To paraphrase the popular and surreal podcast, Welcome to Night Vale, all hail the cloud. We all use some form of cloud computing in our professional and everyday lives. Most commonly, the cloud is to do with data storage. A lot of us are slaves to the lack of storage on our phones and have opted to enlist the help of systems like Google Drive and Dropbox, where all our files can live in one place without eating our phone storage. Professionally, cloud computing has been growing increasingly popular with remote working on the rise and the need for everything to exist digitally nowadays.
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services such as storage, software, databases, and analytics on a quick, flexible, and accessible platform. So, if that’s not enough to entice you to transfer your startup to the cloud way of working, read on…
1. Saves money
We’re starting strong with an important one: saving money.
Cloud computing is ideal for startups that are just beginning, or if you need to work within a budget as the cloud does not need a physical space to work and exist in. They also need minimal equipment to work. All you need, if you think about it, to access one of these cloud systems is a laptop, smartphone, or tablet, and an internet connection.
There are many different cloud computing infrastructures out there and most of them have a functional and helpful free version. Google Drive, or Google Workspace, for example, offer 15GB of free storage across all their services, and that gives you a surprising amount of space. If you do need more storage, prices start from £1.59 a month, which is pretty good going.
2. Simple and speedy
As a scaling startup, you’ll want your systems to be fast and simple to use, and cloud computing falls into both those categories. Building your own cloud infrastructure that fits your startups needs cuts down on learning time for your team and creates a user-friendly workspace. With a lot of cloud services, you can customise the cloud specifically for your needs by gaining access to only the essential elements for your needs and leaving out the rest.
3. Security
Another biggie: keeping all that data safe from cyber criminals. A security breach can be detrimental to a startup of any size so implementing a system which will keep your data, your teams’ data, and your customers data safe is always going to be a top priority. Cloud computing services deal in the business of online data and often offer advanced security features to their users.
Keeping information secure is a full-time and usually expensive job in itself, so being able to hand that job over to a reputable and trustworthy cloud service provider will alleviate that pressure from you and your team.
4. Stability
As long as you’ve got an internet connection, the cloud is always there. They don’t require constant maintenance like a physical server would and will usually backup everything you upload without you having to think about it. How nice does that sound? IT issues of yore with failing servers and important files lost forever are no longer a problem with cloud computing.
5. Scalability
We started with a bang and we’re going to end with one: scalability.
With cloud computing, your team can exist and work anywhere. You can have team members all over the globe, helping get your startup out there in the world, all because each member of your team can access the cloud. You’re no longer restricted to a few miles radius because you’ve got a physical location. This also applies to any clients you work with. Suddenly, you’re able to reach people you may not have been able to otherwise. Sounds good, right?
Your globally distributed team can then access resources with a few simple clicks and share resources in the same way. Most cloud computing services now come with additional communication features, like voice and video calling, video conferencing, and the ability to work on the same document at the same time. This can all be done in real-time and with as many team members as your startup has.
As your startup grows, so will the technology. You’ll find that you’ll want access to more features within the cloud as you scale, and because you’re scaling, your budget should get bigger, meaning you can grow the cloud alongside your startup.
Is the cloud for you?
Cloud computing can be incredibly beneficial for startups of any size by increasing efficiency, saving money, saving time, and scaling your business. Is it time for you to move across to the cloud?
