In the IT (information technology) world, companies are moving toward more cost-effective ways to meet the needs of their customers. One way of accomplishing this is through the world of ‘the cloud’.
So, what is the ‘cloud’ or cloud computing? The term itself implies just that – It is somewhere ‘out there’. As trendy as it sounds, it isn’t a new concept. Computing services are provided from a remote location, allowing you to access the service from almost anywhere. An example of this is being able to access your electricity consumption data being accessible from somewhere other than your physical meter.
Much in the same way, services are delivered over the internet.
For the average person, cloud services are becoming the norm for accessing data. It makes many of the things that we love most about the internet work well. Whether its Facebook’s news feed, Google search, Netflix or Amazon Prime, these companies deliver services from computers in large data centers.
There are many benefits to the cloud, including:
- Cloud systems allows you to scale up or down users and services on demand.
- Managed cloud services allow services such as company email, shared calendars and contacts, video conferencing, VOIP phone systems, document sharing, and many more to be used with ease.
- Employees no longer need to be in the same location to access the same information.
Businesses can use the cloud to make their business more organized and effective. It expands their resources, and reduces costs by eliminating previously essential equipment.