by Hannah Barrett, on May 4, 2021
From convenience, to customization, to cost savings, to having one central source for analytics, there are many great benefits to storing your data in the cloud. Let's take a look at five of the key benefits.
1.) Cost Savings
Only pay for storage on an as-needed basis. As can be seen in the capacity/utilization curve below, the cost of cloud storage matches closely with the amount of demand, as opposed to the ratio of cost and demand for physical storage space, which does not. No need for constant storage management and purging data, which ends up costing more in labor than the raw cloud storage space. Skip the step functioning cost of on premises, where each time you need more storage you have to buy ahead, and end up paying for more than you may end up using, not to mention the cost of expansion and labor to do so.
( http://www.opengroup.org/cloud/cloud_for_business/p6.htm )
Outsourcing a cloud storage provider can greatly reduce annual operating costs. Having your own internal resources and support for data storage can be much more cost effective without the need for physical hardware and storage space. Focus your time and attention on your customers, and decision-making, rather than the labor of powering and running servers. Only pay for what you need, as you need it. Rather than paying for data centers and servers ahead of time that you may or may not end up needing, cloud storage allows you to custom-fit to your specific data needs throughout your data journey.
2.) Use-ability and Accessibility
Cloud services come with an easy-to-use interface with drag and drop features, so you can easily access, view, and move your data. No specialist administrators required, the knowledge of cloud servers is widespread and easy to learn; there is lots of information and training resources out there. Any format of data is compatible, and there is a nearly unlimited scale for you to share data within. This ease of accessibility also gives you the ability to act much more quickly, as new IT resources are a click away and can be accessed by your developers in minutes rather than weeks. This allows for more proactive and timely action and decision-making.
3.) Security & Governance
Through simple administration (no custom coding) you have the option for your data to be saved across multiple servers or just one location based on your preferences. There is no need for an additional disaster recovery location, disaster recovery is built in to these preferences. Cloud storage can save your data across thousands of servers, so even if one crashes, your data will still be safe. Cloud storage providers go to extra lengths to make sure that your data will be safe. Having all of the data saved across your regions facilitates this.
4.) Collaboration
Data files can easily be sent, and access can be shared with other users. Users can collaborate and edit in real time on the same files from wherever they are. This allows you to provide a better experience for your customers. Your customers will be satisfied with the consistency of having one single version of the truth feeding into the information that they then relay to their customers. You don't have to worry about multiple copies of data floating around, or anyone working from information that is out of date. Everyone can view the same single version of the truth at the same time.
5.) Automation
Most cloud storage can be set up with scriptable infrastructure with seamless integration into on-premises systems. Personalize what you want backed up, and when, and the cloud will take care of daily backups automatically. No manual or physical handling is required, so you can focus your resources and energies elsewhere, and know that the cloud has it handled.
Cloud storage is safe, reliable, and cheaper than setting up and running your own storage. Once you have the right cloud storage set up for you by an expert, you will have access to all of these benefits.
If these benefits sound attractive to you,
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