It's the first of September. Mornings are cooler, the sun is rising later, and leaves are starting to change color. Fall has finally arrived, and we all know what that means--pumpkin spice everything, college football, and cider mills. But while everyone else is engaging in the stereotypical fall activities and discussions, we’d like to discuss the cloud.

Adopting cloud-based computing can mean big benefits for a business. Aside from the obvious benefit of being able to access your data from anywhere, on any device, at any time, we believe that businesses of all sizes and at all stages can benefit from storing data in a secure, centralized environment. Check out a brief list of some of the benefits of cloud computing below.

  1. Simplified Collaboration: When we say the cloud enables you to access your device anywhere at any time, we mean it. Your hard drive is no longer the central hub of business information. Cloud-based access allows your employees to work flexibly and access materials located on your corporate office network.
  2. Increased Security: As discussed in last week's post, you never know when disaster will strike. Especially for the victims of Hurricane Harvey, storing critical information in the cloud was beneficial. Downtime need not affect business productivity. All your information is safely stored off site. If your employees have access to any computer or mobile device and an Internet connection, they're up and running.
  3. Lower Costs: Migrating to the cloud allows businesses to do more with less. By moving software and information to the cloud, most businesses see a decrease in rack space, power usage, IT requirements, etc. What does that mean for your organization? Lower installation, maintenance, hardware, and support investments.
  4. Insight & Innovation: Moving toward the cloud is an economic advantage for many businesses, but it can also be a competitive one. The cloud helps to re-invent customer relationships, seamlessly share data, leverage analytics from applications, and gain insight into what has been slowing your business down.

There are many benefits to moving to the cloud. Organizations are increasingly searching for methods to take advantage of the cost and productivity savings we just described. As you move into the last quarter of the year, consider making cloud computing a larger part of your short-term plan and comprehensive IT strategy.