A technology entrepreneur says that start-up businesses can only be effective if they embrace cloud computing, rather than investing in their own computer hardware.
According to Gary David Smith from Prism IT Solutions, it is harder than ever for small firms to keep up with constantly evolving technology, and given the difficulty many businesses have accessing credit, cloud computing solutions are ideal.
“There is no money to invest in young people starting businesses and the banks aren’t lending. A Cloud-based business can be run on a shoestring with a king-hit result. Let’s embrace The Cloud as a launch pad. It’s full potential still hasn’t been realised.”
Rather than storing your business data on your PC hard drive, or a server, cloud computing enables you to store all your business data in a remote location, via the Internet. The first cloud applications were being used as early as 1999, although most people will have become aware of cloud computing via Google Apps, and webmail applications such as Hotmail and Gmail.
By using a cloud services provider, businesses do not need to concern themselves with capital investment, server security or upgrading their existing hardware. Given the competition between suppliers, you should be able to access a variety of cloud services for a fixed monthly fee, so you can also budget effectively.
The industry statistics are impressive; the global cloud computing market is expected to grow from £25.2 billion in 2011 to £149 billion in 2020, according to Forrester Research. In 2012-13, the UK’s cloud computing industry is expected to generate £5.79 billion in revenue, a 6.5 percent increase from 2011. Annual growth in the next five years is predicted to be 13.2 percent, reaching £10.8 billion.
According to the same research, 18% of the UK SMEs already use some kind of cloud computing service, with another 30% expected to use a service over the coming year. By 2015, it is expected to account for nine percent of the UK’s IT services and software market.
Smith says that you can save 90% of the technology costs of a ‘traditional’ business by turning to the cloud:
“This is money that can go back into servicing your customers and growing your business instead of buying hardware that’s liable to be obsolete in a few years. Scaling up with The Cloud is very fast, it’s fantastic,” Smith said.
Find out more in Bytestart’s overview of cloud computing, and how small firms can benefit from using it.
Tagged as:
cloud,
cloud computing