It’s clear to many cloud computing enthusiasts, as well as technology-savvy employees, that the cloud provides nearly innumerable opportunities for business. Use it to quickly share and edit documents among employees, clients and vendors, all without having to deal with the frustrating versioning issues that come with emailed attachments. Use it to securely store files, or to provide a substitute for a company VPN when staff members telecommute or temporarily work from home. Use cloud computing to track, edit, and save documents and other media files without clogging up your company’s server.
However, many businesses do not trust the cloud. They view cloud computing as less safe than their current servers, and are hesitant to allow employees to upload and share files among Dropbox, Google Docs or any other cloud solution.
Here are a few typical business objections to cloud computing, and how you can overcome them:
1. Cloud computing means anyone can see company files.
This is the top objection that most businesses make towards cloud computing. If you put company-sensitive information onto a cloud server, does that mean your files could accidentally become public? Could people hack into the cloud server and view your files?
This objection is understandable, but not based in fact or research. Read Cloud Business Review’s article on cloud security for specific details, which includes the statistic that 85 percent of IT professionals trust cloud security for businesses.
If you are worried about people being able to see and share company files, consider what happens every time you email a file to a client, or even to an employee. All it takes is a single email forward to set that file free into the larger World Wide Web. Cloud computing, on the other hand, offers password protection, read/write control, and instant analytics showing who has viewed the file. This is a much safer method of filesharing than forwarding company documents via email attachment.
2. Cloud computing makes us vulnerable to viruses.
The truth is that most viruses enter business servers through much simpler methods, such as employee email. For example: sophisticated phishing attacks now mimic company emails, spoofing your office email address and sending trustworthy-looking messages such as “Please read this new company policy” to your entire staff. These messages include virus-laden attachments, but your internal IT staff is usually savvy enough to recognize these emails as threats before they spread.
At present, cloud computing is not a common method of spreading viruses. However, hackers are always developing new, more sophisticated techniques. Make sure your company regularly updates its antivirus software, and specifically choose an antivirus software for business. This will catch the viruses and malware that make it into your company’s system.
3. Cloud computing might accidentally erase our files.
There’s very little risk of losing a file via cloud computing. If your company loses files, it’s because an employee accidentally deletes them, not because the cloud server hiccups and suddenly erases your data. Learn more by reading Cloud Business Review’s article Why Cloud Technology Means You May Never Lose A File Again.
In fact, you are often able to store files in the cloud that would not otherwise fit on your company server. If your server is already 90% full with documents and files dating back 20 years or more, it’s time to think about offloading some of that responsibility to the cloud, instead of deleting files on your company server to make room for new ones.
In short: cloud computing is safe, secure, and efficient, and it is an ideal solution for any business that needs to share documents among internal or external stakeholders. If people in your office are hesitant to embrace cloud computing, share this article to overcome their objections.
