How Can Cloud Services Work for Business?

The new IT buzzword on everyone's lips at the moment is 'cloud computing'. Cloud services, we are told, will eventually completely take over from traditional forms of data storage, for both personal and business users. But what is cloud computing, and how can it meet the needs of modern business?

Cloud computing is touted as a replacement to standard local area networks with a client-server set-up. Most businesses use client-server set-ups to ensure that all their users have access to the files and applications that they need to do their jobs. Ever-faster internet and a general move towards the use of online services has led to the development of the term 'cloud computing', to mean any online service that allows people to store and share data anywhere they like, rather than being reliant on accessing a particular network or PC. Services like Google docs are effectively cloud computing on a simple level. A particular user's cloud will include anything they store in online networks (from personal data to social media updates), and will connect to others' clouds.

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What about cloud services for business? Many of the cloud services intended for personal users are not always useful to business. That's where specialist business cloud services come in. Eager to capitalise on this brave new world of cloud computing, IT companies are developing a whole raft of cloud applications for business data storage and sharing. The advantage for businesses of using cloud applications over traditional applications is that they are available from anywhere, at any time, without the need for any physical software or severs. In other words, they meet the needs of an increasingly mobile, globalised workforce perfectly.

Of the most use to the majority of businesses are storage and backup services. These vary, but they are intended to allow users to store and back up all their files to the cloud, so that they can be accessed at any time by anyone. A member of staff who works from home would be able to access them just as easily as someone in the office would, just as they might log in to a webmail account. They should allow businesses to personalise privacy options and set up automatic synchronisation and emergency backup. Specialist applications are available too for particular business functions, such as finance applications and CRM systems. Each business can cherry-pick the applications which are right for them, creating their own personal cloud in just the same way as a home user would.

How Can Cloud Services Work for Business?

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