How do you know if your business needs cloud storage? If you’ve been carrying on as normal with paper documentation or storing your documents on an internally-hosted server, the temptation can be there to carry on. After all, isn’t it going to be a hassle to switch over? Surely it’s better to just keep doing things the way you’ve always done them?
Of course, the best businesses will always be those that don’t just stick with the way they’ve always done things, because changing can be what helps take them to the next level, as long as the decision is the right one. And switching to Cert-Trace® for your document digitization and document archiving is definitely the right decision.
So what are the main reasons why businesses need cloud data storage? In this blog we’ll look at the top ten…
How to know when your business needs cloud storage
If any – or all – of these apply to you, it means that your business needs cloud data storage:
1. Spending too much money on infrastructure
Hosting all of your documentation on an internal IT infrastructure or physical data center is expensive. Not only do you have the initial set-up costs, but you also need to keep maintaining them, employing people to make it work and fix it when it goes wrong.
This is even more complicated if your current tech stack and storage systems have evolved with varied solutions that don’t work well together and that you’re paying for individually. This is why you need a much more cost effective solution and that’s the cloud.
2. You’re outgrowing your storage solution
Every company wants to grow, making more money, getting more clients, taking on more staff, etc. But if you didn’t choose the right cloud storage solution this can be a problem. The last thing you need when you’re onboarding a major new client is to realise that you’re running out of storage space.
If you’re growing really quickly, you need cloud storage for enterprises, giving you the ability to scale up just as quickly and efficiently, without being held back by dated storage solutions.
3. You’re having paper document storage problems
Storing everything on paper might have worked fine in the 19th century but life moves on and so does technology. From the risk of natural disasters to security leaks to the costs of physical storage space there are plenty of paper document storage problems that could be holding your business back.
It’s certainly an inefficient way to store important data and makes document sharing much more limited than it needs to be. So maybe it’s time for small and medium businesses to look to the future and move to the cloud.
4. Your storage solution is slowing you down
One major issue with paper documentation storage or outdated tech solutions is that it can be painfully slow to find what you need when you need it. Working out where a crucial piece of information is stored, who can access it and how to share it with the people who need it all affects your response time.
So whether it’s needed for a strategic decision, to respond to a customer query or just to keep things running smoothly, you need a cloud storage solution for business to help you get there quickly.
5. You’re lacking flexibility
The pandemic changed the way businesses work with staff working remotely and while some have forced people back into the office, there’s no doubt most have had to embrace a more flexible way of working.
This has also meant needing to have more flexibility with document storage so files can be accessible to the right people, wherever they are. Only a cloud storage solution offers this level of true flexibility, so if you don’t have it, you’re being held back.
6. You’re struggling to find tech people to manage it for you
According to a Gartner survey, 64% of executives said that the biggest barrier to them adopting new technologies was the struggle to find the right IT talent. In 2020 that number was just 4%, which shows how dramatically the tech skills shortage has hit in recent years.
So it could be time-consuming and increasingly costly to find the right people to manage an internal storage solution for you, so why not simplify things and let someone like Cert-Trace® manage it all for you?
7. You’re at risk from hacks and data loss
One of the most essential considerations for any business is how to keep its most important data and documentation safe and secure. Keeping it on paper might protect you from digital hacks but not from someone physically breaking in and accessing it manually, while internal servers can certainly be hacked.
A blockchain-based cloud structure is by its very nature the most secure cloud storage solution with your documentation protected and unable to be tampered with or accessed by anyone who shouldn’t see it.
8. You’re worried about compliance
Compliance and regulatory issues can be a major headache for businesses of any size, especially with complex and dated legacy technology hindering their efforts to comply when it comes to document storage. If you need to archive certain files for several years, there’s no safer or simpler place to keep them than in our cloud.
9. You want to cut down your carbon footprint
Today, net zero and carbon footprints are something most businesses need to consider and storage can be a major factor, particularly if you are using energy-intensive physical servers to manage this. Using cloud storage is much more energy-efficient, which is better for your reporting and better for the planet too.
10. You want to take your business to the next level
In the previous crucial signs we’ve mentioned several ways that a legacy storage solution can hold you back. It can add unnecessary time to small and big jobs, it can make working in a flexible and agile way more frustrating and difficult, it can waste money and can leave you vulnerable to hacks or data loss.
All of this could be preventing you taking your business to the next level and even if you get there, it could hold up your growth by not scaling with you.
Keeping on doing things the way they’ve always been done is the perfect way to slow down your growth and progress because it prevents you from finding new and better ways to run your business.
Taking the leap to the cloud frees up time and money, makes it easier to collaborate and limits your exposure to potential security risks.
So if you’re ready to start taking your business to the next level, why not get in touch with us today on info@tracert.digital?
