How Small Businesses Will Increasingly Rely on Cloud Applications

While us who follow cloud computing news know the truth, passersby often look past the technology and miss its future potential. But the way it’s changing the world of business is incredible. All different kinds of industries are taking part in this digital interconnected revolution, from marketing and retail firms to medical professionals using it in their work. Even artists collaborate with each other across state or country lines using it. 

Let’s examine the future uses of the cloud for small businesses everywhere. If you can get ahead of the curve, then you may be able to operate your business on a better level competitively before the rest of the world catches on.

Remote Job Positions

The future of the cloud is summed up by one word: "remote." Starting with the people who are the future of the workforce, remote work is slated to become even more popular in the future. This is primarily due to the ways millennials are popularizing cloud usage and are looking to travel and explore more than settle down early on. 

As of last year, Amazon announced that they would be adding 5,000 remote workers. Forbes published a piece in August about industries profiting most off of the remote work boom, with experts predicting it getting stronger and becoming more widespread. They noted that the cloud has completely transformed the accounting industry due to eliminating the need of going over things in person while sharing screens. It seems probable that the need for offices will change in computer-heavy industries. While it’s doubtful that office life will go away completely, it will likely become less common in the future.Previous Processes

Following along with the idea of jobs becoming "remote," processes will become cloud-based and digitized in the future as well. It has less to do with doing one’s job from home and more with streamlining processes through the cloud or automation software that can be controlled and organized through the cloud to do the job for you. For instance, secure, cloud-oriented helpdesk software solutions have been long sought after, but they’re becoming more and more possible as cloud security advances in efficiency. 

Helpdesk software isn’t the only thing being revolutionized by the cloud however. Things like time cards, document editing, and file sharing are available to anyone with access just by clicking on a link. Previously, those files literally had to be sent back and forth. The cloud has taken previous processes and recontextualized them.

Building Upon the Past

We can use the cloud not just to streamline old ways of doing things but to create new software and systems as well, built on the backs of past technologies. This starts with information. Companies that work above local levels will be able to use knowledge-based software to communicate and advance their processes from multiple locations. Freshdesk put it best when defining just what knowledge base software does: 

A knowledge base software helps you document tutorials, DIY guides, and answers to frequently asked questions in one place. A well indexed Knowledge Base empowers customers to discover answers and fix easy problems by themselves allowing your business to focus on the tough problems. 

Due to things like knowledge-based software, new systems are able to be formed. Primarily, this is due to artificial intelligence with concepts like the internet of things seeing further development. We’ll be able to see cloud software and programs that are able to advance and change, even working out their own internal system shortcomings. That, in combination with the rise of 5G will allow systems to troubleshoot themselves potentially and at a faster rate than ever. We’ll have to see what that practically looks like, but no doubt it will be exciting. 

How do you feel the future of the cloud will revitalize business? Let us know in the comments below.

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About the Author

Avery Phillips is a unicorn of a human being who loves all things relating to people and their entrepreneurial spirits. Comment down below or tweet her @a_taylorian.