Cloud helping small businesses survive COVID-19.
Many businesses have been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. If you want your business to survive and maintain its operational efficiency, then you need to invest in the right technology. Investing in the cloud will ensure business continuity while helping you save money.
Ensuring continuity and efficiency with the cloud
Many firms have adjusted their operations as a result of the necessity to stay at home and conduct social distancing. Organizations are compelled to work with a remote team whose members are often thousands of miles apart since their employees are unable to travel to the office.
This is when cloud computing comes in handy. Your files are kept in a centralised server that can be accessed via the internet when you migrate your data to the cloud. Users can access these files from anywhere as long as they have an internet-connected device (such as a smartphone or laptop) and the proper login credentials.
Multiple users can work on a single file at the same time via the cloud. Any changes to the file are visible in real time, giving the impression that team members are working together in the same room.
Your team can also communicate with each other via chat, audio calls, and video conferencing using cloud-based communication systems like Microsoft Teams. Your company can run smoothly while adhering to social distancing guidelines by implementing these technology into your procedures.
Saving money with the cloud
It can be difficult to adjust to a remote work environment after years of primarily on-site operations. Making ensuring you and your team have the necessary technology and software to execute work-related tasks is one of the most difficult aspects of migrating.
You can have your employees use their personal laptop computers and mobile devices instead of purchasing hardware using business funds and issuing these equipment to them. However, using this strategy, you have no way of knowing if your employees’ devices have the necessary requirements to manage their task.
If you use special software, you may also have to buy and install them on your staff’s personal devices. In short, whether you issue computers or adopt a bring your own device approach, you’re bound to spend a lot of money to facilitate remote work.
But with cloud computing, you won’t need to buy new hardware. You can host your applications on the cloud, enabling a user to run them through a web browser even if they are not installed in his or her device. And because hosted applications use the cloud provider’s resources, they don’t strain user’s devices and can be used even with older or lower-end computers.
Furthermore, using the cloud to host applications eliminates the need to instal programmes on each of your employees’ devices. This is especially useful if the programme you’re using has a maximum number of devices on which it can be installed. You save money by not having to purchase newer equipment for your employees and by not wasting time downloading software locally.
Should you migrate to the cloud?
The short answer is yes. Thanks to the COVID-19 lockdowns, the ability to work remotely has now become essential to a business’s survival. And the cloud easily facilitates a remote work environment.
