These days, cloud storage is so cheap that you can have effectively unlimited hard drive space for extremely low per-user rates. What might that mean for your business?
It’s amazing how much computer technology has changed over the years, and especially how we’ve come to regard storage space. My first computer had a whopping twenty megabyte hard drive. These days, you’d be hard pressed to find a single business application that’s only twenty megs. Available storage space has increased exponentially over the last two decades, to the point that its now cheap and readily available in any quantity needed.
Services like Google Drive and Microsoft Office 365 routinely give 10+ gigs of cloud server space to each user, and that can be increased to 50 gigs or more easily.
The drive space is there. The only question is how you might use it…
How Unlimited Drive Space Can Benefit Your Business
1 – Never Lose A Customer Contact Record
Forget simply cataloging emails. With unlimited online space, you can simply archive any contact customers have with your company, including phone calls and physical letters. In the case of any dispute with a customer -or regulatory agency- you can have all the facts on hand and ready to offer up as evidence. Or, more positively, it means your service agents have far more resources to draw upon when trying to satisfy a long-time customer. Plus, regulatory burdens are growing by the day. It’s already common for regulators to require 5+ years of archived emails. Phone calls will likely soon follow.
2 – Robust Backup Options
The days of tape drives are long gone, and I think we’re all happy for that. Cloud based backups are more robust, can be performed more frequently, and can have far greater granularity. So you can backup pictures, stories, designs, drawings, recordings, excel worksheets, Powerpoints, Infographics or even videos. Important projects can be backed up every step of the way, so that they can instantly be reverted back to a previous form if needed.
Ever have a client say, “You know, we changed our minds. Can we do that thing you proposed six months ago?” Cloud-based backups turn this from a customer service nightmare into a “no problem!” proposition.
3 – More Creative Resources To Draw On
One of the most basic and beneficial uses for cloud servers is simply storing any electronic resources your workers might need to draw on in creating materials. Music, videos, CAD files, old advertisements, textures and meshes, or even entire code bases can be kept online and ready to be integrated into a project as needed.
Once you develop a robust online catalog, it can become an invaluable tool for any creative department.
Cloud Potential Is Unlimited
This is really only the tip of the iceberg. Companies are discovering new applications for their huge amounts of cloud storage space every day. The sky’s the limit with cloud storage, and every company can find their own ways to make it a productivity tool.
How about you? How is your company making use of cloud storage to improve operations?
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photo credit: perspec_photo88 via photopin cc