There's everything from VoIP business phones to web teleconferencing software that can be used to keep employees connected and productive. The latest technology that has now become affordable for small businesses is cloud computing. You'll find that there are multiple benefits to using this service for your growing company.
One way cloud computing can be used to reduce the costs of your business operations is to have your business site stored on a cloud server. Having a website hosted on your own server or that of a provider can quickly become too expensive, especially if your business is growing exponentially. The more traffic your website brings in, the more of a toll your servers will endure. This could cause your site to go down, which could cause you to lose business and money. Eventually, you'd have to buy more servers or pay for more server space from the provider. To save you money, you can use a cloud service to manage your website hosting with little to know downtime and at a fraction of the cost of doing it yourself.
There are many different forms of malware that have been released recently. One that has been causing a lot of harm to users is a virus called Ransomware. This tricks users into giving out their personal and financial information, thinking that it's required to have their screens/account unseized by government entities like the FBI. You will need to have an antivirus software solution that you can use to help prevent this from becoming a problem for your website. When you have a virus and malware protection that has a largely cloud-driven signature database, as well as an offline signature database, it can make your site very secure.
During employee breaks and sometimes while they're working, sites are visited that scan produce malware that infects the company's server. If your small business lacks Web browsing control, you're going to need a DNS driven content control that will enable you to monitor Web activities and block access to certain sites that can expose malware. This can be used on your existing routers, so no special equipment is required. You will then be able to protect and monitor Web traffic within your office. This is just another form of cloud computing, which can be used to protect your customers and your business assets.
Whether you're sending emails or instant messages back and forth, you're going to need a service that will enable you to do so reliably. A lot of the free email and IM services out there are unsecure and sometimes have lags and downtimes. To help ensure that emails reach inboxes on time and that communication can happen in real time as needed, you will want to use a paid service.
There are services offered by Google and Microsoft Office, which can be used for this purpose. The rates they offer are in line with the budget of most small businesses as well. Their cloud messaging services also offer more, like with Office 365, which come with office productivity suites. The goal of both services is to provide businesses with maximum uptime.
A big part of most businesses is sharing files with one another. If you are mobile or have mobile workers, you will need a secure way to share documents, since your business servers aren't being used. This can cause a security hazard for your business, which can be countered with the use of cloud services like Dropbox and Drive, both offered by Google. Microsoft also offers a way to share files through the cloud. Both services are very affordable and secure for small businesses and allow instant sharing and editing of files and documents.
Smartphones and tablets are a big part of businesses today, even small ones. This means that at any given moment, employees are accessing business data wherever they are. This is a great thing for boosting productivity for mobile employees, but how about for those who have been recently fired? With cloud computing, you can easily and quickly wipe their devices clean of any business data it contained and will eliminate its access to your company's files.
Using cloud computing for your business can be a great way to secure data, boost productivity and offer connectivity in a way that is efficient and affordable.
