By Michael Brown 1

By their very nature, small business don’t have the financial resources to compete with the larger enterprises. But as we’ve noted in the past, cloud technology certainly levels the playing by giving companies (large or small) the ability to cost-effectively store, send and use almost any amount of data.

As an MSP, you know that this is one of the major reasons why small businesses are leveraging the cloud for file sharing, email, hosting and dozens of other key areas. Of course, many of your SMB prospects may have yet to make switch because they have yet to be swayed by the benefits.

The Huffington Post recently posted an excellent reminder to small businesses on the advantages of moving to the cloud. Let’s take a closer look at some of their key points:

Cost and Scalability

For a company with a small budget – and one that intends on growing quickly – the cloud is an ideal solution; offering an almost endless amount of storage for significantly less money.

“The cloud is an inevitable solution to problems such as high start-up costs and scalability not because anyone's trying to trick you into thinking so, but because it's the passion of a lot of us in the industry to provide a high quality service that will transform your business.”

In the case of cloud-based file sharing, we find that scalability is probably the main driver. The modern startup is usually geographically dispersed, so the ability instantly to share sensitive files with colleagues working remotely is a major plus (when compared to the alternative).

Improving Security

The days of nervously sending corporate information into a “magical unknown place in the sky” are rapidly falling behind us. Cloud security is vastly improving and still getting even better.

“Rarely does a SMB have the knowledge and resources for advanced surveillance systems and cutting-edge encryption methods, third-party certs and regular testing against attacks. And there's no need for them to – they should be focusing on their product and their customers.”

Not only can the cloud offer secure services, but sometimes SMBs can benefit from even better IT security than they could have provided locally. These cloud providers must offer the best protection possible, otherwise vendors, MSPs and users will simply flock to providers that have better security measures. As cloud providers compete with each other, they all become more secure.

Flexibility (i.e. Hybrid Options)

With the abundance of cloud providers, both private and public, small businesses are introduced to a large array of services that they otherwise would never be able to utilize.

“Small businesses that adopt the service model provided by cloud computing benefit from undeniable advantages: from lower barriers to market to enterprise quality hardware at competitive rates.”

Companies that are still wary of sharing storage space with other businesses can opt for a private cloud for their needs. Or perhaps they are more interested in the larger abilities and brand recognition of the larger cloud players; these businesses can opt for public clouds. But the best part is they don’t even have to choose one or the other. Hybrid options, utilizing both private and public clouds for different areas of business have becoming a very popular model as well.

The cloud industry in general is all about flexibility, offering SMBs a way to maximize the effectiveness of their few (but growing!) precious resources. As small businesses are growing, they need to be able to shift, maneuver and adapt to many changing factors, and cloud options often offer them the greatest flexibility to do so.

These are only the main points that an MSP can offer in order to help convince SMBs that a cloud model might be the right choice for their growing business. There are countless advantages, and it is important to leverage them against the best interest of the growing small business.

Do you believe that the cloud will level the competition between SMBs and larger corporations? Be sure to leave your opinion in the comments section below!