Cloud Storage is a Must for Your Business
You probably hear about cloud storage a lot. Sure, big corporations use the cloud for collaboration, backup, and much more. But as a small business owner, you may be wondering just how it could benefit you and make your life easier. Disasters can happen, hard copies of documents can become damaged and you never know when you may need access to a document on the go. You may be surprised to find that making the move to the cloud will benefit your business more than you ever thought, both on a productivity and convenience level.
Important financial documents are an important part of any business. Old school methods of filing and organization are great and may seem to be easier to you. But what happens when the ink on your receipts fades and you’re left squinting when tax time comes around? How about a simple misplacement of a paper causing you to lose a huge deduction? By using cloud storage, you could simply scan in your documents and upload them to the cloud for safe keeping and easy access anywhere. Organization doesn’t take tons of manila folders or color coded tabs either. Simply click, name, and upload your documents to their desired location. You can pull up any file you need in a literal few seconds to share digitally or to print out.
If you have employees with your business, you have undoubtedly had to share documents with them before. Eliminate the need to meet in person by sharing files directly in your cloud with a simple link or as an email attachment with just a few clicks. Sharing to social media sites is also easy and can work as a great promotional tool if you want to share a new flyer or photo.
For some businesses, such as photography, video or music editing, or construction, cloud storage can also be a valuable tool for sharing with your customers. Share your hard work with clients through email and links, or even have them log-in as a user to see what you have done. They will be impressed with the ease and undoubtedly appreciate being able to see their files from the comfort of their own home rather than needing to travel to your office or work area.
Even if you prefer to keep documents on your own hard drive, cloud storage is a must as a backup service. Devices unfortunately fail but you can ensure you won’t be left in a panic if you have run regular backups to the cloud. You can move to a different device to continue working your files safe on the cloud and then sync back to your device once it is up and running again. Restoral is easy with a good provider and should only take a few clicks to be back right where you left off.
You might also be surprised to realize that your data is more likely safer on the cloud than it is on your own PC. A good cloud storage provider has many, many levels of security in place at both a physical and digital level. They will also have multiple servers set up to ensure redundancy. That means if there is a one device failure, another has a duplicate of your files and picks right up ensuring no loss of files or downtime for you. Layers of anti-virus programs and firewalls will also be in place.
If you are still unsure about the cloud, start a trial and play around to see what it can do for you. Read user manuals and speak to support staff about what features will work for your particular business type. You will be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to get started and how it is even easier to maintain and work within the cloud. Your small business will thank you.
