Jai is a specialist in all things IT, including onsite IT support services, remote IT support services, cloud computing, MYOB solutions, and residential IT support services. Meanwhile research firm Frost & Sullivan has estimated the total value of the country’s cloud computing market in 2013 at $1.23 billion, projected to grow $4.55 billion by 2018. Cloud computing has delivered massive computing power and storage, at a relatively low cost, that has allowed all sorts of new innovations. In order to keep up with the pace of today’s service economy, gathering high-quality data and keeping it organised is crucial. CPA AUSTRALIA Business interest in cloud computing has grown significantly over the last few years. Cloud Service Provider in Australia. This could include applications, databases, email and file services. Cloud computing is one of the tech buzzwords of our time, yet its meaning and use is unknown to many small business owners. At its core, technology is a tool that is being used to make the world a more efficient place. Best cloud computing services 1. At the other end of the scale, we’ve looked at simple invoicing apps (some with useful extras) that might suit very small service businesses. With cloud services, small businesses reap the benefits of not having to deploy physical infrastructure like file and e-mail servers, storage systems or shrink-wrapped software. For instance, companies such as Egnyte and Rebit will replicate data stored locally on a hard drive or NAS to their cloud services, offering SMBs the best of both worlds: local control and access to data and peace of mind that the data is backed up to the cloud. Such downtime stories serve as a sobering reminder that trusting your data and technology services to an off-site third-party places you at the mercy of that third-party's uptime reliability. What they used to do using a roomful of computers can now be accomplished with just one or two units of hardware, situated in one corner of the office premises. If you take a look beneath the surface of all the excitement though, you might notice an interesting subtlety. This guide will help you to understand cloud computing, and the different ways you could use cloud computing in your business. If a business uses cloud computing for their data storage and organisation, they will be able to take a pre-emptive and proactive approach to their customer service, rather than chasing after their customers in a reactive fashion. Small businesses are fully aware that they need hardware in order to facilitate their operations. If your personal favorite isn't on this list, tell us about it in the comments. The small business computing environment. For these businesses, SaaS provides a way of delivering a host of software and technical services that would otherwise be cost-prohibitive and difficult to manage as on-premise, local solutions. For example, if you have a Dropbox account or have signed up for MYOB Essentials, then you’re already using cloud-based solutions in your business. See our guide and move to the cloud. For more on ways to avoid getting burned during a cloud service provider's downtime, check out: Analyst's View: After Intuit's Apology, Cloudy Outlook for the Cloud?. Small business consumers of the cloud remain protected by the overarching consumer protection framework that applies to all goods and services in Australia – the Australian Consumer Law (ACL). Cloud software authentication and authorisation. But, like with most things, there is a watered-down explanation that can help the average layperson wrap their brain around what it actually is. Cloud services also provide entrepreneurs, SOHOs, and mom-and-pop outfits access to sophisticated technology without the need of an IT consultant or tech worker on the payroll. The efficiency of delivering cloud computing resources is also credited to faster networking and Internet connectivity at a relatively low price. For businesses that have outgrown their small business accounting application, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system may be the next step. What IT services will Small Business use? With the aid of the cloud service providers, create an enhanced collaboration between multiple departments or branches and optimize workflow. Jai is an author at Situation IT, an organisation that specialises in IT services in Australia. Cloud Computing is the latest buzz word in IT, but what does it really mean for Small Business in Australia. Analyst's View: After Intuit's Apology, Cloudy Outlook for the Cloud. Components include servers, memory, firewalls and more. Get your business hosted in the Cloud with Servers Australia Cloud Servers. Samara Lynn has nearly twenty years experience in Information Technology; most recently as IT Director at a major New York City healthcare facility. If your needs increase, it’s easy to scale up your cloud capacity, drawing on the service’s remote servers. There is no denying it. Of course, cloud computing raises concerns about security, stability, and data ownership. Just log in and go, anytime and anywhere. Let's also not forget that cloud services are subject to outages that are beyond a business' control. It's nothing for cloud storage providers to quickly add another GB of storage for a customer simply at the customer's request thanks to scalable and flexible cloud-computing resources hosted by the likes of Amazon, Rackspace and other providers. Likewise, if you need to scale down, the flexibility is baked into the service. In 2010, Intuit's site went down for two days, leaving its SMB customers unable to access their data in Intuit's online offerings including Quicken, QuickBooks and TurboTax. Solving the Cloud Mystery for Small Businesses. SaaS solutions use all the benefits of cloud computing in order to offer high-quality tech-driven services to individuals and businesses. Here’s a beginner’s guide to cloud computing for SMEs. What follows is a roundup of twenty top cloud-computing services for small businesses. For instance, businesses that sell physical stock and need a dependable way to manage, can rely on a cloud-based inventory management system SaaS solution. our, An example from the Kogan-Dick Smith acquisition, Education is key to for the future of cloud computing, Kogan.com’s acquisition of Dick Smith Electronics in 2016, AccountRight – Accounting & Business Management. SaaS solutions use all the benefits of cloud computing in order to offer high-quality tech-driven services to individuals and businesses. As at June 2011, small businesses represented 96 percent of businesses in Australia (ABS 2012). This being the case, the future of cloud computing is going to be all about enabling people to learn and adapt to the available technologies. 42% of businesses are using paid cloud computing 1.1 Business use of cloud services The use cases for cloud services vary across industries, and this affects their likelihood of adopting these services. Eventually, the age of cloud computing will lead to a total alignment between people, data, and technology. In this section we look at the pros and cons of using cloud computing solutions to manage your small business better. If you take a look at where Kogan.com is today (three years later), the results of organised data speak for themselves. 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