Following up on last week’s post explaining Cloud Computing, I want to spend a few more minutes covering off some of the other business advantages, and why you may wish to consider this for more than just the cost savings. Yes, the cost savings can be significant, and so can the simplicity it brings to your environment. But there are 2 other main reasons to seriously consider cloud computing for your business life.

The first reason is accessibility. Most cloud services rely on one thing: an internet connection. This means that if you’re in the airport, the coffee shop or the library, you probably have access to your work applications and information.

Let’s say you do a sales call, and at the end you offer to buy a coffee for your prospect. So you pop down to your local coffee shop. A bit of valuable social time to help in the prospect getting to know you better. After 10 minutes, the prospect returns to their office. You pull out your laptop, and… instantly connect to your hosted CRM (customer relationship management) solution to update the notes, assign follow up tasks, and set reminders. No note taking, no phone calls, nothing. All done in 5 minutes, while everything is still fresh in your mind. How much is it worth to cross all your T’s and dot your I’s that quickly? More importantly, how much is it worth to NOT forget something, and potentially offend or alienate your prospect? That’s one competitive advantage of Cloud Computing.

The second scenario involves the cost of maintaining and upgrading things. As I mentioned last week, maintenance and updates are usually included in the subscription fee for hosted services. This is important because a good service provider wil offer up a service level agreement, or a service level guarantee. From a business perspective, it means an always-on state. You never have to worry about whether or not the service will be available; the service provider has a vested interest in ensuring it’s available (SLA’s will penalize IT for not keeping the service alive).

And the cost of upgrades and updates can be daunting for a small business. How many times have you thought about upgrading your software, only to realize that a) you could use the money better elsewhere, and b) you’re worried about how long the upgrade will take, because you have a bunch of work to do, and can’t spare the time? With hosted services this isn’t a problem – the upgrade happens at the back end, and is almost always included in the price. So you can always be running the latest software, and gaining that competitive advantage.

Of course, these are only general examples. Every situation is different, and your unique requirements may demand a different solution altogether. So talk to your tech support people about what will work for you, and get ready to enjoy the flexibility of working from anywhere.