Using Different Cloud Providers vs. Using Just One
There are now hundreds of cloud storage providers to choose from, many of them offering attractive features and pricing based on the individual’s or business’s needs. A lot of workplaces are getting wise to the cloud and are seeing its benefits over the long term, especially when it comes to convenience and increasing overall productivity. Certain companies, especially those who want to maintain as much control as possible over all work related data, will insist on one cloud provider being the choice for all of those needs. Other companies are just fine, though, with letting their employees use the cloud providers they prefer, and there are several reasons for that. But we believe the benefits of having one cloud provider for all company business are significant enough to make that option the better one.
Some of those benefits are as follows:
- Centralization of accounts and data: With just one cloud storage provider, a company can have unrestricted access to its employees data, as well as the actual accounts. If the need arises, the company’s IT Manager or a department head can access the account and retrieve data when the need arises, allowing for the best level of security and transparency possible in a work environment. If each person has their own cloud provider, then the data becomes decentralized and is no longer in the company’s possession, meaning that it can’t be accessed by a manager at will and could end up lost or in the wrong hands if the account is compromised or terminated.
- Less cost: Although a lot of you may be thinking that there shouldn’t be any cost at all with the many free storage options out there, those free accounts aren’t always suitable for business use. Most providers, although they offer free accounts, have at least one restriction, whether it is the amount of storage or bandwidth, user access, and tons of other things that could be prohibitive when it comes to utilizing the cloud properly in that environment. In fact, a lot of providers don’t even offer the features a business needs within their paid plans either, making it even more of a waste of resources. One provider however, the right provider for your needs, can offer the exact features you need, across all users, for one low price. Even if the providers that people are using do have the necessary features, it is more expensive to pay for each account than to pay for one account with additional user slots.
- Less possibility for problems: When everyone is using the same cloud storage provider, there is far less of a learning curve and troubleshooting problems is much easier. With different providers connected together, if something goes wrong somewhere in the chain, the problem has to be traced down to the individual account and then their individual software has to be troubleshot further. This can take way too much time to get through, especially when a project demands data to be produced on a deadline or for a critical meeting.
In essence, allowing employees to have their own separate cloud storage accounts for work data is not only counterproductive, but it costs more as well, not to mention issues that arise with data availability, security, transparency and several other things. For these reasons, it is best for a company to encourage their employees to use a single cloud storage account, because even if it costs the company a little more money to get started, the overall benefits will be great in the long run.
