Document storage can be a headache for businesses. If you still use paper, this can be holding you back from really operating like a 21st Century business, while even digital solutions from ten years ago are being left behind and could be causing you issues. 

This is why it’s important to consider the potential benefits of a cloud storage solution for business. But what kind of business problems can be solved by switching to cloud storage? In this guide, we’ll explain just some of the most common problems our Cert-Trace® clients faced before they made the switch.

Business Challenges Solved By Cloud Storage

You might already be considering a cloud storage solution for business, which is why you’re here reading this guide.

If so, the chances are that you’re experiencing problems similar to these: 

1. Spending Too Much Money On Storage Infrastructure

Whether you’re dealing with mountains of paper or just bulky server hardware, physical storage can be costly. Both need a place to be kept on your premises and specialist in-house staff to maintain them, which can be particularly costly for internal IT infrastructure.

For this you not only need the initial set-up costs but also ongoing work to fix, upgrade and update them. And that’s not even considering the expense of making sure this hardware fits into your tech stack and works smoothly with existing systems. 

It’s also increasingly difficult to actually find the staff to fill the roles needed to manage technical jobs like this, with over 90% of business leaders saying that recruiting and retaining talent was a major or moderate challenge.

When it comes to paper, there’s the cost of the warehouse you may well need to store everything that needs to be archived. Document archiving is so much simpler and more cost-effective when it’s all taking place in the cloud.

2. Being At Risk Of Being Hacked

Along with making sure the right people can access the right files and fixing the server when it breaks every Friday afternoon like clockwork, the team you have in charge of your internal data storage also needs to work hard on security. 

Business data is always at risk of being hacked, so finding solutions to this challenge is an ongoing issue. And having your documentation on paper rather than in a server doesn’t eliminate the risk because they can still be accessed in person by someone who shouldn’t be looking at them.

But how can a cloud storage solution help solve this problem? A blockchain-based solution like Cert-Trace® is the most secure option you could use for your documentation because it cannot be tampered with or accessed by anyone you haven’t given permission to. You can see exactly who has accessed it and it’s almost impossible to hack into.

3. Being Vulnerable To Disasters 

Things can go wrong. Fires and floods can happen, and if they damage your physical documentation or your IT servers, the potential loss of data could be disastrous for your business. 

Cloud storage can help with this because it’s much less vulnerable to the damage that can be done by physical disasters. Document digitization is the ideal way to keep important data and files safe from harm and the best providers will also have robust backup plans in place to protect you should anything go wrong.

Could you afford to lose all of your documentation in a flood or a fire? How easy would it be to bounce back from years of crucial files all being lost in the space of a few hours? If you don’t have easy answers to those questions, you need a cloud storage solution.

4. Being Held Back By Legacy Solutions

“But that’s the way we’ve always done it” is a classic excuse for not moving forward with better solutions. A progressive business needs to be constantly evaluating its processes and procedures to find ways to improve them, and if you have an inefficient system for document storage, you need to consider a cloud storage solution.

Storing your documents in the cloud rather than on paper or in internal servers makes them much more easily accessible for staff working across the globe or simply working from home. It also leaves you much more open to important documents being accidentally duplicated or even completely mislaid, which could have huge implications.

At the very least it can cause delays while someone is tasked with trying to track down the missing documents or trying to work out which version is the most up-to-date. Even if this document isn’t crucial for compliance or legal reasons or isn’t needed to ensure swift payment to suppliers or delivery of goods to clients, it’s still an inefficient use of resources that could be holding your business back.

Would you rather be held back or take the steps forward that free up time, money, and resources and that make it easier to collaborate and scale up? 

Conclusion

All of these are common problems faced by businesses that haven’t started using a cloud storage solution yet, and all of them could be solved by making that decision. So the only question left is whether you’ve already started planning to take your business to the next level or are going to start right now.