for you to buy and maintain hardware like a physical server, which reduces your capital expenditure. Ongoing maintenance and support are the responsibility of the SaaS provider, which helps to reduce your ongoing operational costs. 

Privacy and security

While you may think your organization’s on-premises system is safer in your own office than your data “floating around on the internet,” that is a common misconception. In truth, the best cloud providers have teams of experts whose sole job is to detect and prevent threats. 

The time and resources required to stay on top of every new virus or hacking scheme pulls attention away from your organization’s objectives. With the cloud, your organization can have access to some of the best security experts in the world and benefit from privacy and security levels that far exceed what your on-premises solution could offer. 

Cloud hosting will assist in increased security and protection of your data and information through constant technology updates and innovative security measures. Artificial intelligence and firewalls keep your data extra secure from hackers wielding malware or viruses, and files stored in the cloud are typically encrypted or scrambled, making it difficult for cybercriminals to access. There are also reduced overhead and administrative costs because the cloud provider manages any potential cyber threats and monitors and updates your security settings, taking that responsibility off of your team.

Technology innovation

Traditional hosting requires manual updating of information and often results in missing out on the latest features and enhancements. Also, if you share a server with other companies, you may experience slowdowns due to the size of their data overloading the system. Cloud hosting means automatic updates to the latest technology and peak performance for your website and information, since the data load is spread out over multiple servers. 

Large cloud hosting providers such as AWS, Azure and Google are spending billions of dollars in technology innovation that assists in performance, security, automation and much more for your business. 

Cost-effective, convenient and efficient, the cloud has undeniable upsides for flexibility and customization to fit your business needs. Successware recognized those benefits and has invested heavily in building a state-of-the-art, contemporary, cloud-native application, which can take full advantage of the benefits of the cloud. 

Other application providers may “cloud enable” their software, which can use the cloud features partially, but the Successware application is cloud native, not just cloud enabled, which allows it to fully leverage the advanced features of the cloud. Whether it’s increased uptime, scalability or better security, we all can better manage and grow our businesses by embracing the new cloud technology available to us.


About the author

Vikas Khakkar has over 18 years of experience in software development, project and product management, and SaaS managed services. He has technical expertise in cloud technologies, migrations to the cloud, digital technologies, and agile and scrum team management. He has worked in many different industries such as telecommunications, cable, internet, pharmacy, and business solutions for various companies. In November 2021, Khakkar joined Successware as the Director of SaaS Managed Services.



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