{"id":307,"date":"2012-08-31T17:37:35","date_gmt":"2012-08-31T17:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=307"},"modified":"2012-08-31T17:37:35","modified_gmt":"2012-08-31T17:37:35","slug":"what-to-know-about-storing-your-small-business-data-in-the-clouds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/what-to-know-about-storing-your-small-business-data-in-the-clouds\/","title":{"rendered":"What to know about storing your small business data in the clouds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is it time to switch your data storage to the cloud<\/a>?\u00a0 Many small and midsize business owners are in order to manage their growing data needs. A survey<\/a> of\u00a0 100 companies conducted by Twin Strata<\/a> at a recent cloud computing conference\u00a0 indicated that five out of six respondents already are using or plan to use cloud storage in some capacity.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Cloud storage provides you with an easy and affordable way to protect critical company data.\u00a0 Pricing models vary and enable you to scale as your needs grow. Under a pay-as-you go model, you pay for usage and consumption. With a fixed or subscription based pricing model, you pay for a set amount of storage each month with additional charges if your use exceeds the amount.\u00a0 Also with cloud storage, you offload maintenance tasks such as backup and data replication to your service provider, which frees up your time to focus on your core business.<\/p>\n

With cloud storage, you can retrieve and upload documents anywhere you are — in the office or on the road \u2013 since all you need is an Internet connection. Cloud-based\u00a0 storage solutions also enhance collaboration among team members who increasingly are geographically dispersed. For example, someone can edit a document and upload it to a folder for other team members to review and comment, eliminating the need to email files to each other.<\/p>\n

Since there are a range of cloud storage solutions, consider your specific needs before choosing one. Stephanie Watson suggests several questions to ask in \u201cFive Tips For Choosing Cloud Storage Solutions<\/a>.\u201d Among them are:<\/p>\n

What files do I want to store?\u00a0 Consider if you need to store entire copies of programs, documents or personal records of clients. There are specific criteria for each in terms of space, security and access.<\/p>\n

Do I want manual, automated and\/or scheduled sharing and backup? You\u2019ll need a completely different type of system if you want automatic or scheduled backup versus dragging updated files to the system.<\/p>\n

What level of security do I want? \u00a0 Will your files will be stored in a data\u2014center that also has backup procedures and criteria to protect them in the event of a natural disaster. Watson advises that you ask about geo redundancy, which means your critical company data will be stored in two separate geographic locations to protect it from outages or a catastrophe. Also ask how data is encrypted.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll find you\u2019ll have a range of choices. Be sure to choose a provider that is reliable who enables you to meet your business needs at a cost that makes sense for your business.<\/p>\n

Suggested additional reading: \u201cQuestions to ask a cloud computing provider<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is it time to switch your data storage to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[510],"tags":[587,680,637],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}