Cloud Solutions for Small Businesses
At this point, nearly everyone has heard of “the cloud” or “cloud solutions for small businesses.” You probably already use it in some capacity but may not know exactly what it is, which begs the question, are you using it most effectively?
Today, AesirTech will break down the meaning and applications of cloud solutions for small businesses and how we use them to help our customers across the New River Valley, Southwest Virginia, and remotely anywhere.
Slow Down, What is the Cloud?
Do you know what the cloud is? Ok, no shame here. That’s why we blog!
Simply put, the cloud is the ethereal place where anything you don’t have onsite is kept, or at least that’s how it feels. More accurately, it’s a series of advanced data centers.
If you have documents that everyone can access without having to email them back and forth, and those documents aren’t kept in an onsite drive, that’s the cloud.
If you don’t have an onsite email server (which companies rarely do these days), that’s the cloud. For example, Gmail, Yahoo, and even AOL store your emails in cloud storage, not your computer!
But the cloud can do more than just share documents…
Benefits of Cloud Solutions
So, why go for the cloud?
Cloud solutions have many benefits for small businesses. They primarily fall under scope/resources, cost saving, and backup.
Expense
We’ll start with the cost-saving benefits of the cloud. Depending on how much data your business uses, you may need a massive server to house all your data. On the other hand, if you don’t need to store as much data, getting hardware to house it all can be overkill. Keeping it in the cloud makes more sense.
Scope & Resources
The cloud allows you to scale as your business grows without having to constantly buy new hardware. To use phone systems as an example, if you start with two employees but grow to ten, with a traditional business telephone system, you would either need to start with a larger system you can grow into (a larger upfront expense) or buy a larger system once your business goes over the number the system can hold.
A typical break point might be eight users. Therefore, you’d need to buy a new system when you reach nine!
Backup
Finally, if you house everything onsite, you’re one power surge away from losing all your data. Likewise, a natural disaster can wipe out your business along with your building.
When your data is in the cloud, it’s housed in a secure facility, and ideally, that facility mirrors the data in another geographically independent location. Redundancy keeps your data safe!
Cloud Solutions for Small Businesses
So, you may be asking yourself, how can you best utilize the cloud for your own small business? The answers are as varied as the businesses we serve.
Cloud solutions for small businesses range from telephone systems and surveillance to software and data storage. Which are most vital to your company and which will save you money will depend entirely on what you do day to day.
AesirTech will devote a future blog to some of the specific ways to use the cloud across industries, but for now, know that if you have questions, we’re here to provide answers.
We’ll help you understand if a system is overkill for you, how to best use what you choose, and the best ways to keep whatever you do secure.
Call AesirTech for all your cloud (and on-premise) IT solutions for your small business in Roanoke, the NRV, and beyond!