How Leveraging Cloud Solutions Drives Green Business Growth

Solo entrepreneurs, startups and multinational companies are all striving towards a common goal of green and sustainable business growth. Luckily, firms like Computers In The City can offer SMEs IT support services that are a critical component in developing smooth business operations which pave the way for consistent, green development and sustainable expansion.

With the growth of smart devices, mobile internet and digital markets, the number of people interacting with IT daily is growing exponentially. For businesses, such a trend makes it difficult to not adopt technology for both operations and expansion.

According to Gartner, the cloud computing market alone is expected to reach a value of over $400 billion by 2022, which in 2018 was worth less than half that amount. However, it isn’t just an increase in consumer adoption of technology, but also the global economic impact of the recent Covid-19 pandemic which is forcing businesses to adopt new digital techniques to make their business growth a reality.

Technology is bound to play a major role in the post-Covid 19 global economies, and the latest developments in cloud technology are increasing the number of cloud-based solutions that green businesses can avail.

Costs

Growing any green business requires expenditures on different fronts such as marketing, research, sales and so forth. Combined with the fact that day to day operations maintain a fixed cost as well, trying to save money in expenses can be challenging. Cloud services create more cost-effective solutions for green businesses when it comes to the cost of a specific task and the cost of capital employed. Rather than having to buy high-end machinery that may increase their carbon footprint, a small business can easily use a cloud-based service to achieve the same result for a fraction of the cost.

Similarly, instead of purchasing an entire e-commerce platform that won’t be fully utilized in a small-scale business, cloud services offer more relevant functionality at drastically lower rates. Personalized cloud solutions provide significantly more value for every dollar spent.

Scalability

A problem with purchasing a physical or software solution for a green enterprise is that it’s difficult to manage that solution when the business needs to scale sustainably. In case the business leans out, the platform becomes excessive, and in case there is an expansion, the resource becomes insufficient.

Cloud solutions are personalized and are a perfect fit for every occasion. Furthermore, they’re quick and easy to setup depending on the nature of the requirements. Prices vary with the level of service being used, meaning consumers only need to pay for what they need. Having a cloud solution means the business owner doesn’t have to worry about how the application will be sustainably scaled, finding appropriate personnel or managing its cost. They simply subscribe to the service and these stresses are outsourced.

Security

Most green businesses will either rely on an in-house IT expert or will need to hire a third-party service provider for their IT solutions, which includes security. In-house IT staff can be costly over time, and in many cases the individual hired isn’t necessarily a security expert. Fortunately, through cloud storage and cloud applications, the elements of data safety and security are already taken care of. Cloud services make security top priority, as a security breach could cost them their entire business. The level of safety cloud solutions offer is far higher than what any green business could employ on its own.

As business grows and expands, the need for security is an ever-increasing one.

Accessibility

Remote working and virtual business setups are gaining popularity due to our current physical circumstances under quarantine, as well as their environmental, economic, and functional benefits. Cloud solutions are a perfect fit for organizations already employing remote working, and for those who’d like to streamline their workflow. Cloud data is accessible from anywhere in the world, for any member of the business. This opens many opportunities for businesses and makes it possible to expand more efficiently and sustainably.

Having this level of access can play a large role in improving team collaboration, as well.

Without being restricted to one physical location – or needing to drive or fly to another location — businesses can hire from a global pool of human resource and also serve the global market.

Automation

Gone are the days when automation was a high-end business feature only used by big manufacturing setups and million-dollar enterprises. Through cloud services, even small tasks such as social media posting, emailing, updates and notifications and intra-company tasks can be automated.

These are small things which have a great effect on green business performance. Having great communication between staff and customers is key; when this becomes automated, it has significant benefits that resonate across the company. Everyone from staff, suppliers, customers and stakeholders’ benefit.

Recovery

Data loss, theft, damage or inaccessibility due to a shutdown are only some of the problems that can come up. Environmental and economic disasters are always a threat, but cloud solutions protect firms from these via disaster recovery features.

The last thing any business needs is a serious loss of data that can’t be recovered. This can put the business back to square one, and possibly mean a shutdown and/or bankruptcy. Even though disaster recovery and cloud backups may not be the primary service a business opts for in its cloud solution, it’s a very handy feature to utilize just in case.

Conclusion

Green businesses can gain a significant edge over competitors by utilizing cloud solutions. Not only can the right cloud provider help green businesses flourish and grow sustainably, it can also decrease their overall impact on the environment by providing scalability, security, accessibility, automation, and recovery tools that don’t break the bank; or, in other words, save green businesses more green over the long term.