by Lina Martinez

It’s astonishing how few businesses make extensive use of cloud based solutions. Especially when the cloud is so ubiquitous in our personal lives. We trust the cloud to store all of our digitally purchased music, movies and games. We entrust it with our treasured family photos and videos. We entrust it with our intimate personal communications as well as those personal projects that we may dip into more often some months than others but that may well put us on the map someday. Yet, comparatively few entrepreneurs embrace the cloud fully in their business operations. Perhaps it’s not all that surprising. There’s a certain sense of security and dependability in physical storage and the reassuring hum of server towers, yet in the fast paced and dynamic workplace of a market rushing headlong into the 2020s there are some inherent advantages to the cloud.

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The cloud is green

Not literally of course, but using cloud based storage solutions can reduce your business’ production of e-waste. Not only will you save money on physical storage solutions like hard drives and memory cards, you’ll reduce the environmental damage that occurs when these products are upgraded and inevitably discarded. E-waste is a relatively recent phenomenon but it accounts for 70% of the world’s toxic waste due to the environmentally harmful compounds found in the internal workings of electronic equipment.

The cloud is efficient

Cloud based storage systems can be accessed and interrogated quickly and easily, making for a more efficient working environment. There’s nothing more stifling to a new employee than being lumbered with armfuls of paperwork from employee handbooks to induction materials to training content. Storing this on the cloud not only frees up desk space and saves you a fortune in printing costs, it engenders an efficient mindset right from the get go.

The cloud is cost effective

Head on over to the website of fleet management provider http://www.sertica.com/ and you’ll see just one example of why cloud based software solutions can be more cost effective. While immediately you save money on the cost of establishing servers you also make a long term saving from maintaining those servers. It can also save money on recruiting and training IT staff while reducing the inherent costs and risks to productivity that come with upgrading and maintaining your IT infrastructure. You never pay upgrade costs for cloud based solutions as these are borne by the provider.

The cloud is secure

While servers may give you a superficial sense of security this is inevitably false. It’s an indisputable fact that cloud computing is actually more secure than local storage solutions. Cloud solutions are set up specifically with your security and governance requirements in mind and subject to frequent vulnerability testing. Cloud storage companies stake their reputations on their security and thus have become exceptionally good at maintaining it.

The cloud is completely scalable

All entrepreneurs face the difficult balance between keeping their overheads manageable without cutting corners on necessary infrastructure. And what’s more inherently wasteful than paying for storage you don’t need? Unlike physical storage, cloud based solutions are completely scalable to your needs meaning that you needn’t pay for a single byte more than you’re using.