The digital age is well and truly underway. What used to be buzzwords and trends are now the norm, and if your business is not already Digital First, then you are in grave danger of falling behind your competitors and losing out on new business. Ways of handling business are changing, and keeping up to date on standard practices is essential to stay competitive. The Cloud is one of those such methods that businesses are utilising to make business easier across the board. The Cloud is great for reducing storage demands, increasing security and more flexible access to needed information.
What is cloud application development
Cloud applications are software hosted using the Cloud but allow businesses unlimited access regardless of location. Simply put, anyone with access to the application can log in and see the information they need without needing to be in an office or set location. In addition, all the data produced and required by a company is stored via the Cloud.
What are the pros of using cloud applications
Ease of use for staff
Now that more people than ever are utilising working from home, businesses have had to adapt so that employees can access important information from their homes without consistently emailing data back and forth, forever increasing data breach risks. Easy-to-use modern technology, designed with your business in mind, will make workflows faster, more efficient, and much more sense. Employees will no longer need to make do or force compliance to do their role.
Reduce your business costs
Removing the need for a local server can significantly reduce long-term costs for additional security measures, speed, and not to mention the cost of powering and maintenance. When you have an in-house local server, you often need a large team of skilled IT technicians to maintain them. This includes training, salaries for in-demand and highly skilled roles and turnover costs. Having such a team would be overly costly compared to the cost of Cloud applications, particularly for a small business.
Save on space
Imagine not needing an entire room to host your local servers! Not only that, but with an online filing system, no one needs to save documents to their drive, preventing clogging up machines with orphan and outdated documents – which can cause a lack of compliance and a data breach.
Take advantage of automation.
Thanks to the intelligence of Cloud-based applications, when you work with a skilled designer, they can enable processes that make your everyday tasks a simple click of a button. By analysing your business (business analysis link) and employee workflows, we can highlight areas that could be made more accessible or streamlined. Your designer can create scripts that reach multiple sources and gather the information needed much faster than teams manually sourcing data across various applications.
what are the cons of using cloud applications
Cost differences
Your choice to move from local storage to Cloud applications must be right for you and make sense. Business analysis (business analysis link) will help you to determine the key areas you should look to improve with a Cloud application. Cloud applications can save you money in the long run, but initial design and setup costs can be daunting. This is particularly true if you are currently using a cheap or free service, and the benefits of the upgrade may not yet seem feasible. The cost of your Cloud application is determined between you and your designer and will depend on the tools and services you want your bespoke system to provide.
Moving back to on-premises can be problematic.
An unusual con, but certainly not one to disregard, is that if you decide to move back to on-premises applications, you may run into difficulties. Moving to the Cloud can be straightforward, but we cannot say the same for moving backwards. Mostly, this process is very costly. So before you move forward with your choice, consult your chosen designer on the process of moving workloads out of the Cloud and how much this would cost, covering timelines, fines and methods to get clear expectations should you change your mind.
Only as good as the designer you use
With any custom product, your finished application will only be as good as the designer you go with. Therefore, you must ensure your designer has a good portfolio with relevant experience in the industry you want to be covered. Prior knowledge of your industry will help them fill in the gaps you may not think to. This industry insight is invaluable in making your cloud application's design, planning and creation straightforward and efficient.
Reliance on internet
The biggest drawback for Cloud-based applications is their reliance on the internet. If your internet goes down, it cuts off your access to all the documents and data stored in the Cloud. However, this outage won't damage your files or compromise your security. In today's market, though, the internet is needed to perform almost every function within a business. This reliance on the internet for Cloud applications is not surprising or a hindrance. Small corporations with less bandwidth may experience difficulties when all employees have heavy internet usage during working hours. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that backups are scheduled during downtime to limit its effect on workflow.
Overall, Cloud applications greatly benefit companies entering the Digital age. Although the cons may seem heavy, there is no argument that this is the direction all businesses will need to go in the next couple of short years. Failure to adapt to Cloud applications will inevitably result in slowed workflows, lack of efficiency, additional costs and ultimately more room for error.
Cloud Applications should be easy to use, process information quickly, and integrate with your existing management software. If you would like an estimation, speak to us about your needs. Smashed Crab provides personal service on a schedule that fits you. If you are interested in learning more about how Cloud applications could work for you and your team, drop us a call at 01482 935 356 or email at Contact@SmashedCrabSoftware.com.Alternatively, you can fill in our contact form below.
