Does Cloud Computing Help You Save Money?

If you are asking yourself, "Does cloud computing help save you money?"You may just be ready to enter the spacious room of the cloud.Cloud computing allows a business to store its information off site through a cloud provider.The information isn't literally disappearing into the sky to sit on clouds with the angels; it is, instead, being stored by a hired company that has been able to purchase servers at a discounted price because of the economies of scales that it can use.It is these economies of scale that allow cloud computing to become feasible.

It used to be that any business that wanted to run a network of computers had to have a server or servers on site.The equipment required for servers is expensive for purchase, housing and maintenance, especially when a small business is trying to purchase one or two servers.
Aside from the cost of the server itself, it must be stored in a cool area, and they generally run 24 hours a day seven days a week.That takes a lot of electricity, and depending on where a company is doing business, electricity can be expensive.

If anything goes wrong with the server, someone has to be on hand to repair the problem.While most people are able to turn a server on and off when shown how, anything more complicated requires technical expertise that most people just haven't developed.To solve this problem, companies may hire their own Information Technology person to take care of the problem, or they may contract out with a company.If the person is in house, he or she must be paid a wage that is relatively high and be included in any offered benefits programs.Additionally, companies that cannot afford a top IT person may wind up with someone whose expertise is suspect.

Hiring an IT company to take care of the problem often means that the business loses out on possible profits while waiting for the team to respond.It may also mean that the people involve have to co-op someone on site to go to the physical server room to take care of the problem, or they may charge a fee to send someone out.That results in larger expenditures and lost time for whoever volunteered to be the server liaison.

Cloud computing removes the responsibility of the server and its room from the company's plate.That means no IT guy and no IT firm need to be hired - they are included off site with the servers.While this means the loss of U.S. jobs in the IT sector, it may also mean a healthier bottom line for the business.It is that bottom line that allows the business to provide more jobs in its respective job sector.

Cloud computing is generally charged as a fee for use process.A company that is looking to moving to the cloud should really look at its usage and what that would mean for the bottom line at the company.Some businesses may be better off purchasing the server, hiring the IT guy and housing the server on site.Most, however, will benefit from moving all of that off site.

By doing so, the business will achieve two other goals.There will be more space to use at the business' facility, and data will be stored off site - which is one of the tenets of disaster preparedness.These two items may be enough to push the decision between the two choices from on site to the cloud.If that is the case, the sky's the limit.