What Makes the Cloud so Cost Effective?

Those who tout the benefits of cloud technology always refer to the cost effectiveness of it. But, is that really true? Is cloud technology cost effective?  Will switching to the cloud save companies money? If so, what are the factors that make the cloud cost effective?

Cloud based services offer companies a variety of advantages including flexibility, adaptability, velocity and scalability. They allow companies to efficiently tailor their storage of data depending on their needs. Having unlimited storage capacity for their data in a format that is safe, secure, flexible and adaptable is a huge benefit for many companies. Some companies switch to the cloud because of benefits alone. However, aside from all of these benefits, for some companies, a determining factor of whether to switch to the cloud is the associated costs. They undertake a cost/benefit analysis to determine if the cloud is worth it for them. It comes down to dollars and cents.

For a company to decide whether it is cost effective to switch to the cloud, it must first assess its needs and ask itself some of the following questions. Is it a growing company that will need additional storage for its data over time? Is it reaching maximum capacity already or does it have no need for additional data storage space? Are its employees conducting business on the road requiring instantaneous access to data in one place? Is the company opening new branches requiring efficient and easy access to data to help these new enterprises get off the ground? Is the business a new company that is just starting out and does it need its data in one place? There are a few factors that companies need to take into consideration of whether to incur the additional expenses of a cloud based service.

One of the major benefits of the cloud from a cost/analysis viewpoint is based on the fact that it takes little or no capital expenditure to start accessing what the cloud has to offer. The infrastructure is already in place. Companies do not have to worry about making a prohibitive major investment when signing up with a cloud based service.

Companies can tailor the cloud to their budget by using a pay as you go model. There are actually two variations of the pay as you go model that companies can choose from: “Capacity based model” and “Recovery based model”. These pay as you go models allow companies to keep track of their expenditures and not let them get out of hand. There are no hidden costs. Companies can have control over what they spend.

If you are considering switching to the cloud and are worried about the cost, then take a good look at how inexpensive it is to get started with the cloud. You will be happily surprised at how cost effective cloud computing can be.