The cloud is a buzz word many in corporate America have become fascinated with in recent months. It’s understandable that the promise of constant connectivity, instantaneous communication, and improved insights sends a shiver up the legs of corporate executives hungry for a competitive advantage.
While Fortune 500s create IT task forces to move corporate data and processes into the cloud, how can small and medium-sized businesses get in on the action?
Security in the Cloud
Keeping data safe in the cloud is a major concern for businesses. As data is constantly transmitted from the cloud to the devices that are connected to it, concerns arise about data security. Encryption becomes the key to keeping data safe during transmission and storage.
The big players in the cloud space (Google, Microsoft, Amazon, DropBox, etc.) have reputations to protect. Your information’s security must be able to rest confidently in the brands that have built a reputation for high-security high-tech.
To keep your data 100% safe, without sacrificing accessibility, working with a cloud software company you can trust is essential. Cloud works has helped countless firms make sense of the latest cloud-based solutions on the market.
Working with a professional firm helps take the guesswork out of what programs to utilize in your business, and how to structure information access across your organization.
Microsoft is betting big on Cloud-Based Solutions
Microsoft has a long history as a scalable provider of business, personal, and educational computing solutions. Whether we’re talking about the Windows operating system, or Microsoft Office, it’s almost a guarantee that you’ve come into contact with a Microsoft product at least once or twice in your lifetime.
- Microsoft Azure
Azure is a cloud computing and software solution that empowers businesses of any size to operate in the cloud. Whether it’s the simple setup of a web app, like a WordPress website, or a more complex database platform that allows for cloud-based customer management and service, Azure could be the perfect fit for your business.
- Office 365
Office 365 empowers companies and personal users to create using Microsoft Office 2016. Keep in touch with friends, family, and colleagues by using Outlook or Skype. Create great documents, like the one you’re reading right now, with Microsoft Word.
Microsoft PowerPoint is the most popular solution for creating slide decks for presentations. Microsoft Access allows for the creation of databases, as well as visual basic programming for more complex data collaboration.
Microsoft Excel is widely used for spreadsheets and allows databases; you can transform your excel database into mysql.
One of the coolest parts of using Office 365 is that you can store all of your documents in OneDrive; a cloud-based file storage service from Microsoft. OneDrive is great for users with multiple computers, and entire teams can share internal resources and collaborate more efficiently.
The web apps from Microsoft that are included with Office 365 allow users to do almost everything they can with the standard software on their computer. As long as the Office 365 subscription is kept active, users get the latest software and productivity tools from Microsoft. Say goodbye to buying new software licenses every time something new comes out!
Working in Sync
For businesses with more than 1 team member, it’s critical that the entire organization is in-sync, ready to take on the challenges ahead. Information sent out via email sometimes doesn’t get opened right away, and really isn’t an effective way for teams on the go to communicate.
Companies like Astea actually create custom programming solutions so that all of a company’s assets, resources, and mobile workers can be fully in sync.
Having information available in the cloud means that every device connected to the cloud is always working off the latest version of a file or project. Web applications, like Word 2016, allow multiple users to edit documents at the same time.
Google Docs and Zoho Docs are other great examples of this kind of software. View changes in real-time and quickly contribute individual knowledge to the group: that’s working in the cloud!
Google Drive
Google Drive is a free service offered by Google. Anyone with a Google account (i.e. Gmail) can access the service by visiting drive.google.com. The files are saved in Google Drive (a private cloud server), sparing valuable space on computer hard drives. Documents can even be edited from Androids and iPhones.
For companies looking to eliminate software licensing costs, Google’s suite of free online productivity programs is a home run. The only downside is that Google has full access to the information stored, and uses that information for marketing purposes; they do promise that no humans actually read your information.
Website Analytics and Marketing Insights
One of the most popular cloud-based programs utilized by companies of all shapes and sizes is Google Analytics. By entering in an account-specific line of code on every page of a company’s website, real-time data is compiled by Google that gives companies insights on their website’s users:
- Where are they visiting from
- How long are they spending on your content
- How are they engaging with the site?
All of these questions can be answered by Google Analytics, the most powerful, free online marketing tool available to your company.
Critical Data Backup
Part of keeping your company’s vital files safe is backing them up to a secondary, off-site source. If you have irreplaceable company files on your computer, you need to back them up to the cloud.
If there’s a fire, theft or flood at your office, your personal data would be lost forever. With the cloud, your data is stored in multiple state of the art server farms around the world.
Don’t lose sleep, or data. Take full advantage of the cloud’s capabilities in your business!
Ohh Great! Ahmad Raza, that is a very informative article, well explained, Modern Business needs simplified IT solutions that match compliance and new principles for lending and customer interaction. Cloud- technology is having the highest impact on financial services.
Thanks for sharing, we would love to read more form you, please keep sharing.
Very informative post, Thank you so much for sharing!! I am using Office 365 for storage. I will try others too.
