Is the 'Cloud' right for you?

Cloud computing is not right for everyone, but everyone should at least investigate the plethora of cloud based options available before dismissing it. 

Firstly, ‘cloud’ is a metaphor for the internet and ‘cloud computing’ simply means storing and accessing your data and programs over the internet instead of on your computers hard drive.

The benefits of being able to access your data and programs over the internet are obvious in that the only limitation on where or when you work is having reliable internet access.  This problem is quickly being eroded however with the growing amount of data being offered by phone companies in their mobile plans at much more reasonable rates than even 12 months ago.  So as long as you have a mobile phone you potentially have fast access to the internet by using your phone’s hotspot.

No longer having to worry about installing an update to your programs can be significant, as well as the cost of installing new software which in the past was a significant portion of any budget.  Most cloud based programs offer monthly packages for which the number of users can be increased as your business grows.  This also makes the cost of changing software no longer a barrier to improving your businesses efficiency if better products are launched on the marketplace. 

Training staff which would often involve getting a specialist to come to your office or sending staff away to get trained can now be handled via webinars and online training.

With the rollout of the NBN the number of businesses utilising the cloud to access their data and programs is likely to increase exponentially.  However, there will still be a number of places in Australia (particularly rural Australia) who will not have access to the NBN for a number of years to come or possibly ever.

For any business its important to test how reliable and fast your internet is with a free trial version of any cloud based program before you jump in and switch everything across to the cloud.  Its also important to know how secure your data is on the ‘cloud’.  Companies like Microsoft, MYOB and Xero spend millions ensuring your data is stored on secured servers located throughout Australia and the world, however for every Microsoft, there are other companies offering similar services whose data servers may not be as secure.

While you may be concerned about storing your data on the ‘cloud’, it can often be the case that the ‘cloud’ is a lot more secure than your hard drive, particularly if your computer is connected to the internet.  How often have you heard people complain about being caught out with a ‘virus’ they inadvertently opened on their home computer and they lost everything.  If you don’t have appropriate security and backups in your business this can happen to anyone.  If your data is stored in the cloud this should not be a problem because even if your computer dies, you can simply replace that computer and log on to the ‘cloud’ to access your data.

Most people already use the ‘cloud’ possibly without even knowing it.  Most mobile phones will backup your mail, contacts, calendar and more to the ‘cloud’ and nearly everyone has an email application hosted on the internet – think Gmail, Hotmail, Bigpond etc.

The biggest argument against the ‘cloud’ is the possibility of not having internet access for an extended period of time or the cloud program suffering an outage (although these are usually limited to just hours for any major players).
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Whatever you do, don’t rule out using some or all cloud based computing options for your business without first investigating if the ‘cloud’ is truly an option for your business.  If you do, you could be costing your business thousands of dollars in potential savings, which in this economy can be the difference between success and failure.
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