Joshua Ehiosun

The Ever-growing Importance of Cloud Technology and its Undeniable Relevance to Small Businesses The covid-19 pandemic has seen the downfall of many medium and small businesses. With the spread of the virus, many small businesses have had to switch to using cloud-related services. Though many organizations have been using them, the surge in small organizations switching to the cloud has been astonishing. According to statistical reports made by both Forbes and the hosting tribunal, 94% of businesses use a cloud service as of 2021. As the business world keeps changing, small business owners must seek alternatives to making their businesses better, faster, and safer. There are already numerous cloud technology applications that provide these solutions; however, there are also risks to using such services. In today’s article, we will be looking at the benefits of cloud services to small businesses and the risks using these services pose. Importance of Cloud Services. Ever since their creation, cloud technology services have proved their relevance. With many services like cloud storage, cloud backup, software as a service, and cloud hosting, problems with data handling and streaming plaguing small organizations are no longer existent. Though some services are better than others, many cloud application services focus on one thing, improving efficiency and time management. Essential Applications for Businesses. With the number of services out there, we must shed some light on some of the best cloud service applications available to small businesses. 1. Slack Standing for Searchable Log for All Conversation and Knowledge, SLACK is among the essential cloud service software for small organizations. This application makes things easy for organizations online by creating a channel that lets businesses efficiently handle their staff by dividing them into teams based on the specialization needed. Also, with a feature that allows for integrating over 1000 applications, one can perform complex tasks by simply dragging and dropping. 2. Google Drive Google Drive is predominantly the best backup solution for small businesses. Google Drive is a cloud storage application that comes as an all-in-one package with google docs, google sheets and google slides. The application comes with free 15-gigabyte storage, which increases when you buy a plan. Google Drive also comes with syncing making it possible to link email accounts and other online services together. 3. PayPal For small businesses, PayPal is the best solution for performing online money transactions. With a fantastic layout and powerful tools for sending and receiving money, PayPal has become the number one online application for businesses to handle money. PayPal can be integrated into websites as a plugin due to its universality. 4. Trello Trello has earned its place among the crucial online applications for small businesses due to its functionality. The online application allows teams to work collaboratively on a project cutting the cost of manually creating and organizing a team. We have seen the numerous benefits cloud service applications hold for small organizations from the list of applications above. Though cloud services are crucial to increased productivity, overdependence on them poses a massive risk to small businesses. Risks Businesses Face When Using Cloud Technology Services Even with the value they hold, cloud services have many risks attached to them. Though they are needed, it is always advisable for a business to never put up its core functionalities on a cloud service. Here’s why: 1. Cyber threats: A risk every cloud service faces is cyberattacks. Hackers and cybercriminals target cloud services frequently due to the volume of users and the tons of information present on the service. Though they are mostly unsuccessful, sometimes they succeed in infiltrating these services and stealing vital information on organizations 2. Lack of privacy: A major problem with cloud services is that a third party has access to all your information. Though this may not sound alarming, the fact that an organization handles users’ data and performs tests with it makes leaks a high possibility. Though risks exist in every cloud technology service, these services still ensure that you and your data are safe online. The world is ever-changing and with the advent of the internet, life has become easier and communication much faster. Cloud technology is here to stay and it will only get better in the future.