Throughout time, business practices and management have largely been driven and empowered by innovation. From the early days of the industrial revolution and mass production through to today and the impact computers are having on commerce, new technologies and practices have always helped streamline business processes and, in turn, aided managers and bosses to make their firms more productive.
The impact of tech on business
From simple emails and websites through to the e-com revolution and onto Big Data and smart business apps, modern technology is revolutionizing how businesses run.
Yet over the last decade or so, one particular technology has come to the fore and is revolutionizing operations in firms big and small the world over – namely, cloud computing. Despite being in its relative infancy, cloud computing is already having a major impact on how digitally oriented firms do business.
What is cloud computing and is it really the next big step in business evolution?
As a loose description, ‘cloud computing’ essentially refers to any computing process that is handled remotely then transmitted to the user, typically over the internet and usually via an on-demand subscription basis.
This access to vastly more powerful computer systems is empowering even the smallest of firms to tap into vast IT resources that would have previously been the preserve only of the world’s biggest and most financially sound companies.
Better yet, cloud tech is allowing firms this access at a fraction of the cost of investing in the hardware and software themselves. Using services like those provided by firms like avepoint.com, all firms can supercharge their IT with remotely hosted and powered technologies.
Cloud tech is everywhere – so much so, you likely use it already (perhaps without knowing)
When you look at the underlying structure of cloud computing, it should come as no surprise that companies of all types, in all sectors have jumped so readily on the model. The idea of purchasing and running resources externally with all the support, backup and scalability that comes with partnering with a cloud provisioning specialist should make it almost a no-brainer – so much so that firms like Netflix, Spotify and Twitter have shifted to cloud tech to power their services.
But the power of the cloud doesn’t just stop at streaming or social platforms. Rather if a firm that uses web tech to any degree migrates its digital services to the cloud methodically, it can also run apps, perform processing, allow user-based privileged access to documents, and so on.
Perhaps most impressively, these services are all accessible by any user with the right credentials, using any device (no matter how low-powered), from any location in the world where there’s an internet signal. When you consider pretty much all of us have internet-enabled smartphones and gadgets these days, this opens a huge market.
When you think of cloud tech in these terms, should it really come as any surprise that so many firms are seeing the cloud as the next big revolution, empowering both them and their clients?
