6 good reasons to go on the Cloud for Startups and SMBs

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Although it’s been one of the most talked-about buzzword of the last few years, surprisingly, there are still a lot of misconceptions regarding the benefits of moving to, being on and operating on the Cloud. Nevertheless, there are still many good reasons to go on the Cloud for Startups and SMBs. So maybe it’s time to take a second good look at it and give it a second thought… if you haven’t yet.

The basic premises remain the same:

  • forget about hardware, we’ll provide it
  • forget about licensing, we’ll provide it
  • you only pay for what you use

So why not give the Cloud a first shot or, some may say, to give your company a second chance!

6 good reasons to go on the Cloud for Startups and SMBs

Competitiveness

Well, to put it bluntly, the Cloud makes any IT resources accessible but also affordable to any SMB; therefore, it can now compete with large corporations using the same weapons sort of, which most SMB should appreciate.

That’s the one thing about the Cloud that most people seem to miss; the Cloud puts everybody equal… levelling the playing field.

Flexibility

This is one area where everybody wins since you don’t have to make initial major investments prior to knowing for sure how fast your expansion plan will go or how strong your growth curve will be.

We say flexibility instead of scalability which most Cloud vendors talk about because they seem to always forget that it goes both ways; Cloud can help you scale up fast and easily but it can also help you scale down as fast and as easily. And this is no small benefit in terms of cost, considering that things don’t always go as planned or that they follow some cycle.

In short, your business can now adapt and respond to the flows of seasonal demands or to unpredictable newly skyrocketing sales, thanks to your latest new business offering.

Criticality

If your company is running a critical application for the benefit of either employees or clients, maintaining a high level of response time (power and Internet connection) could be critical to both efficiency and satisfaction but could be too much expensive for many SMBs and Startups.  For sure, an external server can be a solution but for reasons previously mentioned in this article, the Cloud could be a sound option for many SMBs. A business case will tell you.

Security

There’s a strong misconception here that just won’t die and it’s a shame considering that major web players (Facebook, Twitter, Skype, LinkedIn, etc.) have been put down in recent months by DDoS attacks even though, they were hosting their web services on their premises.

The truth is with the amount of resources that companies like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Services are putting in their Cloud Services offering, they can provide better security and respond faster to any kind of threats. Since they monitor for attacks in real-time, they can fix bugs and vulnerabilities faster and deliver the level of security any customer would expect; and again, no matter your company size.

Travel Light, Travel Fast

If you are in a Start-Up mode or if you have built such a culture within your company, here are some services where the Cloud gives you an edge.

Operations: the Cloud is full of proven and efficient plug-and-play solutions for accounting, payroll, staff and inventory management, etc., like Odoo.

Communications, Collaboration & Sales: this is a no-brainer, services like GoogleApps, Slack, NutCache, PayPal, Stripe or Salesforce get your company running smoothly in no time at a cost, just-what-you-use.

Type of application

A cloud-based business solution offers multiple opportunities for simplified integration with other cloud-based specialized services that can integrate with back-office operations, from Human Resources to Marketing to Accounting.

Again, there seems to be many good reasons to go on the Cloud for Startups and SMBs.

 

Not on the Cloud, yet?

Not even your head?  If you need Flexibility or Security or plug-and-play business solutions, maybe it’s time for a lift off.  If you don’t, well probably having your own servers on your own premise will be less expensive!

 

Denis Paul & Michel

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