Nowadays, more and more businesses are going fully digital in order to cut out inefficiencies, improve business operations and open new revenue streams and markets online.
With all of this digital data, it is absolutely essential to have a secure place to store it all.
This is important, not only to prevent it being lost or damaged, but also to ensure your business is fully compliant with all GDPR rules and regulations.
One way to store your data securely is via the ‘cloud’. In this article, we’re going to be explaining what the cloud is and why your business should be using it to store its digital data.
What is the Cloud?
The cloud is a name given to large servers all over the world that can be accessed via the internet. Individuals and businesses can pay to store their data and programs in the cloud instead of on their computer’s hard drive or keeping physical copies.
How Can the Cloud Benefit My Business?
When implemented and managed effectively the Cloud offers numerous benefits including improved efficiencies, greater data security and the ability to become a more dynamic and flexible workforce.
Let’s take a look at these in a bit more detail…
How the Cloud Can Make Your Business More Efficient
A study by Accenture found that larger enterprise firms adopting the cloud can reduce energy use and carbon emissions by 30-60% in comparison to on-premise IT infrastructures.
Mid-sized firms also have the potential to reduce their energy consumption and carbon emissions by a shocking 60-90% and smaller businesses or those just starting up can cut it by over 90%.
How the Cloud Can Help You to Lower Business Costs
By reducing your business’ energy consumption, not only are you helping the environment, you’re also helping the company accounts too.
Eliminating the need for physical paper copies of documents or internal servers that use high amounts of energy to store your data can save your business thousands of pounds each year.
How the Cloud Can Boost Productivity
Using online storage servers like the cloud to store their data means there’s no longer any need for menial tasks such as making copies of a document or filing things away in physical storage cabinets.
Putting an end to these small- yet time consuming- tasks allows your staff to focus on more important duties, streamlining your production workflow and boosting workplace productivity. All of this also helps to save money on staff resources.
How the Cloud Offers Greater Data Security
Ensuring your business' data is secure is absolutely critical in order to comply with the many strict GDPR rules and regulations.
If you’re still using paper documents to record personal data, you could be in breach of GDPR if a loose bit of paper lands in the wrong hands.
Fortunately, by storing all of your data on the cloud, you can be sure that it is stored in a safe and secure location that only those authorised have access to.
Not to mention, should anything ever go wrong, such as a fire or flood, you can rest easy knowing all of your data is stored safely and not at risk of being lost or damaged.
How the Cloud Can Increase Storage Capabilities
Each cloud server provider offers a range of scalable storage plans, so you only pay for as much space as you need with the ability to increase it if additional storage is needed at any point down the line.
How the Cloud Can Facilitate Flexible Working
Cloud computing is a significant enabler of both home and remote working as it allows users to access the same files from different devices, making it a great option for those who work flexibly both at home and from the office.
In fact, over the coronavirus lockdowns, cloud computing was essential for a large number of businesses to continue running whilst staff worked from home.
How Can DMS Help?
At DMS, we can help you to choose and implement the right cloud storage plan for your business so you can rest easy knowing all of your data is stored in a safe and secure place.
Additionally, with DMS One, we can help you manage all of your IT contracts in one bundle, eliminating the administrative burden for you.
For more information, please get in touch with our team by calling us on 03330 15 1900 or check out our other handy guides for more advice.
