Many SMEs are weary of committing to the cloud, but security fears should not be a factor
Cloud computing may be a popular buzzword in the IT sector and has been for a couple of years, but some small- and medium-sized businesses are still slow to adopt cloud services as their main document storage and management solution.
But as icomplete.com managing director Stuart Hibbert notes, the pros of cloud computing – including the increased level of security that comes from outsourcing server maintenance to a third-party and the speed of setting up cloud solutions – far outweigh the cons.
"Cloud computing has been around for a few years now," says the expert. "The main way in which it is starting to improve is there is a lot more adoption and acceptance of cloud computing than there was a couple of years ago. Most people are now using the cloud.
"More web applications are coming through to extend out the services to other parts of the business. For example, after using cloud computing you can set up in a matter of minutes. You haven’t got server to set up, software to maintain. The speed to adopt cloud computing services is significantly quicker than if you were to do it yourself."
And as the expert notes, the security concerns that many SMEs cite as being a major factor in their reluctance to adopt cloud services are no longer an issue thanks to technological leaps and bounds made in the sector in the past two years.
"There are always question marks around security and the majority of SMEs are looking to ensure that their data is as secure as it can possibly be," says the expert. "But in many instances, the good providers of cloud services out there take security extremely seriously.
"They abide by all of the rules of the Data Protection Act. Security is tight and generally speaking, much tighter than many of these SMEs would actually have for themselves."