If you’re considering switching your document storage to the cloud, there will be many factors you’re thinking about. But two of the most important may well be time and money, so did you know that cloud storage helps businesses save money and time?
There’s no doubt that taking this decision is a big step for any business and one that does come with a cost attached in terms of the time it might take to digitize your documents as well as the financial aspect of paying for it.
But at Cert-Trace® we know that cloud storage solutions save money, so in this blog we’ll talk about the cost benefits of cloud storage as well as how document digitization can also save you valuable time that can be spent elsewhere, improving the productivity at your business.
How cloud storage helps businesses save money and time
So, what are the cloud storage cost savings you can expect to see? Here are some examples:
1. Energy costs
At a time when most businesses are looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint, cloud storage can be not just a cost-effective solution for your document archiving but also better for the environment especially when it comes to cloud storage for enterprises.
According to one report, cloud migrations have the potential to reduce energy consumption by 65% and carbon emissions by 84% compared to on-premises IT infrastructure. This is because there’s less hardware needed, a more efficient use of resources and less electricity needed to run internally-hosted physical servers.
At Cert-Trace® our innovative use of blockchain allows us to use a fraction of the energy used by contemporary blockchain, making our cloud storage services even more efficient and environmentally friendly at the same time, without compromising on speed or security.
2. IT costs
If you’re hosting all of your documents on internal servers based at your own premises, this might give the illusion of more control and security but it certainly comes with higher costs.
For one thing you’ve needed the upfront purchase of hardware costs, which will at some point need replacing or upgrading or expanding to meet your changing needs or simply because it is having technical issues. These ongoing costs can be unpredictable, meaning that it’s hard to forecast for when you might need to suddenly replace servers, so this can impact your cashflow at critical times.
Then there’s the ongoing costs, which doesn’t just mean the electricity needed to power the servers. There’s also the in-house IT experts needed to make sure everything is working as well as it can, fix any technical problems and troubleshoot issues staff might have with accessing the documents they need.
There’s also the matter of training for both these internal experts and potentially anyone who needs to use what can be complex and intimidating software and hardware to actually access the required documentation.
If you work with a cloud storage provider, all you’re paying for is the cost of cloud storage you’re receiving from them. Hardware and staffing is their responsibility and you can cut back on your own costs in these areas. Cloud storage is also scalable, so it can grow with your business, without you needing to upgrade your servers.
Even if you don’t currently use expensive IT hardware and are still using paper, with Cert-Trace®, your business can potentially save up to 90% of the costs associated with paper documentation by saving you money on paper, ink, printers, copiers and of course the physical storage space required to keep them safe.
3. Security costs
Another aspect of the more hands-on IT work around document sharing and storage is needing to make sure it’s all kept secure. This can mean paying internal staff to manage it, external consultations to advise best practice and of course the potential of large fines when something goes wrong and you get hacked.
If you’re a small or medium-sized business, your budget for security costs can only be so large, but imagine how much a cloud storage services provider would be spending and the levels of security available there. That’s why a cloud storage solution for business is the best bet, even before you get into the technicalities of the cloud that offer security advantages.
At Cert-Trace® your data would be stored in the world’s most secure cloud, with no-one able to access it without you sharing that access with them, while our blockchain technology means that it’s completely tamper-proof.
4. Regulatory costs
When it comes to data and documentation, storing things in the right way obviously comes at a cost, but storing them incorrectly can come with a much bigger cost even if the upfront pricing might be lower.
With Cert-Trace® you can meet regulatory compliance requirements easily, as we follow stringent aerospace standards, including: DIN SPEC 9012 Digital Certificate of Conformity (e-CoC), EN 9300 Long Term Archiving and Retrieval of technical product documentation, and SAE G31 Electronic Transactions for Aerospace FAA 8130-3/actual Change Order.
Complying with all of these yourself comes with various ongoing internal costs, while also ensuring that you avoid the potentially costly fines that can be imposed if you are found to be non-compliant.
5. Time savings
Along with the cost savings with cloud storage, it can also help you save time (and time is, of course, money). The efficiency it can bring to your business by making it so much easier to store, share and access documentation means that time doesn’t need to be wasted on tasks like these and can instead be spent on priorities and work that generates income.
This increased productivity does more than save money, it helps you earn more money. It opens up easier working across offices, countries, from home or work and adds flexibility and collaboration while also integrating with other applications simply. Compare that to all of the many paper document storage problems and you can see how a cloud storage solution for business can be so transformative.
It can also make it much easier to actually use the documentation for strategic purposes, opening up new possibilities that weren’t previously there, especially when it comes to handling large amounts of data.
So, as well as seeing that cloud storage helps businesses save money, you’ve seen that it can also help them to make more money, so why not get in touch with our Cert-trace® team at info@tracert.digital to find out more?
