Photo: Christina Jones Photography — **Photo:** Christina Jones Photography

Contrary to what you hear, the cloud is safer than ever before with myriad opportunities to scale your business. Years ago, companies had to buy robust data racks and hire IT professionals to handle all the IT needs of a company 24/7/365. It was time-consuming, and a huge expense that small businesses simply couldn’t afford.

Nowadays, the cloud offers security, scale, and more at an affordable price, making it one of the best solutions for businesses of all sizes.

Businesses are often confused about moving to the cloud. It makes sense to feel overwhelmed since the cloud can often seem elusive and mysterious. This confusion can make it hard to make the leap to cloud storage. With that in mind, let’s break it down.

What exactly is the cloud?

The cloud is a central location where you backup and store all data, making it accessible from any location with an internet connection. Cloud providers maintain data centers where the information is stored (and often replicated to another data center) for safekeeping in case a complete meltdown happens.

If your business operates at all online, more than likely you should be considering the cloud. Here’s why:

1. Mobile Workplaces

Accessing files from any location, rapid sharing, and auto backups means the cloud enables you and your team to have the perfect mobile workplace. Store your images, audio, video, and files directly to the cloud instead of spending time and money upgrading hard drive space for every employee.

2. Security & Cyber Criminals

It’s not just financial or healthcare data that cybercriminals want anymore. Any data can be used for ransom, including photos, research, trade secrets, and even your website.

As a business owner, these are real issues to confront as you continue growing your business. You’re not only protecting your data, but you’re also protecting your clients’ data. That means all personal client information, credit card data, passwords, usernames, and emails are your responsibility.

Depending on your cloud provider, they can protect your business from cyber threats, DDoS attacks, and malware. The cloud also enables you to add multiple layers of security like two-factor authentication.

3. Data Storage & Backups

Remember that “Sex & the City” episode where Carrie’s laptop broke down, and she lost all her work?

For businesses, not backing up your data isn’t only risky—it’s irresponsible. Every entrepreneur should take some time to look at their business from a bird’s eye view, and that includes the technology demands of your business. Being in the cloud means that all your work can be automatically backed-up and accessed by your team with little to no effort—and at a more affordable cost than attempting to buy all the infrastructure yourself.

4. Scalability & Growth

Starting your business is one thing. Growing and scaling it is another. Lucky for you, the cloud is incredibly flexible. This means you can start a business with minimal IT requirements and easily expand your cloud storage space as your business grows with little upfront investment.

About the Author: Naly Rice is the founder and CEO of LNCG, a tech branding, marketing, and design agency. She is a blogger at NalyRice.com and is a burgeoning speaker who talks about entrepreneurship, women, and minorities in business and tech marketing.