Three years after people across the globe shifted to work from home overnight, remote work setups have turned from a survival strategy into a valuable perk to attract and retain talent. Needless to say, remote teams are here to stay.
Unfortunately, many are still struggling with the transition to remote work. If you still haven't been able to adapt your systems to accommodate a distributed workforce, you might encounter some significant challenges. Miscommunication, collaboration challenges, data accessibility, and security are common problems that could hurt your remote team's productivity.
Intelligent Technical Solutions (ITS) is an IT service provider that has helped hundreds of businesses migrate to remote work setups. We have a distributed workforce ourselves, and from our experience, the solution that has helped us the most with the transition is cloud computing.
In this article, we'll dive into how cloud computing supports working from home to help boost the productivity of your remote teams.
5 Ways the Cloud Supports Remote Work
Cloud-based solutions not only help make the transition to remote setups much smoother, but they can also make your remote teams more productive. Here are the main ways cloud-based solutions can power a remote workforce:
1. Seamless Collaboration
Teamwork is vital for any organization's success. That's why making sure that everyone on your team has the ability to contribute should be at the top of your priorities. But how can you work together when your team members are miles apart? The answer is cloud computing.
Cloud platforms are designed to facilitate greater collaboration for your remote team. They allow them to communicate, whether it's via Microsoft Teams or Zoom. In addition, apps like Office 365 and SharePoint enable them to view and edit documents in real-time. That way, they can work together without interruption any time they want.
2. Improved Accessibility
Moving all your data to the cloud allows your team to access critical work-related data whenever and wherever they are. In addition, cloud platforms typically allow your admins to set secure access policies, allowing you to control what information to share and with whom.
3. Enhanced Data Security
Customer trust is among the most valuable things to a company offering cloud services. Any news of a security risk or vulnerability will endanger their business. That's why many of them are designed with cybersecurity at the top of mind. Strict security protocols ensure their customers' data is safe from outside threats while stored in the cloud.
Another benefit of cloud storage is that you can mitigate data loss caused by natural disasters. It allows you to recover data that may have been lost on your physical servers and devices as long as they are backed up in the cloud. This is an essential benefit for a distributed workforce since you have little control over what happens at your team's different locations.
4. Optimized Spending
The ability to adjust your operations depending on your needs is essential to a growing business. Cloud platforms offer you that flexibility by allowing you to scale up or down depending on changing requirements.
For example, if your team members suddenly need to go remote, like what happened during the pandemic, or you need to permanently shift to a distributed workforce, a cloud solution can support the transition more smoothly.
It can also help optimize your spending as you only buy what your team will use now. Compare that to the alternative of setting up on-premises data centers with cooling, maintenance, and space requirements, and you might find the cloud more affordable.
5. Better Compliance
Thanks to rising cybercrime across the country, more and more organizations are now being regulated. That means some businesses that didn't have strict security regulations in the past now have to meet more stringent compliance requirements or else face fines and penalties.
Thankfully, many cloud services often include configurations for compliance. That can help your business meet compliance requirements pertaining to securing sensitive information. That is vital, especially when managing a team across different locations, as it allows you to implement a single security protocol for everyone, regardless of where they are.
Ready to Leverage Cloud Computing for Remote Work?
Lockdowns may have already lifted, and many of us are back in our offices, but some form of flexible or remote work is here to stay. The best you can do is to adapt your operations and leverage its benefits for your company. The problem now is that implementing work-from-home setups for your organization can be challenging. Thankfully, cloud computing can help you make the transition go much smoother.
ITS has helped hundreds of businesses make remote work setups that fit their needs. Find out how we can help you by scheduling an initial consultation. If you're still not sure about moving to the cloud or want to do more research about finding the right managed services provider (MSP) with cloud migration expertise, check out the following resources:
- What are the ways of migrating to the cloud? [Video]
- How Can an MSP Help Support Remote Work Setup?
- 7 Cybersecurity Best Practices for Remote Work
- The Ultimate Guide to Cloud Computing