How cloud computing became a new normal for SMEs?

Technology has always played a significant role is changing the way how business work. From the introduction of the internet to the arrival of artificial intelligence, technology has always shaped businesses into a better form. Just like internet and artificial intelligence, cloud computing has also played a major role in changing the way businesses used to work and now it has become an integral part of SMEs functions as well.

Cloud computing has always been a hot topic for debate among IT professionals from mid-2010. Most of the businesses using cloud computing claim that it helps them in improving every aspect of technology and computing but during the first phase cloud introduction, it was not accessible on a wide range. When cloud computing was first introduced to the world, it was a very costly solution for any business and that’s why only giant firms used to build cloud infrastructure and hire a large team of IT experts who used to manage the IT infra and keep it running. Cloud computing was an impractical solution for small and medium-sized businesses mainly because of the cost involved it in but this trend change with the further evolution of cloud computing.

When cloud computing widened and evolved, it opened its door for small and medium-sized businesses as well. Now for using various forms of cloud computing, small and medium-sized businesses no more needed to build IT infra and hire IT team, as public cloud server acted as a key to the world of cloud for small and medium-sized businesses. In the current era, cloud computing is no more limited to giant firms as it has become an integral part of SMEs as well. What used to be a money-guzzler technological solution in the past now become a cost-effective technological solution for SMEs.

There are various implementations of cloud computing which made it a new normal for SMEs and we are going to look at two of those important implementations of the amazing cloud computing technology and understand how it became an integral part of even small and medium-sized firms.

Cloud hosting

There are many different ways in which cloud computing is used by small and medium-sized business but among all of them, the most famous one is cloud hosting. Cloud hosting is a simple cloud solution in which the business application or solution is shifted on the cloud server which becomes accessible from anywhere and at any time. After shifting to the cloud hosting solution, businesses don’t need to install the software on their office desktop or laptop. But during the starting phase of cloud hosting, the only way to host application was to build IT infrastructure as discussed above and that’s why cloud hosting was not in the list of any SME.

The introduction of third party hosting solution changed all these things and made cloud hosting available for small and medium-sized businesses as well. In the third party hosting solution, a firm needs to choose a cloud provider and buy its package. The cloud provider then shifts the business application on their public cloud server and thus it eliminates the need of building IT infra and even wipes out the hassle of hiring and managing an IT team. One of the best examples of third party cloud hosting is QuickBooks Enterprise hosting in which SMEs choose from the long list of QuickBooks Enterprise hosting providers and then shift their QB Enterprise solution on the cloud. There are various advantages of cloud hosting which made it a popular choice among SMEs but among all those advantages affordability was the most important one. Following are some of the most common advantages which SMEs get after shifting to third party cloud hosting solution:-

• Anywhere, anytime access
• High uptime
• Enhanced Security
• Round the clock customer support
• Backup
• Disaster Recovery System
• Scalability
• Cost-effectiveness
• 360 degree secured platform
• Multi-user access

This long list of benefits at an affordable price helped cloud computing to become a new normal among small and medium sized businesses.

Cloud storage

Another big implementation of cloud computing which allowed this marvelous technology to become a new normal among small and medium-sized businesses is cloud storage. Earlier, the hard disk of the local computer was the safest place to store business data but with the evolution of the technology, hackers all around the world also evolved and that made local hard disk storage an outdated and risky option for businesses.

During the initial phase of cyberattacks, most of the SMEs considered themselves very secured as they thought none of the hackers out there will be interested in getting their hand on the data of company which deals on a very small scale but this turned out to be totally opposite. In the modern day, hackers and other evil minded people don’t check the size of the company before stealing their data and that’s why SMEs now needed a better storage option.

The amazing cloud computing came with the cloud storage solution and currently, we can see it in the form of Google Drive, Dropbox, Nextcloud, OneDrive, etc. Most of the cloud storage options are totally free but businesses use paid version of these cloud storage platforms as it offers them more space and advanced feature. The cloud storage acted as an ultra-secure platform for storing, accessing, sharing and editing business data and it was welcomed by SMEs from all over the globe on a very large scale.

The list of cloud computing implementation is very long but in this blog post, we have mentioned the two most important cloud computing uses which allowed small and medium-sized businesses to make cloud an integral part of their farm. Currently, no firm can even imagine working without cloud and its use among SMEs is increasing at a very dramatic pace. It is being estimated that by the end of 2020, almost 80% of the enterprise workload will shift to the cloud.

Author Bio

Saurabh Gupta has been involved in the world of accounting software, SEO and cloud computing from a very long time and currently, he is working as a lead content writer with Cloudwalks, a QuickBooks hosting company which offers affordable QuickBooks hosting. Cloud computing and SEO is what he eats and drinks.