As a digital marketing consultant for over ten years, the introduction of small business cloud computing services changed my life.
Time saved and finances gained.
Initially, when I operated without resources in the cloud, my life had a generally higher degree of stress. I was more worried about losing critical files. At the time, it was much more difficult to backup business documents from the computer, in addition to backup files needed from software necessary to doing business. This included financial data from QuickBooks, archived client design and marketing files, past emails from Microsoft Outlook, and more.
I tried to form a solution by keeping expensive physical hard drive backups of business files at three different locations. Triangulated in the area to protect against natural disaster. I found it cumbersome to routinely gather the hard drives and update with new files from my working computers, and stay up-to-date.
Small Business Cloud Computing in 2019
Fast forward to now, 2019, and small business cloud computing is at the center of my life.
I consult with companies that deliver cloud services, and also use software in the cloud to backup and manage all aspects of daily business operations. If my primary laptop fails, I can purchase a new laptop and bring it current within a day of downloading from the cloud. With no lapse in functionality or loss of files.
I now also only keep one additional backup hard drive of data instead of many, saving money in the process.
Files are all backed up on the cloud service Dropbox, and I can download programs from Adobe’s Creative Cloud. Adobe’s Creative Cloud solution allows you to directly download programs like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. I use these programs extensively so this helps a lot.
Through Adobe Creative Cloud, associated software also remains up-to-date and current with the latest releases. Knowing I have access to the most recent features across all my devices is one of the reasons I chose to purchase a yearly Adobe Creative Cloud membership (Messieh).
I use the Microsoft Office 365 service to archive and backup all email communications, and download software like Microsoft Word, Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint directly from the cloud. Traveling extensively for work — this ability to exchange laptops quickly has saved me countless hours of time and money.
Using Amazon to speed up the web.
In addition to the other cloud technology I use, I use Amazon’s CloudFront technology to deliver website content faster online.
A paid-for-service, this technology allows me to host personal and client website files on Amazon Web Services (AWS) servers. This caches website content close to the end-user geographically. Using Amazon’s cloud ability to maintain simultaneous, duplicate cached copies of website content across the world speeds up the internet for my clients and me. Additionally, much of the world’s largest businesses, including Expedia, Adobe, Comcast, Kellogg’s and more use the service (Amazon).
This is one of the reasons I chose to use Amazon CloudFront, as these large businesses’ patronage gives affirmative nod and reliability to this AWS offering.
I’ve seen how the cloud can help preserve a small business’s limited financial resources firsthand.
Apart from a few physical receipts I keep, I’m almost entirely paperless both personally and professionally. I hope to keep it that way into the future, as this also saves on moving and storage costs.
I believe as cloud technology continues to improve, we’ll find its use every corner of our lives.
From meals planned, ordered, and sent to the refrigerator from crowdsourced health data to safety robots patrolling streets. The possibilities in the cloud are endless and happening right in front of our eyes.
