As a small business owner, you may often feel out of the loop on cutting-edge technologies because you assume they are out of your price range or you don’t really need them. Or you may want to wait and see how the latest and greatest performs in the real world.
More often, though, the latest technology products and services are simply overlooked, even when they have proven their value. Cloud storage is one example of a service that is affordable and valuable for businesses of all sizes. Read on to see how it can impact your business.
Do You Need a Cloud Service?
Frankly, anyone who has data to back up or store needs a cloud storage service. Sure, you can buy more memory or external hard drive devices, but in the event of equipment failure, neither will help much in terms of retrieval. Something as simple as a spilled drink or flood can spell bye-bye to data stored on an external hard drive. And who hasn’t had the heart-sinking experience of a computer or tablet that just stopped working?
Keep in mind some data like graphics take up tons of space as well. If you run out, that’s it. But cloud storage can be easily expanded for a lot less than you might think. In addition, storing data in the cloud means you can access it on any device — desktop, smartphone, tablet — and from pretty much anywhere there’s a secure Internet connection.
And wouldn’t it be nice to upload data when you need to? Let’s say you take a lot of photos or videos with your smartphone. You’ll soon find that they quickly eat up the storage capability. Lots of experts talk about clearing out apps to provide more space, but this takes time and you probably don’t want to stop shooting to do this. A cloud storage solution lets you upload instantly to save space.
You Get What You Pay For
Lots of individuals and small businesses take advantage of free cloud storage. This is nice, but it often makes more sense to pay for a scalable solution. Although no one likes to hear this, you often do get what you pay for. Meaning: if it’s free, don’t expect the latest technology behind it.
Plus, as LifeHacker points out, cloud storage is not the same as backup.
LiveDrive, which is listed as a Top 10 Cloud Storage Solution, offers low-cost cloud storage and backup solutions for individuals and businesses of all sizes. It even offers an unlimited backup plan. Individual plans, which may be a good start for sole proprietors, start at just $6/month; free trials are available for all packages.
LiveDrive also has a 30-day guarantee and instant activation. And if your small business gets a few big projects all at once? Just contact LiveDrive and you can get an instant upgrade. While the individual package is good for one computer (PC or Mac), other packages let you add multiple devices and up to five tetrabytes (TB) of storage.
How does this compare to hard drive storage? PC World compares hard drives to the cloud and reports that, in most scenarios, the cloud provides a better cost per gigabyte and is more accessible.
Do Your Part to Boost Security in the Cloud
Because services like LiveDrive back up files, its security is considered stronger than services that simply provide storage. But, as Wall Street Daily points out, the strongest security won’t help if you don’t use complex passwords and authentication services.
