October 24th, 2010
Companies are Moving to the Cloud
More and more people are becoming aware of the existence of the cloud. As it creeps into the American mind, more and more companies are wondering how to move some or all of their computing needs to the cloud to reduce costs and improve performance. There are plenty of options available.
Many are finding that using cloud-based applications and storage enables greater collaboration between employees in different offices and even countries. Some companies have moved all their training and certification testing to on demand cloud systems, which cuts back on the need for travel and setting up special training rooms or centers. Employees can use online demos to entice new clients or as a way to show progress of new development to superiors. IT departments can also set up a virtual lab or run all services from a single cloud environment.
The main advantage of the cloud is the reduced need to purchase and maintain hardware and software for employees. Using remote servers and applications that exist on the internet rather than on individual computers puts the responsibility for maintenance and upgrades on the cloud companies. Most services are pay-as-you-go so that companies only pay for the actual services and features they use, rather than having to invest in full suites that include options they don’t really need. Using the cloud also makes it much easier for employees to become remote workers, cutting down on the need to have a physical office.

