Darren Deehan looks at why companies adopting cloud technology are growing faster than their non-cloud competitors.
A recent study commissioned by Microsoft found that small to medium-sized businesses (generally under 250 employees) that adopted cloud technology grew much faster than their competitors who did not.
There are a number of reasons for this.
Cloud applications can be deployed rapidly by comparison to on-premise applications, because it’s primarily done by accessing an application via the web.
There is no requirement to deploy banks of servers, reconfigure desktops and so on – by visiting a website URL, users can get their hands on whatever power tools these applications offer.
Small to medium businesses don’t have as many hoops to jump through
For small businesses ‘cash is king’, so burning that vital capital or cash reserves on IT hardware and licensing projects is a non-starter. There are no guarantees when it comes to success and the biggest failures usually lie with cash-flow problems, regardless of how good the business is.
It’s vital to have those cash reserves so that any fluctuations in income can be managed, even during a growth period. The capital saved can be used on customer acquisition, marketing, product development and so on.
Small to medium businesses are usually early trailblazers when it comes to cloud computing and therefore become the first to gain any benefit. There are usually not as many individual stakeholders or hoops to jump through, or as much internal red tape.
Business cases are examined and decisions are taken quickly because the risks are reduced in terms of failure to achieve ‘return on investment’. Cloud applications are quite often accessed on monthly pay-as-you-go terms, therefore the control is always with the end user.
Deploying cloud applications makes IT someone else’s problem
Darren Deehan
For smaller organisations deploying a cloud application reduces the reliance on skilled IT resources, effectively outsourcing IT requirements. Small businesses do not have the means to employ massive IT departments; deploying cloud applications means they can make IT someone else’s problem, getting all the benefit, with no cost.
Small businesses can compete on equal terms with big business by deploying cloud applications, getting the benefit from applications (that would traditionally require massive capital investment) at affordable prices.
With thanks to Darren Deehan at injixo
Author: Megan Jones
Published On: 18th Feb 2015 - Last modified: 18th Dec 2018
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