Cloud computing applications

Last week, we defined cloud computing and the different technologies behind it. This week we will discuss the most popular applications of cloud computing for small to medium businesses. In fact, smaller businesses are the first to benefit from the new cloud-computing trend. It decreases the barriers to entry by eliminating the hassle of having to deploy physical infrastructure like storage systems and e-mail servers, facilitates collaboration between business partners and gives access to sophisticated technology at a low cost.

Some of the most useful applications of cloud computing include:

·      Productivity: a number of software targets the improvement of productivity. Examples include SageOne which offers invoicing, project tracking and expense management or Adobe FormsCentral which provides a good and easy way to create some fairly user-interactive forms for your business website or social media pages and analyze the data gathered through this forms. Gliffy is another service on the cloud that allows drawing diagrams such as databases or organizational charts in collaboration with other members of the organization, improving productivity.

·      Project management: Software such as Mindomo 5 enables you to easily visualize projects through mind maps, embed media, hyperlinks, and attachments, and begin planning projects by assigning priorities, completion statuses, and resources. 

·      CRM: Salesforce.com can track contacts, customer interactions, tasks, and hook into Outlook and Google Apps, while also offering document sharing and mobile access. Depending on the edition, it can also allow tracking sales opportunities and offer full reporting and analytics, custom dashboards, e-mail marketing, sales forecasts, granular permissions, real-time data sharing, and basic customer service tools.

·      File syncing: Dropbox, Box, Google Drive are all cloud-based services that allow you to access and edit the most updated version of a document online.

·      Finance: Bookkeeping software such as FreshBooks and and QuickBooks are all moving on the cloud to facilitate usage…

·      IT management: software such as PureCloud provides small and mid-sized businesses with a risk management tool that gives administrators an easy-to-use and comprehensive list of security issues in the network as well as detailed steps to proactively remediate the problems.