Cloud hosting your business is now more popular than ever. The advantages that it brings to the table far outweigh the disadvantages presented in previous hosting options. Cloud hosting allows you more flexibility within your business, not only in regards to access but also in regards to costs. You are able to upgrade or downgrade your capacity to suit your current business requirements and reduce your capital costs.
In-house servers are generally quite costly to set up, take up a lot of room at the office, have power outages that take the system down for hours, require staff to be present at the office to work and require continuos training to learn all of the software issues that can arise. By using the cloud, you can reduce or even eliminate problems within these areas. There is also the stability provided by regular back-ups and updates to be considered. Should your Head Office building experience a power cut or a fire it is reassuring to know that all of your data is still accessible and protected.
Hosting your business via the cloud also allows you to adapt your business to the market demand. If you have recently run a large campaign and now find that you have triple the usual amount of visitors to your website, you can simply upgrade to accommodate the increase without having to purchase large amounts of hardware.
Having an alternative to running your own in-house server can help with reducing costs and staying within your budget. The initial cost is usually minimal with payment plans available. Some providers allow you to pay monthly, others allow you to pay annually but you still keep the option of changing the plan to meet your businesses demand requirements.
I believe that the biggest appeal to cloud hosting is that you are able to provide your staff flexibility within their job role. Everyone likes to feel in control of their own time and by allowing them to leave work early to collect their child and then continue work later in the evening, you will quite often find that you see an increase in productivity. An employee that feels in control and appreciated in their job role will be more inclined to produce better results.
Knowing that your data is safe and secure, you can be flexible within your business and that you can adapt to the market demand outlines the appeal that the online solution of cloud hosting provides. Improving accessibility, requiring less training and reducing your overheads costs such as electricity can be seen as mere benefits.