dell

matt smith

– Matt Smith, who works for Dell, says:

Even though in house data center storage capabilities are ever-increasing, business owners often find themselves in need of still more data storage.

The cloud offers virtually a limitless space for business owners who need more storage.

Expanding to the Cloud: The Benefits

  • Affordable – The cloud allows small businesses to take advantage of technologies that used to be out of reach price-wise. Business owners can choose—and pay for—the amount of cloud storage they need and upgrade or downgrade at any time.
  • Flexible – You can integrate cloud storage into your current in-house storage plan.
  • Secure –Many business owners worry that the cloud isn’t an option for them because they are worried about security. While it does take more planning to make the cloud secure, encryption, decryption key management practices, user roles, BYOD limitations, and smart server access policies can go a long way toward making sure your data cannot be accessed.
  • Scalable – You can get the amount of storage you need when you need it. This makes planning for and managing peak loads easier.
  • Easy to set up – You can get up and running on the cloud in a matter of hours.
  • Easy to customize – Talk to your provider about your needs and work with them to set up a solution that works with your business model.
  • Data is available from anywhere – Employees can work from home, at the airport, or anywhere else they need the information.

What You Need to Know About Moving to the Cloud:

  • When selecting a provider, make sure to do your due diligence. Down time can cost thousands of dollars, even for a brief outage.  Choose a provider with an excellent uptime and service record.
  • Diversifying your data is also important. Critical data should always be on-site, whether it is in the cloud or not. By storing on-site it ensures that you are protected in the case of an unforeseen problem or emergency.
  • “Data-center-in-a-box” options are a great choice for many businesses. With one single unit, these units can provide an easily managed, cost effective option for many businesses. These can be integrated with the public cloud to create a hybrid cloud in your organization.

Are you using cloud storage? What are your recommendations for how to make the most of it?

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Author Bio:

Matt Smith works for Dell and has a passion for learning and writing about technology. Outside of work he enjoys entrepreneurship, being with his family, and the outdoors.