What is The Cloud
Cloud computing is computing based on the internet. Where in the past, people would run applications or programs from software downloaded on a physical computer or server in their building, cloud computing allows people access the same kinds of applications through the internet.
So why are so many businesses moving to the cloud?
Flexibility - The second a company needs more bandwidth than usual, a cloud-based service can instantly meet the demand because of the vast capacity of the service’s remote servers.
Disaster recovery - When companies start relying on cloud-based services, they no longer need complex disaster recovery plans. Cloud computing providers take care of most issues, and they do it faster.
Automatic software updates - Cloud computing suppliers do the server maintenance so you dont have to (including security updates). This frees up your time and resources for other tasks.
Simple Quantifiable Costs - Cloud computing services are typically pay as you go, so there’s no need for capital expenditure at all. And because cloud computing is much faster to deploy, businesses have minimal project start-up costs and predictable ongoing operating expenses.
Increased Employee collaboration - Cloud computing increases collaboration by allowing your employees (wherever they are) to sync up and work on documents and shared apps simultaneously, and follow colleagues and records to receive critical updates in real time.
Work from anywhere - As long as employees have internet access, they can work from anywhere. This flexibility positively affects knowledge workers' work-life blanace and productivity.
Document control - If a company doesn’t use the cloud, workers have to send files back and forth over email, meaning only one person can work on a file at a time and the same document has tonnes of names and formats.
Cloud computing keeps all the files in one central location, and everyone works off of one central copy. Employees can even chat to each other whilst making changes together. This whole process makes collaboration stronger, which increases efficiency and improves a company’s bottom line.
Security - This can have some serious monetary implications, but when everything is stored in the cloud, data can still be accessed no matter what happens to a machine.
Competitiveness - The cloud grants SMEs access to enterprise-class technology. It also allows smaller businesses to act faster than big, established competitors.
Environmentally friendly - Businesses using cloud computing only use the server space they need, which decreases their carbon footprint. Using the cloud results in at least 30% less energy consumption and carbon emissions than using on-site servers. And again, SMEs get the most benefit: for small companies, the cut in energy use and carbon emissions is likely to be 90%.
With Office 365 you can work smarter and more flexibly by accessing your data from anywhere, any time.
Some of the benefits of using Office 365 include:
- Accessibility – Anywhere access to cloud-based email, web conferencing, file sharing and Office apps at a low predictable monthly cost.
- Familiarity – Microsoft Office 365 lets you work seamlessly with the programs you know and use most including Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
- Collaboration – Conduct online meetings including audio, video and screen sharing. Keep in touch with colleagues and friends with Instant Messaging. Create sites to store, share and simultaneously edit documents with your colleagues, and avoid the muddle of multiple versions of the same document.
- Manageability – Control your computing devices, and present a consistent interface across your entire workforce. Scale up or down in line with your business requirements.
- Future Proof – Microsoft Office 365 gives you access to the very latest technology, regardless of your size and without the need for significant investment, for a manageable monthly per user fee.
Costs can be reduced with a predictable, flexible monthly pay-as-you-go pricing model. Furthermore reliability is improved with Microsoft’s 99.9% availability guarantee.
