Entrepreneurs are constantly looking for ways to streamline processes and make life easier for their hardworking staff. With the private cloud, businesses have the opportunity to create their own infrastructure, which they can build to fit all of their growing needs. Many entrepreneurs understand the potential of the private cloud and are making plans to implement a virtual infrastructure in the upcoming year. According to a recent survey conducted by enterprise IT innovation research firm TheInfoPro, 47 percent of surveyed enterprises list internal clouds among top projects in 2013.

“The digital infrastructure of the future will provide CIOs with an assortment of service delivery venues, which will enable users to schedule or automate the delivery of workloads to the most suitable internal or external clouds depending on workload characteristics, SLAs and policy requirements,” said Peter Ffoulkes, research director for cloud computing for TheInfoPro.

Few companies experiencing the benefits of the cloud
Cloud computing gives entrepreneurs the ability to virtualize processes and improve communication and collaboration within the firm. Companies can also house budgeting and forecasting software in the cloud to give everyone within the company access to important monetary information that aids in decision making. Unfortunately, only 26 percent of respondents said they currently use a cloud platform, while 40 percent of survey participants are planning to deploy the cloud in the next 18 months.

“As IT organizations complete their infrastructure virtualization and automation projects and turn toward cloud initiatives, there will be significant upside opportunity for a veritable host of cloud service and cloud enabling technology vendors over the next two years,” said Ffoulkes.

Fix the cloud to meet business needs
The private cloud gives entrepreneurs the potential to create a personalized environment that the business can use to streamline processes within the company, and developing a cloud strategy can only provide aspiring small-business owners with an opportunity to maximize their investment in the online storage solution. A recent article for Entrepreneur magazine written by Joe Weinman, author of Cloudonomics, provided some strategies about how to get the most out of the cloud.

  • Build a virtual community: One of the greatest aspects of the cloud is that it gives firms the chance to foster a place where everyone within the firm can communicate and work together on projects. This leads to fewer issues, allowing the entire staff to know what is going on within the business.
  • Cater to the needs of customers: Many of today’s clients expect the business that they associate with to have a virtual environment in which they can place orders and interact with the company. The cloud can often improve the customer experience for clients that have advanced needs.
  • Embrace the cost savings: Entrepreneurs that decide to use a cloud deployment can move all of their processes to the cloud, saving money on all of the other products and solutions they had been using in the past.

Entrepreneurs who decide to use the cloud can dramatically change how their business operates and increase productivity, saving money at the same time.

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