Cloud services are programs that run on the Internet instead of your local computer. They can be accessed on any device with an Internet connection. This means you can access your cloud services almost anywhere: at the office on your computer, at home on your iPad, or at the jobsite on your smartphone. What’s more, you’re probably already using cloud services everyday! Gmail or Outlook.com, online banking, and Dropbox are all examples of everyday cloud services.
How do you go about picking the right cloud services for your business? Here are several tips you might find helpful.
Seek advice
Do you have any trusted advisors, friends, or family that you often turn to about computer problems? Ask their advice: What services do they recommend and why? Do they have any opinions about cloud services you may be considering? You can also talk to us. At Aerorock we specialise in helping small business transition to cloud computing.
Try before you buy
Most cloud services offer 2-4 week free trials, use them! Take your time to have a play and determine if the service fits your needs. Is the service intuitive to use? Can you easily import your existing data? Add accounts for any employees that would regularly use the service and ask their opinion. Don’t be afraid to trial multiple services in order to find one that provides the ideal mix of features and ease-of-use for your business.
Practice due diligence
If you’re considering using a cloud service to store business critical or private information, you need to ensure that your cloud service offers adequate safeguards. The Privacy Commissioner recently released a “cloud computing checklist for small business” to help business owners assess the safety of cloud services. For a busy small business owner, finding answers to these questions is not always easy. That’s why we decided to release our internal reports on cloud services for free on our CloudCandle.com site. These reports contain the answers (with citations) to questions that we, and the Privacy Commissioner, urge small businesses to ask.
Cloud computing can be very rewarding, but it’s important to be fully aware of what you’re getting into. So seek advice, try before you buy, practice due diligence, and let cloud computing revolutionise the way you do business.
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