When you’re starting a business, your priority is to make as much profit as you can without raising the overhead cost too much. With that in mind, you’re always trying to fight the urge to upgrade your hardware and your systems just so you can keep your costs down.
But when you’re starting to expand, it’s important to upgrade your tools, especially how you store your data. Any expert on business continuity management consulting will tell you to store your data in another hard drive aside from the one you use in your office just in case your place of business encounters an accident that could disrupt your operations.
What cloud servers are
If you’re looking to store your data in another hard drive or system, cloud servers should be your first choice. For those unfamiliar with this kind of technology, cloud computing or virtual private servers enable you to store any amount of data in a server that you can access wherever you are as long as you have a password and an internet connection.
Just talking about accessibility, cloud computing already shows the huge advantage it has over traditional data storage. If you have cloud computing services, you can access any data you need regardless of your location. You could be sunbathing in the Bahamas while reading your team’s end of the fiscal year report on your laptop.
What to expect from cloud servers
Another advantage of cloud computing is that because you’re storing your data in another server that is not located in your place of business, that server is protected from any accident that could happen to your company.
For example, your company is located in Los Angeles while your backup data is stored in a server somewhere in New Jersey. Since California is prone to earthquakes, if in case one occurs, knock on wood, and it levels your whole building damaged, you can still access all of your important information because it’s stored in a separate server located far away from your office.
If that’s not enough, cloud computing is much cheaper than maintaining your own servers. Having your own servers in your place of business can drive up your overhead costs.
You don’t stop incurring expenses on servers after you’ve purchased them. You would need to properly maintain your servers, which means you need to install high-powered air-conditioners to keep it cool. You would also need to hire a technician to constantly monitor them and fix them if they break down.
If you acquire cloud computing services, you won’t have to worry about these costs. For one, you don’t need a proper room to store your servers (someone else will do that for you). You also don’t need proper ventilation system for your servers (the cloud computing company will take care of that). Lastly, you don’t need a technician to monitor and fix your servers (the cloud computing company has its own department of technicians dedicated to keeping your data accessible and uncorrupted at all times).
Acquiring cloud computing services will also make your company more competitive since you have eliminated one concern and have someone else take care of it. By eliminating your IT resources and handing it over to someone else, you can focus more on promoting your business and helping it expand further.
