Do you have your head in the clouds? If you don’t, you’re bound to be dealing with quite a headache. The old way of running a business with computers is too complex. You know those old movies, where computers took up entire rooms? If you think about it, with the space we have to devote to servers—as in the physical computing servers—we’re not that far removed from those days.

In the traditional model, any business that wants an app (customized software) for their company has to find the space to store the servers needed for computing power. It has to hire a team of IT specialists to set up and maintain the software—and setting up a custom app is a task that can easily take weeks. When there’s a problem, the company’s IT people scramble to try and fix it, but in the meantime, all of the company’s business slows down or halts all together. If the company ever wants to upgrade even part of the software, it risks messing up everything else that’s tied into that app. All of this costs loads of money to start up and maintain.

And what does that mean for the small business? Small companies simply don’t have the resources to run customized apps for their businesses. They have no choice but to use simple software straight-from-the-package. If they encounter problems—they’re out of luck.

These problems are exactly why cloud computing is taking off. The term “cloud computing” comes from the somewhat confusing diagrams that chart a cloud computing network’s services, clientele, and partners, which are all connected through the Internet. But you can forget that cloud-like chart—all you need to know is what cloud computing can do for your business and why it’s on the rise!

Cloud computing cuts out the company-run servers and the IT staff entirely. That means that the costs of running and setting up servers are out of the picture, too. Instead, companies are able to run customizable software apps, websites, and more through a third party, which shares its resources with other companies and individuals. Plus, it can be set up to work in days!

So you have to share resources? How does your company get customized service? What about security? These haven’t been big issues with cloud computing networks. A full-time staff much larger than you could afford works to keep all of the clientele’s apps up and running. If you have a problem, help is only a phone call away. When there’s an upgrade that can make your service more reliable, the cloud computing network takes care of the upgrade for you.

Cloud computing networks are either public or private. Private cloud computing networks offer their services to a select number of clients, usually businesses, while public cloud computing networks are available to anyone over the Internet. While some services (like web-based e-mail) may be free, cloud computing companies make their money by charging their clientele according to the services provided.

What does this mean for your company? The cost of going through a  cloud computing network for your business server needs is much less than procuring and running servers and a team of IT professionals on your own. You are charged for the capacity of computing power you need and use—which is easily expanded if it becomes necessary. You may hear cloud computing called “utility computing” because of this pay-as-you-go model.

In this tough economy, companies have to cut back wherever they can, but they don’t want to sacrifice efficiency or quality. After all, apps are the software on which a company runs! With cloud computing, companies get better service for less money—an all around win-win!

IT cloud computing, IT, software