The Cloud Industry forum found in 2014 that 86% of small and medium sized enterprises had adopted some form of cloud-based technology within their IT system. Over half of the businesses polled in the survey said that they expected cloud-based services to take over all of their IT estate “at some point soon” with 16% saying “as soon as possible”.

Cloud systems have moved on from their initial buzz to becoming an integral part of the modern British business. This has created an unusual paradigm within the business world that gives newer, smaller companies an advantage over the old large scale institutions.

Businesses that have dominated their market for decades, or even centuries have found themselves tied down by ‘legacy’ technological systems – this is something a SME doesn’t have to worry about.

Because of the proliferation of the technology and effective businesses offering up the benefits of the cloud at a scalable price,  the business community has changed forever. These systems, that utilise; the easy movement of data and content; keep track of finances automatically and; allow instant communication globally, used to be exclusively available to the big firms that could afford such a privilege; not anymore.

All of this means that, for a brief timeframe, your small business may be able to become more technologically advanced than your larger competitors who cannot achieve the flexibility that comes with the nature of being a SME.

The ability to use the cloud to identify new opportunities and efficiencies isn’t just for the new kids on the block – the key is determining exactly where the cloud can deliver the greatest value. There are three qualities the cloud brings to IT: first is scale – the ability to handle almost limitless volumes of data in milliseconds. Second is ubiquity, as cloud solutions are available anywhere, on any device. The third is user centricity, as the technology should be easy for all employees to get to grips with.

At the turn of the millennium it would have been unthinkable that you could start a small business with very little capital expenditure, and yet within a few hours, have a capability rivalling that of world-leading large enterprises; but as we march forward through the twenty first century this is the new reality of the modern world. As a matter of fact, your use of the cloud may even enable you to offer a slicker, faster and less staff-intensive service than those larger corporations can hope to provide.

When you consider these three points it’s clear that the cloud should be on the agenda in some way for businesses of any size to gain the advantage that they need. For help and assistance in setting up your cloud based IT network please give us a call.