Are you connected to the cloud? Cloud accounting is an exciting new development that every business — small and large — can take advantage of to streamline operations and provide connectivity between employees and clients. This is especially true in the UAE, where most businesses maintain a stable of overseas clients and employees. By moving some or all of your processes to this global resource, your business can efficiently step into a fast-paced future.
What Is the Cloud?
Think of the cloud as a massive, safe computer that’s maintained by a third party at a remote location. This computer has all the space you could ever need to host files, applications, and meeting spaces for colleagues — which means you don’t have to invest in more servers and other hardware (and space to store them) at your home base. By signing up for cloud service, you gain access to all that extra storage space and communications bandwidth. As a result, you can dramatically expand your online presence and your ability to network.
Safe and Secure Records
The first use you might have for the cloud is as supplemental storage space for your company’s irreplaceable data. Not only does rented server space potentially expand your overall storage capacity by any amount you could need, up to the terabyte range, it also helps protect what you upload to it.
Cloud storage keeps your data safe and secure in several ways. Which of these matters most to you depends on the business you’re in and the systemic risks you run:
- Physical safety: When you upload to the cloud, your records go to a server in a remote location. This can be literally anywhere in the world, putting sensitive data well out of reach of burglars and disgruntled employees. Almost all data centers are blessed with extensive physical security measures, including double-locking doors, steel cages around the machines themselves, and world-class fire-suppression systems.
- Data security: Cloud servers also benefit from state-of-the-art data security. If you handle sensitive information and worry about hackers (as you should!), cloud storage offers you the very best in civilian data security. It also saves you the expense of installing and maintaining all that security on your own machines.
- Reconstruction of lost files: Imagine your office computer breaks. If the drive is damaged or corrupted, you could lose everything. Cloud servers, on the other hand, typically run your data across multiple drives. This lets them reconstruct almost any lost data, just from looking at what’s left on the other drives.
