The cloud has been gaining in popularity for quite a few years now, and it shows no signs of stopping. At the same time, remote work has greatly expanded in the last year, mostly due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Of course, it was only a matter of time before these two technologies began to merge. In the current situation, companies have had to deploy remote work solutions very quickly, and often with little preparation or warning. Right now, the cloud is the easiest way to do that, so let’s look at the various ways in which remote working is being enabled by the cloud.
Greater Flexibility
Far from being a temporary measure, remote work might turn out to be a better way in the long run. Already, some studies have concluded that remote workers tend to be more productive. This study from 2013 was one of the first to reach this conclusion. They found that remote workers were about 13% more productive than their in-house counterparts.
This greater productivity is probably the result of greater flexibility. Remote workers have a lot more leeway in terms of when they work and how they work, and this allows them to focus on quality overall. The cloud facilitates this by giving them a greater degree of connectedness. Cloud computing makes it easier for remote workers to link up and get started whenever they are ready.
Better Security Environment
A lot of people say that the cloud is not secure, but it all depends on the setup. If you go with a cloud provider/plan that does not guarantee security, it will indeed be full of vulnerabilities that a hacker can exploit. However, when you take the right steps, the cloud can offer a higher level of security.
One of the main reasons for this fact is network monitoring. A cloud provider can and should have someone to keep an eye on all network traffic, as this is one of the only ways to reliably secure a network. Obviously, there is always the chance that something bad could get through, but constant monitoring makes it far less likely.
No Need For A Server Room
When you try to run an in-house network, you will normally need to have dedicated servers and all the hardware that goes with them. For large companies, this might translate into a whole room full of servers. Rooms such as this must be tightly controlled in terms of temperature and humidity, mostly because there is so much company money invested in them. With cloud computing, you avoid the need for any of that.
Best of all, the cloud is completely scalable, so you can increase the size and power of your network without adding new servers. Everything is handled off-site, which also reduces the chances of your network going down due to negligence, sabotage, or freak accidents.
File Recovery
Ever since people first began using computers for work, there has been one irritating problem: Losing all your work due to a technical error. Sure, frequent saving can help to prevent the total loss of your data, but crashes and other tech hiccups nearly always result in a loss of time and productivity.
Thankfully, the cloud deals with this problem in a very effective way: Constant and complete backup. Most cloud providers offer backup services, which means they will automatically create a backup every 1-5 hours. These will be stored in the form of system images, which don’t take up nearly as much file space as the system itself. Like a .zip file, this is a compressed bunch of files that must be unpacked before use. This allows backup files to be stored easily (and in great amounts) until they are needed.
Easier Collaboration
Obviously, remote work is nothing new, but it was not the norm for a long time. This is because of the need for collaboration between colleagues. Until the invention of the cloud, it was simply too hard to have good teamwork on a remote basis. Now, however, most cloud services will include video chat and many other communication tools. Between all that, the cloud provides for much better collaboration with others. At a time when people are expected to work remotely and still provide the same quality, that is a very handy thing indeed.
Conclusion
These are just a few of the ways in which the cloud has made remote work a little easier. It was always possible, but the cloud has definitely made it a lot more practical. In some ways, it might be said that the cloud came along just in time.
As you may have noticed, all of these advantages boil down to a greater degree of connectedness between the remote worker and the company for whom they work. In the past, all of this would have to have been done over the telephone, and that was not very practical. If you find our solutions to be a little more practical, you can call PCH Technologies at (856) 754-7500 to learn more.