Work Anywhere with Cloud Hosting and Storage for Your Business
Psst! Guess what? There’s absolutely no shame in being confused by the cloud. Not only do tech people seem to attach the word cloud to everything these days, those cloud solutions they talk about seem to do a lot of contradictory things.
If you’ve been unsure about what the cloud actually does and what those cloud terms actually mean, this article will help. In it, we discuss (in totally non-techie terms) what cloud storage and cloud hosting are, and we offer a few suggestions your business can use when you’re ready to join the cloud revolution that everyone’s talking about.
By the way, congratulations in advance on your new knowledge. At the end of this article, you’ll be an expert on cloud storage and cloud hosting.
Cloud Storage
The reason the cloud is so popular is because it empowers businesses to increase their processing power and storage capabilities, much like they do when buying a new computer or servers… except that they don’t have to actually buy the new computers or servers to get increased power.
Yes, that’s complex, so we’ll break it down some.
In the case of cloud storage, which is arguably the simplest form of cloud usage that businesses enjoy, your company can store massive documents, tons of documents – heck, store all of your documents without taking up any space on your computers.
Common cloud storage services include:
- Dropbox
- iCloud
- Microsoft OneDrive
Cloud storage helps business owners who are either running low on hard drive space or who don’t want to pay extra for more storage on their computers.
As an example, one of our employees here at ISM always buys the lowest storage option for her smartphone (16 GB) and her computer (128 GB) because she knows she can easily and affordably purchase more storage when she needs it. All she requires is an account with one or more of the cloud storage options listed above. In this way, she keeps her CapEx costs down with less expensive hardware, and only pays for extra storage when she needs it.
Cloud Hosting
Let’s say you want to store more than files and photos on the cloud. Let’s say you want to store entire programs on the cloud. If you did that, you could run actual software, like your Sage ERP program, without storing it on your own servers or computers.
We agree that this concept is pretty magical, which is why we at ISM offer our own cloud hosting service called NellNube.
Just like how cloud storage makes it easy to store and access files, even when you don’t have room for them on your computer, cloud hosting makes it easy to run and use programs without storing them on your own in-house servers.
Obviously this saves money because you don’t have to pay to buy and maintain costly hardware all the time, but it also saves you money because cloud hosting users don’t need space for a server room anymore and they don’t need to pay for all the utilities it takes to power and cool those darn servers.
Even better, someone else maintains and upgrades the servers for you, so you’ll never have to worry about patching your server hardware again.
In addition to reducing your costs, cloud hosting also increases your business’s capabilities. Need to open a new location across the country? Instead of setting up a server room for the new location, you can purchase more cloud hosting space, which will provide those new employees with all the programs and access they need.
If the new location doesn’t work out, that’s okay (it happens). Instead of taking a hit on the expensive hardware you would have had to buy in the past, you can simply downgrade your hosting plan. You’ll pay less because you’ll be using fewer resources.
Using the Cloud in Your Business
Aside from cost savings and flexible scalability, cloud hosting provides:
- Anywhere / anytime access
- Sophisticated network protection
- Backup and recovery services
- 24/7 support
- And more…
If you’re ready to say goodbye to costly servers, expensive utilities, and pricy additional square footage, you’re ready to start using cloud hosting in your business.
ISM’s cloud service, NellNube, offers powerful cloud hosting that’s specially calibrated to work with your Sage solution. Contact NellNube to learn more about the hassle-free way to host your Sage system—effortlessly—on the cloud.