Why should Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) tap into Cloud Computing?
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Published: 2020-05-12 13:54:01

If this is your question, in the prevailing pandemic situation, companies irrespective of their sizes are forced to work on a remote basis evolving varying operational models. Thanks to the adoption of cloud, today the IT infrastructure cost for the companies have become a variable cost instead of being a fixed cost. The bigger companies have so far managed to adopt cloud at various levels.

However, for smaller businesses, the adoption till date has been very cautious, largely influenced by necessity. In the current pandemic scenario, the SMEs need to take a fresh look at the varying cloud services right from Infrastructure-as-a – Service ( IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service ( PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service ( SaaS) so they don’t have to commit on fixed IT Capex expenditures instead manage their IT spending at Opex level.

Simply put

Cloud computing enables data to be stored, managed and processed via internet. Data here could simply vary from a simple 1-page word document to enterprise data measured in GBs. However, this still fits to the need of SMEs by allowing them to take advantage in terms of

·         Infra cost as it reduces the cost to set up and maintain on premise servers

·         Accessibility to data stored in internet as internet can be accessed from anywhere and many more explained below

You can jump start with cloud computing by consuming services offered by various enterprises.

Suit your need

Business needs can be suited within 3 cloud models available namely, Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

PaaS allows companies to customize the licensed application that they own to suit their needs. In same way, if a service is owned to suit delivery model while it still is hosted centrally it is known as SaaS. Mostly SaaS is consumed on-demand. The applications and services when hosted and managed on cloud by accessing service providers’ infra is said to be IaaS. Servers, networks and storage facilities fall under IaaS.


KNOW THE BENEFITS BEFORE YOU JUMP START CLOUD COMPUTING

1. Access via wide network:

Working remotely is the new norm in today’s world. Work spaces can be planned at minimal cost as cloud services can be accessed via internet on any device, not just desktop but also via laptop, mobile, iPad and tablet.

2. On demand and pay as you go

The best offer from cloud computing model is that any business can consume any service that best fits their need on subscription basis. Thus business get to pay only for the consumption and best manage the operational costs.

A reasonable cost would be incurred for cloud space setup. This can be considered a good investment as moving forward the entire maintenance cost will be minimal and the spending towards hardware environment will reduce drastically.

3. Instant recovery

In fast changing world, both naturally and digitally, companies should ideally prep themselves for robust disaster recovery. Situations like this demand involvement in terms of cost and experts. Cloud services can be very handy at these times as data is available round the clock and stored in a place where tampering is least possible.

4. Reliable and secure

The Cloud computing services enables continuity of business from anywhere in world.  Most of co-workers these days operate at different time zones and getting hands on to latest version of any work is no challenge as it’s readily available on cloud.

In terms of security, cloud services are offered at compliance of very stringent rules and regulations to protect users’ data. Continuous surveillance and proactive disaster prevention systems are in place ensuring high level of secure environment for data.

5. Future Enabled

Digital Transformation is another word buzzing around lately. Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Big data rely on cloud rather than traditional methods. Processing and training abundant data, AI making inference with data fed and applying what it has learned into real life scenarios are possible with highly powered processors supporting via cloud.

6. Adaptable

With limited capital and manpower adapting to changes in business environment is a huge challenge for SME’s. A considerable investment is needed both in terms of time and money to see a long run in any business. The current Corona situation has altogether posed a very new challenge of survival on the financial and business front. The world is moving in a direction of PRE and POST COVID-19

Adapting to cloud is comparatively as working with service provider is all you need to do for the initial set up. There are various certifications available to make yourself eligible to handle the cloud services and involve in maintenance. This can be achieved with existing IT team in place while need to hire expertise can be totally avoided.

7. Conclusion

Any Business users who have the flair to grow their Business on a short investment, then Cloud Computing could be the best solution for them to add real value and can take their small business to the enterprise level.