Building a business from scratch needs more than just motivation. Setting up your start-up would need extensive market research, an initial set of resources, an understanding of the work field, initial investment, and a revenue model. Each of these processesis extremely elaborative and incur the cost, which is acceptable to you as an entrepreneur. But at times, they can be overwhelming too. A small business owner who is starting with a lunchbox meal delivery system might find himself caught between arranging the delivery guys, chefs, accountant, guy at the checkout counter, and managing an online website for orders.
While some things need your physical attention at the site, others can be handled via technologies. And not just any technology; the one which can put you in a ready-to-go position in the minimum time possible. We are clearly pointing towards the use of Cloud technologies.
Cloud technologies refer to the network of hardware and software resources that are interconnected to each other and are remotely accessible by the users for their on-demand accessibility of data storage and computing.The word “on-demand” is the focus here, which makes it highly popular among budding businesses and entrepreneurs."
Start-up businesses may not need as vast resources as old-age businesses but to be competitive in this digital era, they need a few basic technologies in the form of servers, software, and web presence.
While talking to an AWS (Amazon Web Services) professional certification expert from a prestigious IT company in India, we found out that around90% of start-ups use cloud services.For a kickstart, the start-up business has to suffer typical expenses such as servers, software tools, database licenses, and other IT equipment, to perform tasks like payroll, performance management, paying bills, and tracking their sales leads. New affordable advancements in cloud technologies are allowing smaller businesses and start-ups to compete with larger companies that have bigger budgets to invest.
The study of 1,300 U.S. and U.K. executives conducted with support from Manchester Business School in the U.K. shows some strong numbers in support of our assertion.
| Cloud Benefits For Start-ups |
Percentage % |
| Easy Deployment, usage and managing than on-premise solutions |
46% |
| Effective expenditure planning |
38% |
| Cost-effective scaling up of business |
48% |
| Expense reduction by pay-per-use service of cloud |
45% |
| Savings over IT infrastructure cost |
58% |
| Increase in productivity due to less time dealing with IT issues |
41% |
| Support from industry experts, provided by cloud providers |
27% |
To be more elaborative, here are our top 5 reasons for how the offerings from cloud technologies are giving a steady platform to start-ups:
-
Cost management & planning:In the aforementioned survey, 52% of respondents with start-ups agreed that they would not have been able to afford on-premises IT resources if it weren't for cloud computing. Instead of worrying about setting dedicated computer systems and business software within the premises, the businesses can plan and save useful bucks by using the Pay-as-per-use service from cloud vendors. Further, the upfront investment made in the cloud for acquiring email, web, document hosting, and even phone systems are proving to be real cost savers.
-
Flexible capacity &scalability:Cloud services promise to offer business scalability when it is most needed. Take an example of the current global situation; there is a sudden increase in traffic on online grocery sites due to Covid19 pandemic spread. The sites that are being hosted over cloud need to worry about their storage management in this desperate time. The scalability is done withcost optimization and speed. The SaaS (Software as a Service) applications by giants such as Microsoft, Salesforce have affordable solutions for the requirements of businesses in their initial phases, as well as when they grow exponentially.
-
Concentrated and detailed monitoring tools:Cloud has great monitoring tools like customized billing alarms, detailed cost exploration with the help of reports. This helps a business owner to have a quick understanding of the status of the business functions, which further facilitates swift decision-making capabilities.
-
Reduced infrastructure cost:Cloud computing provides businesses with distributive IT hardware and software that helps to save on the company’s infrastructure. This is essential for start-ups who have a limited budget and resources to deploy. The cloud-based VPS servers , small-business software such an HR management, project management, are few of the examples in this regard.
-
Increased mobility with security:The concept of BYOD or “bring your own device” system into your workplace is one of the ways ofnegating the necessity to spend thousands on workplace devices. This has added more to the success of virtual offices and the work-from-home concept.
As far as the security of the data is concerned, since the data resides over the cloud, it gets updated automatically. This implies one can retrieve the latest versions of their data in case of an on-site system failure or a disaster.
Cloud technologies are boon to the business, especially for the start-ups which need to focus on the core business processes more than the supporting ones. The cloud universe is vast. There are services for everyone. The idea is to choose the basics and let the time decide the motion-flow of your business resources hosted over the cloud.