Does My Small Or Mid-Market Business Need The Cloud?

The cloud is everywhere. Recent data suggests that companies will spend more than $52 billion on cloud infrastructure alone this year, with cloud services spending to reach $180 billion.

For businesses that are small- to medium-sized enterprises, however, the cloud often comes with more questions than answers. Is this type of technology the best fit for companies that aren’t yet giant corporate enterprises? How does it impact the bottom line? Are there industries or verticals more suited to cloud adoption?

Here’s the short answer: Yes, you can benefit from the cloud. Effective implementation of cloud services can help strengthen your focus on what really matters to your business.

Simplifying IT

The biggest advantage for your small or mid-market business in the cloud is simplification. Given the sheer amount of data now generated by even the smallest startup company — and the quickly rising expectations of digitally savvy consumers — it’s easy for IT management to overwhelm SMBs or SMEs. The result is you spend more time handling technology upgrades, emergencies and failures than driving business success.

By deploying the right cloud solutions, your business can:

• Simplify software management — When cloud deployments are managed off-site by reputable providers, you’re no longer on the hook to install, update and maintain software locally. Instead, software is delivered, patched and maintained as-a-service.
• Enhance collaboration — Since cloud offerings aren’t tied to local servers, they operate anywhere, anytime — making it easier to connect remote workers, in-office staff and stakeholders.
• Protect critical data — Disaster recovery and security are also enhanced in the cloud. Providers are now on the leading edge of data security best practices, empowering them to help companies meet compliance and regulatory requirements. Off-site data storage, meanwhile, protects critical files from local outages or network attacks.

Money Matter

Even small cost overruns can cause big problems for SMBs or SMEs. Cloud computing helps manage IT spend by shifting the focus from capital to operating expenses — businesses no longer need to pay for physical server and storage upgrades, buy and install proprietary software or pay for local IT staff to manage hardware lifecycles.

Cloud offerings can also help streamline application use — productivity solutions from big players such as Microsoft and Google take full advantage of cloud functionality, reducing the need for multiple (costly) applications to address specific business needs.

Market Forces

There’s no “right” way to use the cloud, so there’s no single “best fit” market for cloud services. And given the expectation of customers and staff for streamlined, on-demand user experiences, it’s not a stretch to say that cloud deployments are quickly becoming the rule rather than the exception, no matter your business size.

What does all this mean for your SMB or SME? Cloud services are going mainstream. They can help streamline IT services, save your business money and deliver on-demand user benefits. Ready to make the shift? Let's start the conversation.