What Every Business Owner Needs to Know About Cloud Computing Management
Cloud computing is far more than just some industry buzzword. It has changed the face of modern business for organizations of all sizes, as well as for the individuals who work for and with these organizations.
It’s a family of technology that is being utilized by small mom-and-pop shops, small internet startups, and multinational mega-corporations alike because it allows for a more flexible, agile, and cost-effective way to handle almost everything that goes into running a successful business.
But what does any of this all mean from a very practical standpoint?
How can you best manage the cloud computing component of your business on a day-to-day basis in such a way that is both manageable, in a genuine way, and scalable for when your company continues to grow and evolve?
How can you keep tabs on all the moving parts without getting overwhelmed?
On and Off the Device
There is the common misconception when it comes to cloud computing. Many people assume this means that all the “computing” is “up there” in the cloud, so from an IT management perspective, the administrator only needs to worry about what’s “up there” in the server racks.
And that’s not the case. There’s still the end user on some device, and from a management perspective, companies need to keep tabs on those devices.
The common challenge would have been to go to each user with each device and check on them individually in a physical, in-your-hands kind of way. This can be wildly disruptive to workflow and mostly impractical with today’s remote working paradigm.
Instead of having to walk through this manual process, a solution like Cloud Management Suite would come in handy, as it automatically detects where updates are needed and also to patch up any security vulnerabilities visible.
With cloud management now on the mind of more business owners, it’s essential to have a platform and solution in place that allows for complete control across all devices — both inside and outside of a network from the cloud. At the same time, such solutions also offer immediate usage, with no need to download or install any software.
Employees, contractors, collaborators, and partners want to have much more say and control over the devices they choose to use for work. While one employee is far more comfortable using an iPhone on a day-to-day basis, another employee may prefer to use his Google Pixel. The person working in the graphic design department may opt for a MacBook, while the accountant works best within a Windows environment.
While they each have their software preferences to perform the work best they need to do, everyone both inside and outside of the network is still the responsibility of the IT department. This includes not only managing the data and the resources in the cloud, but also the software and hardware in the hands of individual users
Software Updates and Security Patches
The good news is that workers are no longer bound to a single device placed on a single desk in a separate office at a single location. Whether they’re working from home, taking off for a sales presentation on the other side of the country, or meeting with suppliers halfway around the world, they can log into everything they need remotely from their device of choice. That makes for an incredibly agile and flexible work environment that’s almost wholly virtual.
With the many recent data leaks and what seems like a new hacking report in the news daily, it’s important to make sure your software is up to date at all times. Manual updates are excellent, but automatic is even better. However, this also means that you do not and will not have physical access to every device all the time to push out critical software patches and software updates. These types of attacks are also growing rampant in the world of cryptocurrency, which is supposed to be one of the safest areas of data and finance to be in. This is why it’s so important to have everyone on your team to be running the same and the latest version of everything. Tools that are on cloud computing management platforms can alleviate IT headaches in this way because the deployment can be handled remotely and instantly. You no longer need to spend time and resources in-house to manage it all.
So, the essential thing to note here is that more analytics, management and software driven platforms are becoming self-learning and are now updating themselves when needed, instead of relying on the manual action. The benefits here is that any business or brand is running off a solution, no longer needs to worry about making sure they are updates and safe at all times — which is already the case when the platform knows when to update and protect itself.
Always Up-to-Date
One of the more favored aspects of cloud computing, the use of which is incredibly widespread among regular consumers and businesses alike, is cloud storage. From a collaborative perspective, this has been a tremendously positive development.
Gone are the days when multiple versions of the same document would be floating between multiple users on multiple computers. Jane might be working on one version of the sales proposal, but John could be working on a different version, and there would be no obvious or easy way to merge the changes they were making. With collaborative tools like Google Drive, where files are shared in a real-time environment, and any changes are recorded in case they need to be reverted, this is no longer a problem.
All businesses should utilize cloud storage for many reasons. In addition to collaborative benefits, this means that if a device gets lost, stolen or damaged, the files saved on it are not lost. They’re all saved — and the latest version at that — in the cloud and can be easily retrieved. Similarly, when upgrading from one device to the next, there’s no need to re-compile and re-download all those files either, as they can be accessed on an as-needed basis. Data loss risk is minimized, because the data is stored off-site, oftentimes on redundant servers.
This eliminates the need for costly on-site infrastructure, reduces overall costs for IT maintenance, and minimizes utility costs and carbon footprints instantly.
Fewer headaches and less stress mean you can focus on other matters pertinent to running a successful business.
Everywhere and Anywhere
Indeed, the power of cloud computing rests in its almost ethereal nature. While the individual apps on individual terminals still need to be managed for compliance and security, the data does not need to rest on a single device anywhere. And because cloud computing is theoretically scalable to fit businesses of almost any size, it means, you do not have to deal with costly infrastructure upgrades along the way. It’s a solution that grows with you, and you can also be sure you’ll always have the latest version too.
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