You’ve probably heard people talk about using “the cloud” or “cloud computing” or saving documents “in the cloud.” But what does this actually mean? 

Cloud computing refers to any software or service that doesn’t run locally on your computer.

Look around your office. Assuming you are not a Law or Accounting firm, do you have an in-house lawyer or accountant? I expect that for most of you the answer to this question is no. These are business functions that do not require an in-house expert but are instead outsourced to individuals or firms outside your business that specialise in these areas.

There’s this fantastic thing called “The Cloud” that we all keep hearing about online and in commercials. It usually sounds like this amazing entity that can do wonderful things to make your life and business better.

But where does your data really go?

The simple answer is that it’s on a server that instead of being in your office, is in a datacentre somewhere.

As many businesses look at new ways to increase profit and lower costs the discussion of Cloud computing is often brought forward as a way to do both. The term “the Cloud” can be a scary one to those who don’t understand what it truly means so let’s clear up some of the more common myths.

If you have not asked or looked into how your email works lately it may be worth a look. Many small businesses today are still relying on email that uses Post Office Protocol (POP) to transfer critical business communications between clients and staff.

One of the big benefits of Cloud storage is how much it can offer you to protect your critical business data from the most common types of data loss and less common disasters.

If you do not have an offsite backup, there are tons of options out there.

Microsoft is strongly encouraging its customers (pretty much everyone who owns a PC) to move to their Cloud-based Office 365 service for email and other Microsoft applications. In fact, there are now more organizations in North America hosting their email with Microsoft than not.

The more we all move our critical data to the Cloud the more we need to be conscious of how that data is being protected.

One of the reasons many businesses and charitable organizations move applications and data to the Cloud is to simplify their IT infrastructure.

We manage different Cloud Computing implementations every day for many clients but we regularly come across executives who are reticent to move parts of their business into the Cloud.

So I thought it might help to compile a list of reasons why many of our clients use Cloud Computing.