Dilemmas for business considering cloud-based IT

If you're a home IT user, you're no stranger to "the cloud": chances are that services like Gmail (web-based e-mail), Flickr (online photo storage) and Dropbox (access-anywhere file storage for PC, Mac or smartphone) have well established the concept in your mind. In other words, you don't care where the servers are located: all that matters is that you can get to your e-mails, photos and files and they're backed up, whatever happens to your own computer.

But it's not that straightforward in industry. Users of business IT services in Bristol and beyond are facing the same dilemma. The pace of growth in cloud-based software and storage has business leaders caught between two bases: eagerness to adopt what the new technological frontier has to offer, balanced by concerns about managing complexity, security and how exactly their needs will be met

After all, their needs differ from home users in many ways.

First, files are typically much larger - if you're talking a design project, a website or a database it could run into the tens of gigabytes

Second, needs are more complex - usually the most important requirement for businesses is that many workers need to collaborate on a project at once

Thirdly, more and more of this work is happening remotely - where users could be accessing important IT assets on many different kinds of devices, including smartphones and older PCs. This understandably leads to security concerns: how to prevent data escaping, and how to prevent unwanted access.

Nevertheless, while these concerns are slowing down the wider adoption of the cloud, companies with a knowledgeable IT support partner are able to overcome these obstacles and make their own step into an increasingly cloud-based future.