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The Benefits of Cloud Computing for Organizations
February 7, 2021
Cloud computing enables “anytime, anywhere access” to applications and data with an Internet connection, and greater flexibility in payment and use of digital services. The COVID-19 pandemic is compelling many companies to switch to cloud technology as the private and public sectors attempt to strengthen the digital infrastructure that connects workforces. This uptick is represented in the fact that forty-seven percent of consumer packaged goods companies (CPGs) and forty-six percent of small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) are currently using the cloud.
The adoption of cloud computing does not require that you use Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, or Amazon Web Services, although these all serve as major public cloud providers, meaning they are accessible with web browsers. Additionally, “private clouds” which a single organization can access, and “Hybrid clouds” combine the control and security of a private cloud with the larger scale of a public cloud. If your business or organization has its own data center, cloud computing software can augment its efficacy in-house.
There are five reasons why your business or organization should consider switching to cloud computing-based services.
1. Reducing Your Overhead
Cloud computing allows companies to support a growing number of remote workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Customers, too, are looking to more reliable digital services to substitute for in-person interactions and interfaces. Public cloud computing significantly reduces operating costs, as you only pay for the services that you use. Decreasing costs are an important consideration, but there may be as much as a twenty-six-percent reduction in overhead from IT operations if your business or organization pursues this innovative direction.
2. Efficient Delivery of Services
The public sector especially needs to distribute services to a large population in a prompt and cost-efficient manner. The United Kingdom used cloud computing as a version of a tax system to effectively provide fiscal stimulus money to citizens and businesses in order to alleviate the socioeconomic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. An accessible, public infrastructure for anyone with an Internet connection reduces the hurdles that may arise through traditional methods, even older digital ones.
3. Collaborative Management
Quentin Hardy from Harvard Business Review observes that cloud computing increases collaboration between IT departments and other departments like finance or sales. The cloud, by enabling rapid information sharing, can flexibly adjust to smaller or larger workloads, quickly distribute software updates, and calibrate services and products more quickly to customers’ needs. More importantly, through more seamless information sharing, cloud computing facilitates quick feedback between junior and senior managers, and allows more productive delegation of big projects into small tasks.
4. Security
Companies such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure prioritize the safety and security of data as essential to the service they ask businesses and organizations to pay for. In the process of your organization’s transition to cloud computing, cloud providers will ensure that their services your organization’s goals. Cloud data may actually better security more than local servers because cloud providers hire security experts, and the web-based cloud has safeguards such as multi-factor authentication.
5. Scale
Possibly the strongest reason for your organization to adopt cloud computing is that the sheer size of data collected for modern operations will require capacity-building larger than what a local server can provide. The pay-as-you-go model for cloud computing enables a business or organization to “scale up” or “scale down” as circumstances change, whereas previously one had to guess at maximum need to pay for capacity that then goes unused.
Cloud computing in the public and private sectors enables reductions in overhead costs, increased efficiency in service delivery, greater collaborative management, and the best combination of security and flexibility. As the COVID-19 pandemic inspired organizations to experiment with new methods of production and changed workspaces, cloud computing may be the logical next step for your own institution to make a leap forward in our digitally-driven economy.