With the cloud computing trends rising in the past few years, we simply cannot ignore the fact that cloud computing brings plenty of benefits for small business. Let’s go through some stats to understand better via some survey results and a cloud computing infographic.
Cloud computing is said to be able to save 30 percent of small businesses’ IT-related costs. That being said, cloud computing is able to save small businesses’ energy costs by 90 percent, thus making your small business greener.
Cloud computing, indeeed, is no longer a new, shiny small business technology that can help you do business better at lower costs. It has become a necessity.
Simply put, if you ignore the fact that cloud computing for small business is a must, you might be left in the dust by your competitors who embrace cloud computing.
Why entrepreneurs need cloud computing?
The answer is simple: It’s because 50 percent of business startups are home-based.
Many home-based startups are established in tight budget. Cloud computing can help such startup with lower initial and overhead costs. What’s more, cloud computing can turn your business into a mobile business – you can work from anywhere, anytime you want. Nice perks.
Cloud services are affordable (some are available for free)
Today, one-person home-based businesses can access cloud services that enable them to grow their business at minimum investment. Most cloud services (typically SaaS) allow you to sign up for the basic plan affordable. From my experience, even the free basic plan of a cloud app, such as Google Apps, is sufficient enough for you to run your business in the cloud.
Pay what you use, scalable
As we all expect our small business to grow larger, adopting cloud computing for business early is recommended due to one fact: Cloud computing is scalable and pay-as-you-go; you only need to pay what you use and as your small business and its need for computing resources grow, you can access more cloud computing resources at higher fee – all done in real time without any business disruptions.
Cloud computing gives your small business competitive edges
Cloud computing for small business also allows you to compete head-to-head with larger competitors. So, instead of getting beaten up by your larger competitors, cloud computing acts as a leveling ground. Indeed, cloud computing allows small business to access the computing resources that was only available to big-budgeted business.
So, why entrepreneurs should embrace the cloud? Here’s a cloud computing infographic that can help you understand the big picture:
Via The Cloud Infographic – Entrepreneurs in the cloud.
Some words of caution
Cloud computing also gives way to a number of security risks if left unprotected. It’s true that you don’t have to worry about losing important files due to electrical damage or a faulty hard drive, since the data is stored in a non-tangible format. However, there is still a slight risk that a potentially malicious party may have access to your cloud unless you make sure it is secure. It’s a small and relatively inexpensive step that will put your business on a similar playing field as many large competitors.
Ivan Widjaya
Why you should adopt cloud computing