Explains very well the Data safety and use of could computing .I like the Article thanks for sharing I am looking forward to more articles from you. here i am mentioning some Azure certification exams which helps you in you business and career.
Hi,
Excellent post and most important All the information that you shared with us are very Helpful actually to understand the Concept…No Doubt we can say that Cloud is the Future…!!
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I agree with the writer’s point. Cloud computing is a future and it will help enormously to many companies.
Great post! Cloud services can really change how a business operates and save them from catastrophic data losses; in 2017, any business should be backing up their data to the cloud. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Ahmad,
You have written excellent content on cloud computing. cloud computing helps to create,discover and perform fast with in less time. I have been working with it also.
I would like to share something about the Cloud CAE software.Please have a look :- http://www.theubercloud.com/10-reasons-why-cloud-cae-software-is-the-better-option/
Thanks for sharing great stuff with every one.
Superb Knowledge about Vmware Cloud computing. Usually I never comment on blogs but your article is so convincing that I never stop myself to say something about it because I have more interest about it.
Great article, I really like your thought on cloud computing and get more knowledge with your article also. I appreciate you for this useful article. Thanks for sharing.
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Thank you sir for this blog. This is very useful for my new startup. I hope that in future you will provide us this type of blogs and help people.
this website is useful for me and working on my work.and i hope everyone who visit this side is also useful for him
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Superb Knowledge about Cloud Computing. Hey Admin, you have explained very well, I have learned something about it. Thanks for shared.
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Yes, cloud computing the thing possible. Business needs scalability and reliability, cloud computing can give this features mostly. Personally, I don’t like Microsoft. To me, VMware is the best tool for cloud computing.
I’ve been a business cloud tech consultant the last 10 years, and like your list a lot. I would add that if you have more than one person doing sales, you simply must have project management, CRM, and internal communications tools. A consistent business process for how those tools are used to optimal advantage within the company is also important.
For small businesses, the easiest points of entry are probably Slack for internal communications, Trello, Asana or Podio for project management (depending on how much your team leans creative vs. techie), and soooo many options for CRM! But having these 3 bases covered, in addition to the needs your above list covers, will help any small business build on a solid foundation.
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Hi Indigo,
Thanks for taking the time to comment. We used Skype and Trello primarily until our process outgrew Trello and we added Wrike Enterprise. Some want to switch from Skype to Slack, but not enough people have adopted it yet.
My challenge is now a CRM. I actually bought a used laptop that ran Windows to go back to Time & Chaos Intellect, but they may have gone out of business so I may be forced to try again to find a CRM that will actually work for me. Any recommendations?
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For CRM it really starts with whether you sell business to business (there may be several decision makers and points of contact involved for a longer sales process) or business to consumer (where a single individual or family is making the decision, usually without a lot of back and forth between you).
It also depends a lot on the method of delivery for the product or service you are selling. This is why there are so many different CRMs that people love. It’s more about finding the right one for what you do. Being able to either customize it to fit your business process, or adapt your business process to fit how the technology “flows” is also important if you want staff to actually use it. The most essential part of training is to design an intuitive and logical system to begin with.
That said, my general list of favorite CRMs (for different businesses, for different reasons) are: Salesforce, Hubspot CRM, Capsule, Base and maybe Nimble (if you need more of a contact manager tightly integrated with social media). Hope this helps.
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For finding the right CRM I really recommend you have a good thorough look at whether a potential candidate offers integrations to other applications.
Certainly, a CRM tool should fulfill your business’ tasks. And here you may have to test a few free trials to find a few that resonate most with your working style. But I really recommend that you do not neglect whether it can be connected to other tools. That will be vital for streamlining workflows and getting rid of tedious tasks in your business.
If you need some good candidates for CRM’s, feel free to drop me a line. I am happy to help.
Cloud computing is a secure option for hosting your web service especially for big organizations and companies. Ahmed, I appreciate your research and efforts but I want to ask, do you find it easy to write technicals with an MBA background?
A kind of article which I was exactly looking for.Dropbox is now a part of our day to day business tasks.Thanks for sharing.
I have used Dropbox for so many years now and it is really helpful with my business. I have referred my friends to Dropbox and earned extra space.
I highly appreciating your cool and awesome concept in this Blog. It’s really No doubt to move forward, for data safety I also do agree with for could computing.
Cloud can really help is backing up your data. I’m little bit concern about the data security there so one can use his own critical data in house and then back it up on cloud state in encrypted state. This way he can ensure privacy of his data and also backup his data in the cloud. Nice article overall and you have put a lot of valid points there.
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It is a very good technique to store data and make it secure. Awesome post thanks for sharing this
I appreciate your concept in this Blog. No doubt to move forward, for data safety and use could computing.
Cloud Computing is a spreading now a days. It is a very good technique to store data and make it secure.
That a good number of list. Thanks a lot for share.. loved your article..Its really important to a newbie like me to have a look n use these tools!.. thanks for the share
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