Small businesses are typically reluctant to adopt new IT systems. Migration projects take time, effort and a good bit of expertise – especially when moving data and applications to the cloud. Large organizations have the luxury of taking on such projects because of their many resources. But small businesses don’t have to fall behind.
Managed cloud hosting providers offer an alternative for businesses with a limited staff. Instead of a do-it-yourself approach to cloud migration, a managed cloud provider delivers enterprise-level solutions to businesses of any size. In particular, this allows small businesses to adopt the cloud as if they had a much larger and dedicated IT staff.
Once in the cloud, small businesses can take advantage of five distinct benefits:
1. Scalable services Small businesses can start with modest storage and computing resources, and easily scale as their needs evolve. That way, you decide how much infrastructure you invest in the beginning, and at the same time, have a sustainable long-term solution in place.
2. Business continuity and disaster recovery The cloud offers backups and redundancy to mitigate the consequences of outages and equipment failure. Since many small businesses rely on building relationships and trust with their customers, this precaution can help them keep their operations reliable and highly available.
3. Options for sensitive data Efficiently protect private, confidential information through tiering options and by making use of both on-site and cloud-based storage. This helps you to take advantage of the cloud while upholding security protocols for sensitive resources.
4. Accessibility One of the major advantages of the cloud is the ready availability of resources – even outside of an organization’s walls. This can help your small business run remotely or empower employees who need to travel to off-site locations.
5. Cost-effectiveness The cloud itself is affordable as well. As Software-as-a-Service and other cloud-based offerings can help you cut down on licensing, software, infrastructure and IT expenses.
Many small businesses feel constrained in their IT initiatives by a small staff with limited technical expertise. However, it is possible to embrace cloud computing with a managed approach. Want to learn more? Head to our Cloud Solutions page for a closer look.
