Cloud computing is the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer.
Cloud computing in recent years has exploded to be terminology that we are all familiar with. Although for many of us this new technology is not easily understood, what businesses must understand though is there are many positive ways cloud technology can help your business excel, saving you time and money and giving you peace of mind in the event of a disaster.
A recent survey conducted by Infosys found that Australia businesses are leading the way in accepting cloud computing(1), this shows there is obvious benefits to cloud computing, but how can you use cloud computing to help your business and ultimately increase your bottom line.
Here are our top five benefits on why your business should start cloud computing now.
1) Infrastructure and Upgrades
Because technology is always changing, and so is the infrastructure that goes with it. The cost of updating your infrastructure is always a large financial investment. By using a dedicated cloud company which continuously purchases state of the art equipment to ensure your service is reliable in an environment, eliminates the need for maintaining hardware and associated IT administration. Most of the cloud solutions offer upgrades for free as part of the package and can easily be downloaded via the internet or even automatically completed to help with easy software integration.
2) Capital Cost
Businesses are quickly waking up to the fact that cloud solutions make good business sense when it comes to cost management. Managing in-house IT infrastructure and operating costs are the main reasons that businesses are turning to the cloud. With so many cloud providers in Australia, the cost of this service has become very competitive. Evaluating your business requirements for a cloud service before approaching providers will ensure the service you will be provided with matches your company needs. When it comes to cloud services cheapest may not be the best option.
3) Disaster Recovery
Implementing a system of backups where your data is stored both on your system and on the cloud is a perfect contingency plan for your business. Make sure that your cloud provider has a Disaster Recovery and business continuity plan in place for those “what –if” scenarios. Ensuring your Cloud Computing provider can support your business if a disaster does occur is also a prerequisite.
4) Security
Security concerns are still one of the greatest apprehensions that businesses have in regards to using cloud technology. Trusting your valuable data to a third party does have risks. But by acquiring knowledge about the physical and technical controls of the data centre, it’s country location and who can access it, is a good way to put you at ease that your data is safe. Ensuring that both the data centres’ and it’s anti-virus software and firewalls are updated will help secure your data.
5) Performance/Availability
In today’s world having fast, secure access to your data when you want it is essential. To achieve this select a cloud provider that includes a multi-server environment or multi location access. Ask if your cloud provider can easily increase its capacity when you need it without interrupting your workflow is essential for business to run smoothly.
Sage MicrOpay (AuSAE Annual Partner and Payroll/HR System Specialists) Private Cloud provides software services for companies who want to leave it to the specialists to manage the IT component of their payroll and HR systems. Together with their Australian based Private Cloud provider Dimension Data Cloud Services, they provide a service that delivers the highest levels of security, management and skills to ensure your sensitive human capital data is protected and delivered to users on time, every time.
Speak to the AuSAE Annual Partner Representative for Sage MicrOpay Christine Marcos on christine.marcos@micropay.com.au or phone 02 9884 4128
