Types of Businesses that can Benefit from Cloud

SME’sWhile cloud has been taken up more by larger businesses rather than small and medium enterprises, you do not have to be a large corporation to benefit. There are a number of reasons why SME’s can particularly benefit from cloud usage. They will be able to pay for service as and when they need them without the upfront costs that they would otherwise need to invest in. There are numerous examples of services that small and medium enterprises can make use of that are more cost efficient in the cloud. This includes software where companies would be unable to invest in the IT infrastructure to support it were it not for the cloud. There are many software packages that are now available on a pay-as-you-use basis and the smaller the business the more beneficial these can be. They allow businesses to use software they would otherwise be unable to afford. Businesses that are Concerned about the EnvironmentOver the last few years there has been much in the media about human’s impact on the environment. Many businesses take their carbon footprint very seriously and are interested in green methods of doing things where possible. It is inevitable that hosting has an impact on the environment but cloud hosting can lessen this impact. Cloud providers are able to serve large numbers of users on one shared infrastructure therefore limiting the processing power required. This is beneficial to the environment.  Educational InstitutionsThere are a number of ways that educational institutions can benefit from storing data in the cloud. One example is universities that carry out large research projects. They may need a large amount of storage space on their network while carrying out a project but not need this space at other times. Utilising cloud storage means they can pay for additional storage when they need it without having to pay for it on an on-going basis. Another area where financial institutions can benefit is students own space on an internal network. Not all students require the same amount of network space with this depending on the course and the specifics of a project a particular student is working on. Those studying courses that involve sound or video production, for example, may need to store larger files. It is very difficult for a financial institution to accurately judge the total amount of storage space they need. Cloud storage means not having to pay for contingency resource they may not use without having to apply a limit for each student, therefore resulting in better student productivity. Growing BusinessesBusinesses that are growing or are expected to grow can benefit from cloud. The resource they require will be increasing, and at times increasing quickly, meaning they can benefit from the scalability of cloud. One area where this is the case is by opting for cloud web hosting. Website content may increase over time and businesses may wish to include additional functionality as they grow. The bandwidth required will also increase as visitor numbers go up. Companies that keep data on customers may also require additional storage space as the number of customers they have increases. Every business wants to grow but growth, especially sudden growth, can be problematic is certain aspects. The speed of growth can be difficult to judge but cloud makes it much simpler, with extra resource being available on an ad-hoc basis. Seasonal BusinessesSeasonal businesses can certainly benefit from paying for what they use. A good example of this is an e-commerce business that is particularly busy in the lead up to Christmas. They will need a large amount of website bandwidth and other resource in November and December but significantly less throughout the rest of the year. They are much better off paying for resource as they require it than paying for it for twelve months of the year when they only need it for two.Andrew Marshall ©