The Cloud Isn’t Only for Enterprises: What Every SMB Owner Should Know
For small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), you understand the importance of staying agile — adapting quickly to evolving market conditions, customer needs, and internal challenges enables your business to innovate and maintain a competitive edge. Despite this, some SMBs are hesitant to make the move to the cloud.
While on-premise IT infrastructure has its purposes, sticking to a mostly on-prem strategy could hinder your business’s progress due to high initial costs and scalability limitations. And, since on-prem requires more care and feeding than the cloud, utilizing only this type of infrastructure could take time away from focusing on strategic initiatives that move your business forward. Hosting and storing data in a cloud model, and partnering with a provider like JetSweep, allows your SMB to take advantage of a cost-effective, flexible, and scalable solution.
Key Business Benefits of Cloud Computing for SMBs
The cloud offers several benefits for SMBs, making it a valuable solution for those seeking to enhance efficiency and increase competitiveness.
Cost Efficiency
In general, OpEx is considered more cost-efficient than CapEx, especially when considering the immediate impact on cash flow and flexibility. Switching your business’s IT infrastructure from CapEx to OpEx offers your SMB:
- Enhanced flexibility: With the cloud, you can consistently access the latest services and solutions to help your business adapt to changing market conditions. Plus, you can easily scale IT resources up or down to fit your business needs — no more depending on outdated on-prem solutions.
- Reduced upfront costs: OpEx eliminates significant upfront hardware and software costs and provides your company predictable monthly costs. This makes it easier to budget for and manage IT spending.
- Increased efficiency: Outsourcing your IT infrastructure to a partner can simplify IT management and reduce the burden on internal staff, allowing your employees to focus on their core competencies and strategic initiatives.
Scalability and Flexibility
The cloud can adapt more quickly than traditional IT infrastructure, which allows for easier adjustments based on changing needs. Moving to the cloud gives you more financial control because you can choose a subscription or usage-based model (meaning you only pay for what you use) and can scale resources up or down. At JetSweep, we help our SMB clients maximize their cloud potential by offering insights into how to improve and optimize performance, whether it’s the lack of vertical scaling (adding more CPU or memory), or lack of horizontal scaling (adding the ability to scale resources up and down based on current load).
Improved Security and Compliance
Several features make the cloud a more secure option than traditional storage, including:
- Encryption: Protect data when it’s stored and being transferred to ensure only authorized users can access sensitive information.
- Access control: Implement strong access control mechanisms (e.g., multi-factor authentication, or MFA) to regulate who can access specific data.
- Continuous monitoring: Monitor access and activity to detect and prevent potential security threats.
- Built-in compliance tools: Manage and maintain compliance with tools like Amazon Web Service (AWS) Security Hub, AWS Config, and AWS CloudTrail.
- Disaster recovery: Protect your data (and peace of mind) with continuous block-level replication. Our longstanding partnership with the AWS Disaster Recovery Team allows for easier, more frequent testing.
As an advanced AWS Consulting Partner, our clients gain access to one of the most powerful cloud providers in the market. We offer a wide range of tools and services, and support various compliance frameworks and certifications to meet our clients’ specific needs.
Enhanced Collaboration and Productivity
When your SMB is beholden to on-prem IT infrastructure, you’re limited in where work can be done. With the cloud, you gain remote access, seamless integrations, and workflow automation, enabling your team to share files, communicate, and work on projects from anywhere, anytime.
The cloud also is also a great solution for virtual desktops, providing users with operating system access from remote locations or devices. This allows workspace access from anywhere with an internet connection.
The Risks and Challenges SMBs Need to Navigate
While worth it in the long-run, migrating your entire IT infrastructure to the cloud is not without its growing pains. But with careful planning and security measures, it is possible to navigate them successfully.
Security Concerns and Best Practices
Protecting your SMBs’ data in the cloud is a top priority for cloud providers like JetSweep. We help our clients mitigate data breaches, ransomware, malware, insider threats, misconfigurations, and compliance issues by encouraging best practices, such as:
- Educating employees about cybersecurity risks and training them to identify and report suspicious activity
- Implementing robust access controls, like principle of least privilege, MFA, and role-based access
- Conducting regular security audits to identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses
- Utilizing cloud security controls to monitor and manage cloud security posture
Choosing the Right Provider
Selecting the right partners can make or break an SMB. To find the right cloud provider:
- Identify current and future business needs in terms of storage, processing power, and applications. Select a partner that ensures your environment works for you.
- Determine your budget and how much you’re willing to spend on cloud services. Make sure your partner understands where to look to reduce costs.
- Consider the scalability needed as your business grows. Does your partner have a suite of services that can adjust alongside your SMB’s workloads?
- Prioritize security and compliance by choosing a partner with knowledge of industry regulations and standards your SMB must adhere to.
Compliance and Regulatory Considerations
Depending on your industry, your SMB could face certain compliance and regulatory challenges. For example, an SMB in the healthcare space will have to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Financial companies must adhere to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), and any company processing credit card data must follow the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Make sure your cloud provider has the necessary certifications for your industry-specific regulatory requirements.
Managing Cloud Costs Effectively
While the cloud generally offers SMBs lower upfront and long-term costs compared to traditional IT infrastructure, it’s still important for owners to manage their costs effectively. Avoid hidden fees and optimize cloud spending by reviewing pricing and billing information, monitoring usage, optimizing storage, setting budgets, and establishing governance policies.
How to Approach Cloud Adoption Strategically
Like with any aspect of your business, strategy must be at the forefront. So, before diving headfirst into the cloud:
- Assess your business needs and cloud readiness: Start by defining your business objectives, evaluating your current IT infrastructure, and assessing your security posture to identify any gaps.
- Choose the right cloud model and provider: Analyze pricing models, assess the level of technical assistance offered, identify the types of services you need, and evaluate how well the cloud provider can integrate with your existing infrastructure, applications, and tools. Working with an AWS Consulting Partner like JetSweep can also provide the opportunity to get your projects funded.
- Create a roadmap for migration and integration: Assess your current system, define objectives, and understand the migration process. JetSweep can provide your business with a reliable framework for success in your cloud initiatives.
- Perform ongoing management and optimization: Focus on continuous monitoring to identify areas for improvement, leverage cost-saving tools and strategies, and adjust the size and capacity of your cloud resources to match actual workload demands.
How to Select a Cloud Partner
Adopting a cloud-based infrastructure can feel overwhelming for a SMB. But with the right partner, your company can gain tailored cloud solutions, security expertise, and cost optimization so your SMB can thrive.
Start by researching partners and comparing pricing models. Look at various providers’ experience and expertise in your specific industry, check for certifications and partnerships with leading technology vendors, and research opportunities for project funding. You can also read case studies and ask for references from other SMB owners.
Take the Next Step
Cloud computing isn’t just for enterprises — it’s a game-changer for SMBs. Working with a cloud provider empowers your business with the same agility, security, and scalability as larger organizations, leveling the playing field and unlocking new opportunities for innovation and success.