Susan asks,
Can the cloud save my business money?
Businesses love to talk about moving to the cloud to save money, but it's not as easy as picking up a pile of clothes and moving it to the bed. Figuring out how the cloud will work best for a company takes time and proper research, and what works for one might not be the right solution for another.
The advantages of moving to the cloud are apparent across many industries and in businesses big and small. Larger organizations such as J.P. Morgan have their own private data centers, while mid-sized companies typically rent data center space. It's the small businesses, however, that keep their data center literally in a closet on their premises, says Kevin Schatzle, CEO of dinCloud, which helps companies move over to the cloud.
SEE ALSO: 3 Essential Tips for Using the Cloud
"When businesses keep their data in a data center, they are basically buying space — then they have to buy their own equipment, pay for networking, power & cooling, electricity and have a contract in place – as you can imagine, the costs add up," Schatzle says. "Plus, you'd also need to factor in the cost of hiring someone just to manage the related IT operations, and there's also ongoing maintenance and upgrade fees."
But cloud-hosted solutions are a major way to trim down those costs: "This monthly reduction alone creates a real return-on-investment in businesses, especially small businesses, where there never used to be one," he added.
In addition to reducing startup expenses and preserving capital, working in the cloud makes it easier for telecommuting. According to analyst firm IDC, the world's mobile worker population will reach 1.3 billion by 2015. With more people working away from the office, there will be a greater need for efficient and affordable tools to be just as productive as when you're sitting in the office.
Kevin O'Brien, enterprise solution architect of cloud security company CloudLock, says businesses can save by using certain apps.
"An often overlooked benefit from an organizational move to the cloud is how employees can often find, 'install' and use third party applications that are not reliant upon centralized IT research or investment," O'Brien said.
For example, the Google ecosystem offers applications via the Chrome and Google Apps marketplaces for productivity and project management can be brought into an organization by staffers.
"For Google, as with other cloud providers who allow for third-party applications to programmatically leverage their authentication and data storage features, this is a tremendous aspect of the total return on investment for 'going cloud,'" he said. "By letting users freely identify, test and use applications that work for them and meet practical needs, the most efficient and effective apps will emerge, and costs associated with purchasing and supporting multiple different solutions to common problems will fall by the wayside."
Traditional businesses aren't the only ones that can save with the cloud. For the second year, the U.S. Open is entirely powered by the cloud. With an event that goes from nothing to powering everything with a small period of time — and so many fans tuned in worldwide with the second screen experience — it's a natural step for the organization to save this way.
"If the U.S. Open wasn't running on a cloud, it wouldn't make as much sense financially," said Ric Telford, VP of IBM Cloud Services. "A lot of companies today own a lot of servers running at 10% capacity because they are dedicated to a particular function or application, but the cloud helps you leverage your compute tower better because it helps you pull servers and makes it multi-purpose. Compute towers can be used for purposes instead of just sitting idle and paying for it when you don't need it."
How is your company using the cloud to save money? Let us know in the comments below.
Image: Flickr, KarinDalzil