The beauty of cloud computing is that it is for everybody, not just for large enterprises. Small businesses are also able to harness its benefits in order to be competitive even against the big boys. Among its many benefits, one of the most important and often considered facet of cloud computing is cost savings. A lot of cloud applications are freely usable with the option to pay for more features. The Center for Public Policy Innovation reported that they found that cloud computing and mobile technology lowered their entry costs for small businesses. This allows small businesses to compete in the game with larger businesses because they can have access to sophisticated and complete technologies just like their larger counterparts.
Small businesses should quickly consider the benefits of cloud computing and what it can bring to their businesses.
The main reasons why they should adapt cloud computing is as follows:
1. Accessibility from virtually anywhere. cloud services can be accessed anywhere an internet connection is present. This allows small businesses or single-man businesses to take their services anywhere they choose and still have access to all their applications and files just with a small light-weight laptop or even a mobile device. This can have serious benefits because a business is not tied down, so to speak.
2. The cost of entry is really low. Since the premise of cloud computing is virtualization of infrastructure allowing simultaneous use by many clients, a cloud infrastructure can support numerous clients with their equipment which considerably lowers the cost for each client because the burden of cost is being shared by many. And since the client will only need to pay for applications that they require and only when they require it, a pay per use model, it becomes very cheap for small businesses as opposed to installing a local infrastructure.
3. Speed of deployment and scalability. Cloud applications are ready to go when they are availed and requires little to no installation in the user’s side so it can be used readily shortly after it is availed. Platform as a service allows small business developers to rapidly deploy their created applications so that there will not be a down time and they can immediately get the profit that they need. They can do this with little hassle and the platform vendor may even help them with it.
By Abdul Salam
