The biggest names in technology—Google, Microsoft and a host of others—are betting their financial futures on the extinction of your IT department. They foresee a day when small businesses will no longer have to pay to physically maintain secure servers for their data. These costs will evaporate as more and more businesses opt instead to rent server space in the cloud. For many small businesses, cloud computing requires a leap of faith—that is, to trust that your data is safe and secure in another company's hands. Here's what you need to know before ascending to the clouds.
What is it? Cloud computing is essentially the outsourcing of computing resources such as data storage and software. Instead of buying servers and paying a phalanx of IT specialists to maintain them, small businesses can rent space on an off-site server and connect to their data remotely, from anywhere in the world.
What's in it for you? Think of it this way: In the long run, renting an apartment is more expensive than buying a house, but not when you consider that houses need to be maintained. In the same way, servers require frequent upgrades and sometimes must be entirely rebuilt. By renting space in the cloud, companies off-load many of the costs associated with maintenance.
Is your data safe? Most cloud servers are protected by some of the most sophisticated security software in the world. Indeed, one of the major reasons Google reacted so swiftly to allegations of Chinese cyber-spying earlier this year related to concerns over perceptions that the company's servers weren't secure. Nonetheless, many CEOs remain wary of hosting sensitive data on rented computers.
So what's the catch? For some forms of data, Canadian law requires that the material be stored on computers located inside the country. As such, some services available to small businesses south of the border aren't available in Canada. To remedy this, U.S. cloud providers are increasingly partnering with local firms; others are pressuring Canadian politicians to amend the rules. If all goes according to plan, in less than a decade, the individual small business server may be little more than a quaint memory.