5 Benefits of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing can completely change the way that you do business. Instead of running a traditional office, holding daily meetings and working directly with employees in that office, you can now let those employees telecommute and work one or more days from home. This is essentially a type of online storage that lets those with access to a user name and password log in and access all the information available. There are some key benefits of using online storage and this type of computing.

Increases Collaboration

A common problem found in many offices is that employees have a hard time working together. Their personalities, work habits and even interests can make shared presentations and group work harder than you ever imagined. With this type of computing, you can actually increase the collaboration among your workers. Instead of working in a confined space and with people they dislike, they can share their thoughts, opinions and work online. This ensures that every member of the team has the chance to have his or her thoughts heard by others on that team.

Lower Costs

Depending on the type of work that you want to do online, you may find that you can significantly lower your overall operating costs. A good example would be a company that designs and builds websites. Instead of hiring a team of graphic and web designers to work in an office, they can hire freelance designers and let those designers build different sections or pages on those sites for a lower price. When you hire freelance workers online, they are responsible for paying their own taxes. You do not need to cover their health insurance or taxes.

Go Green

Not only is running a traditional office expensive, but it also produces a lot of waste. Between the energy that your equipment uses, the papers that workers toss in the trash every day and the fuel they waste getting to work, your simple office can do a lot of damage to the environment. With cloud work, you can do your part to help the environment. The more time that your employees spend working from home, the less toxins and waste they produce.

Change Your Business Model

Another benefit is that you can actually change your business model or experiment with different business models. Instead of launching a full company and hiring dozens of employees, you can start out smaller and experiment with different ways of running your business and finding clients until you feel comfortable expanding. This also lets you seek out new ways of making money. Instead of just selling products to clients and customers, you can look at running ads on your site, offering online conferences that customers can sign up to attend and even writing and selling your own books.

More Flexibility

According to Joe McKendrick of Forbes, one key benefit of cloud computing is that it offers more flexibility. McKendrick points out that someone who wants to test a new product can now hire online workers to test that product and provide feedback quickly instead of wasting weeks on focus groups. Another example might be a larger corporation that wants to change its website. It can hire people to look at that site, try it out and supply feedback before the site goes live.

Using online storage is a great way to increase the number of people working for your company and to save money on all your operating costs. Though some think of cloud computing as just another storage method for computer data, this type of computing has some big benefits that can completely change the way your business runs.

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