Pros of Cloud Computing:

Lowered IT costs. This is probably the single most compelling reason why companies choose to move their network (all or in part) to the cloud. Not only do you save money on software licenses, but the hardware (servers and workstations) as well as IT support and upgrades. In fact, we save our clients an average of 25% to 45% when we move some or part of their network functionality to the cloud. So if you hate constantly writing big, fat checks for IT upgrades, you’ll really want to look into cloud computing. Included in this report are examples of how we’ve done this for other clients and what the savings have been.

Ability to access your desktop and/or applications from anywhere and any device. If you travel a lot, have remote workers or prefer to use an iPad while traveling and a laptop at your house, cloud computing will give you the ability to work from any of these devices.

Disaster recovery and backup are automated. The server in your office is extremely vulnerable to a number of threats including viruses, human error, hardware failure, software corruption, and, of course, physical damage due to a fire, flood, or another natural disaster. If your server were in the cloud and (God forbid) your office was reduced to a pile of rubble, you could purchase a new laptop and be back up and running within the same day. This would NOT be the case if you had a traditional network and were using tape drives, CDs, USB drives, or other physical storage devices to back up your system. Plus, like a public utility, cloud platforms are far more robust and secure than your average business network because they can utilize economies of scale to invest heavily into security, redundancy, and failover systems making them far less likely to go down.

It’s faster, cheaper, and easier to set up new employees. If you have a seasonal workforce or a lot of turnovers, cloud computing will not only lower your costs of setting up new accounts but will make it infinitely faster. As an example: “A local accounting firm that brings on an average of 10 extra CPAs in February through May to help process tax returns. If they had a traditional network setup, they would have to purchase expensive PCs and software licenses for these temporary workers and then pay to maintain and upgrade them throughout the year. Using cloud computing, these workers use their home PCs and log into the network securely. The CPA firm ONLY pays for those workers’ licenses during the time when they are using them, just like a utility. When May comes around, they no longer pay for those licenses and support. Using this model saves them approximately $13,468 a year in hardware, software, and IT services.”

You use it without having to “own” it. More specifically, you don’t own the responsibility of having to install, update and maintain the infrastructure. Think of it as similar to living in a condo where someone else takes care of the building maintenance, repairing the roof, and mowing the lawn, but you still have the only key to your section of the building and use of all the facilities. This is particularly attractive for companies who are new or expanding but don’t want the heavy outlay of cash for purchasing and supporting an expensive computer network.

It’s a “greener” technology that will save on power and your electric bill. For some smaller companies, the power savings will be too small to measure. However, for larger companies with multiple servers who are cooling a hot server room and keep their servers running 24/7/365, the savings are considerable.

Next week’s Post will be the Cons of Cloud Computing