Is it time to adopt cloud computing?

“The humble Cumulus humilis - never hurt a soul.” 
― Gavin Pretor-Pinney, The Cloudspotter's Guide

Joni Mitchell sang to us about looking at clouds from both sides.  Keanu Reeves took A Walk in the Clouds.  If you’re distracted, your head is in the clouds, if you’re deliriously happy, you’re on cloud 9, and when things aren’t going your way, remember that every cloud has a silver lining.  Clouds are powerful enough to block the sun but too insubstantial to hold. 

But here in the super-technical, uber-digital 21^st century, The Cloud has come to mean something completely new, increasingly pervasive, and statistically explosive.   The odds are excellent that if you have a smart phone, something of yours is stored on the cloud somewhere.  Do you use Gmail, Instagram or Google?  You, my friend, are cloud surfing. 

Basically, “The Cloud” is a whimsical phrase for computer outsourcing.  But holy cow is it powerful, and its potential is infinite.  Accessing work files is as easy as having an internet connection and a device with which to connect.   

By providing remote processes and storage, the cloud ups the mobility game and provides the sort of portable storage that most of us couldn’t even dream of just a few years ago:  When flash drives were introduced in 2000, 128 MB cost around $30; four years ago, 8 GB went for $10.  Today, $60 will get you one terabyte (that’s over 1,000,000 MB, I looked it up).  But I digress.

Unlimited storage is just one of the three most compelling reasons to convert to cloud computing.  The others are: the use of remote resources and the aforementioned mobility.

Enter the “aaS” market:  If a product ends in “aaS” it’s probably cloud based.  “AaS” stands for “as a service,” and there’s practically a whole alphabet of them:  IaaS (infrastructure, IT), SaaS (software, security), PaaS (platform), DaaS (device, desktop), EaaS (energy), DRaaS (data recovery), UCaaS (unified communications), CCaaS (contact center).

And in my opinion, we’re just getting started.

The biggest concern is, of course, data security, especially if you deal in confidential customer information.  But the fact is that because cloud providers know how vital security is, they’re likely more focused on it, and better at it, than your in-house IT team could be.  Furthermore, your data is usually encrypted before it makes the transition to the cloud, and while stored there, it remains encrypted.

Here are just a few more benefits:

Scalability – as your company changes, it’s incredibly easy to add or subtract users. Fees are metered by usage, and usually updated by the next billing cycle, so you’re never paying for what you don’t need.

Agility – software updates don’t involve new licensing fees, upgrades are included in your subscription.  Your company has easy access to the most advanced technology available.

Cost– your business saves money on infrastructure, IT staff, real estate and training.

Entry – adoption is generally a phone call away.

Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and IBM are all providing cloud services, to name just some of the biggest players.  Analysts predict that on-site data processing will continue to decrease, while cloud usage increases, and as artificial intelligence takes off, cloud usage becomes downright necessary.  So don’t ask yourself if you should use the cloud, ask yourself how you can maximize your cloud usage.