7 Reasons Why Your Hybrid Workspace Needs Cloud

Picture this – You have an early morning deliverable and you can’t find that one file your colleague shared over email. It is extremely important for you to access the file because the deliverable is incomplete without it.   

So, you try different keywords in your mail, search for the file in your folders and try different methods but don’t find anything.  

You give up and make 100 calls to your colleague but he/she/they is/are sleeping because it’s 6am. How would you handle this situation?   

Well, this won’t happen in the first place if you have a cloud system that backs up all your files and helps you share them online.   

It would literally take you a few seconds to search for it.    

Countless businesses have shifted their entire processes to the cloud by now. Last year, we witnessed an unpredictable turn of events that led us to completely change the way we work. More and more companies have started looking for cloud-based workspaces.   

In fact, the global cloud computing market is expected to reach $623.3 billion by 2023. 

“As CIOs think more strategically about how to lay the foundations to support a return to growth, it is clear that the move to digital and associated services will play a big role for organizations in the future. Cloud adoption, therefore, becomes a significant means to stay ahead in a post-COVID-19 world focused on agility and digital touchpoints.”

– Sid Nag, Research Vice President at Gartner

What are the benefits of shifting your workspace to the cloud?   

1. Make collaboration easier

This is an era of remote work. Companies are planning to follow a hybrid work model, if not fully remote.  

Real-time access to data from any part of the world is now a compulsory requirement for businesses. Any delay in sharing and obtaining access to data could disrupt operations and cost companies millions.    

With stakeholders scattered around the country (or even world) working on their own projects, at their own time, it’s increasingly important to pull everyone together to facilitate sharing of ideas, inputs and documents quickly.   

The factor that enables this dynamic, collaborative workspace is a cloud system.   

2. Ensure information security

Remote working has increased concerns around data security as people have shift from a secure office network to a private home network, which may not have proper security protocols in place.   

A safe and secure IT system is something that you need to protect yourself against any online attack. Not only this, most clients/partners demand this as a compulsory requirement before beginning any collaboration with you.  

Considering this, security should be a top priority when selecting a cloud system provider.   

3. Save time and increase productivity 

According to an experiment conducted by Walmart.com, there was a 2% increase in conversion with every second of increased page speed.    

Imagine this – the whole organization is dependent on IT & their speed is directly proportional to the IT system.    

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So, if you miss a minute or an hour if your main server is down, the whole organization pays for that time-lag.   

Now, imagine if this happens on a weekly basis, the idle time in your organization will increase exponentially, resulting in a drastic decrease in productivity.  

The best way to avoid this is by using cloud systems, which are at your service 24/7. Your cloud solutions provider will focus on ensuring that systems function smoothly and help you handle any issues as your employees focus on the work that matters.   

4. Increase flexibility 

With a cloud-based system, you can manage data easily irrespective of the infrastructure that you choose, wherever you may be based. The “pay as you use” principle is used by cloud providers to accommodate your services according to your business.   

You can customise applications or scale the scope of services based on the size and nature of your organisation, whether you’re a large, multinational banking institution or an SME in the F&B industry.    

Seasonal businesses can temporarily increase their capacity and upscale or downscale depending on the business requirements at that point in time easily.   

All you need is an Internet connection and the world is yours to rule!   

5. Increase accessibility 

Cloud-hosted platforms can be accessed 24/7 from anywhere, on any device. You could be in a taxi headed to the airport and still be participating in a video conference meeting with the Sales team on your iPhone. This is possible with the help of cloud calling, virtual meetings and other collaboration tools.  

There is also a provision for offline access to your documents if you don’t have access to an internet connection. You can collaborate on projects at any given time and your input will be shared as soon as your device is connected to the internet.   

6. Make it easier for everyone to use 

Integrating the cloud systems would also help your team streamline the applications that are used, so you don’t have to jump from one platform to another. This makes it easy for you to access and share information and saves a lot of time which would have otherwise been consumed by navigating through the myriad of apps that are available.   

You can also add automation to tasks like call routing and customer communications so that the customer support team can focus on more urgent tasks. Data can be collected from these automated systems to streamline your processes and simplify operations.    

7. Increase the efficiency of your IT staff

With cloud software, server maintenance, bug fixes are managed by your solutions provider. Updates are also automatically pushed to your employees company-wide, ensuring that you have the latest features implemented.  

Any issues can be raised as a ticket to your cloud solution provider, preventing your IT team from being overwhelmed with requests from the entire staff.   

This frees up their time to focus on other innovations that can help improve company performance.  

Who knew that we would have to stay inside our house for a whole year without any chance of getting back to the office?   

Had there not been cloud systems to the rescue, working from home would have been really difficult.   

Now, as we start moving towards a hybrid arrangement, the way we work may not change much from the past year (except having to move our workstations back and forth… *sigh*), but with cloud technology, we’ll be better positioned to optimise our systems to increase efficiency and productivity even further.