As with most emerging technologies, people were initially skeptical about uploading their information to a digital cloud. The very idea of sending personal or business-related data to a third party data storage entity caused many to wonder if their data was truly safe. With numerous companies having sensitive data compromised by their own employees, this has caused many forward thinking business owners to take cloud-based data storage and IT services more seriously over the last few years. As vast volumes of data have moved from personal and business computers to cloud-based services, the initial skepticism people expressed has experienced a major shift towards broader acceptance of cloud technology. According to CNBC, more small and mid sized corporations have moved to cloud-based services to better fight cyber terrorism threats. While this has demonstrated a major trend in improving data security for these companies, critics still warn that it is important to make sure the cloud services a company relies on are being offered by a reputable company. But, cyber attacks only constitute a fraction of the reasons why companies turn to cloud-based services to more efficiently augment operations. The following issues constitutes other cloud-related business trends being motivated by corporate needs.
Making Scalability Affordable
As a company’s IT needs increase, it becomes evident that the cost of purchasing new equipment and hiring employees to meet such growth needs increases as well. Both these factors become expensive as a company’s needs keep increasing in line with its growth rate. To reduce costs in both areas, companies have turned to cloud IT services, citing this approach as an affordable option, to accommodate their scalability needs. Another great cloud-based cost savings effect fueling this trend is achieved by the amount of space being saved. The space that is saved, by not needing to house more equipment and employees, makes it possible for companies to operate out of smaller buildings. Additionally, the fact that cloud-based services makes it easier for employees to work from home also helps to push businesses towards this cloud-related trend in their daily operation.
The Cloud-Based Trend of Reducing Operational Friction
As cloud services extend into more areas of corporate operations, this generally improves the ebb and flow of how a business operates. From automated cloud-based logistics to improvements in cloud maintained communications, many procedures that used to slow down operations, creating operational friction, now run automatically, faster and more efficiently. This means that businesses spend more time doing business, rather than being slowed down by procedural glitches.
Medical Companies Moving to Cloud-Based Practice Management Software
Practice management software utilizes a digital approach to the daily tasks of a typical medical office. From monitoring patient demographics to ensuring an efficient course of billing management procedures, cloud-based PMS software allows a medical practice to run like a well oiled machine. With PMS software available as a cloud service, this makes using PMS software even more of an attractive trend in the medical industry. One of the major advantages comes from being able to operate multiple medical offices from a single cloud-based service; thus, making access to patient records far easier to maintain in transit or across multiple locations.
Mobile Cloud-Based Trends
What many companies are excited about is that the cloud makes it possible for companies to more easily interact with customers through the consumer’s own mobile devices. With cloud-based deployment being a hot and trending concept, otherwise small companies can virtually go global with their latest mobile app in minutes. According to Amazon, since users download a mobile app from a cloud, rather than the company’s in-house servers, this dramatically cuts down on the latency time during heavy volume deployment situations. In turn, customers get the sense that a company operates well because of how fast deployment occurs.
Conclusion
Cloud-based services, despite having an uncertain beginning, have become a main participant in trends involving modern global mobile-communication and business operations. As the use of cloud-based services increases in scope, providing companies with easy solutions to major scalability and cost-related issues, it is easy to see why such cloud dependent business trends will continue well into the future. What may be even more promising is how these trends demonstrate the need for a greater reliance of industries on full service cloud oriented industry specific software packages which fully outline a proper workflow for directing the operations of individual businesses.