In today’s technological market, cloud computing is one of the most promising innovations for business management. Having the potential to generate increased efficiency and cost-saving methods, it is an effective tool for every business management. The term “Cloud Computing” is in use to describe both platform and type of application. It can also be an integral part of business management, which makes it easier to perform complex tasks with the help of computing machines.

Over the years, cloud computing is getting quite popular amongst organizations and is the in-demand solution for business management to store, access, and process data. Furthermore, cloud computing can transform the way businesses can manage their use of computers and the internet. This transformation essentially relates to the way of information collection and the applications in use for business management. Organizations and businesses can store their data or information in the cloud computing platform instead of keeping it on desktop computers.

With the rapidly changing technology, organizations and businesses are changing their needs to compete with the online world that is full of competition. Although companies have various reasons to use cloud computing, the essential purpose for cloud is to have effective business management to lower costs. Apart from that, organizations or businesses mostly use cloud computing for the following objectives:

Cloud computing services are extremely accessible solutions and make sure that organizations always meet the data storage requirements. It can provide a modular approach to the business functions, resulting to have operational improvements and real benefits. Cloud computing can also allow teams within a business to enjoy real-time collaboration and communication over secure virtual networks. For this reason, many businesses will be interested in implementing cloud computing services, as they only charge on the storage amount and resources utilized.

For the success of any business management in an organization, a well-designed customer support strategy plays an essential role. Hence, to have effective customer service, the cloud computing platform assists to create operative customer-oriented applications and adds a level of personalization.

The cloud computing services uses the cross-platform Application Programming Interface (APIs) and allows easier integration with several systems. This can reduce the cost of the infrastructure by using reliable and powerful third-party infrastructure. Similarly, with cloud computing, employees can work in a team during challenging situations and easily complete their tasks with better collaboration within a short period. This will allow the business management to increase their productivity and relatively reduce the cost.

As mentioned above, in cloud computing, organizations or businesses are required to pay only for the resources they have utilized. Compared to traditional dedicated servers or other traditional hosting services, cloud computing only charges for the services in use and storage space. The business management team do not require to hire other dedicated technical teams for the management of servers and other technical problems. All the technical problems are taken care of by the cloud vendors including deploying, managing, and upgrading the system as per the requirements. Thus, cloud computing is extremely cost-effective in terms of business management.

As cybersecurity attacks are rapidly increasing daily, they can raise concerns for most organizations and businesses. It is a challenging factor for the business management teams to maintain security levels and build trust amongst the clients. Considering this, cloud computing service providers optimize a high level of security mechanism to fulfill the organization’s security. The business management team of the organization can also implement and manage the advanced security techniques. All the data are stored in a centralized secure location with a high level of security.

In cloud computing, organizations or businesses get a maximum level of flexibility. The business management team can manage their employees working on a project or company from all over the world. As everything can be available without any time or location restrictions, organizations have a higher level of flexibility and mobility. With real-time collaboration and updates, mobile devices can also make it possible for easy access to update files for organizations or businesses.

As the cloud computing platform can provide updated files, anyone will be able to edit them from anywhere with just an internet connection and a computing device. It can make it easier to work from any place at any time and requires a different level of commitment. The business management team can share and work in a collaborative environment on the same project with real-time communication.

Even though there are many advantages of using cloud computing in business management, it has some drawbacks.

The use of cloud computing is only possible when there is an internet connection. If there is no proper internet connection, the access to the cloud computing platform or system can get automatically disconnected. Such circumstances mostly take place in developing countries and remote areas, where good internet access is not easily available.

Even though the cloud computing platform has an advanced level of security, there are lots of arguments against it. As the platform or system operates online, each component of cloud computing can expose to a wide range. This creates an opportunity for cyber attackers to strike on the data or activities stored on the server. Such attacks can cause a huge security threat or data loss for the business management.

Despite maintaining high standards of maintenance, cloud computing platforms or systems can always become prone to an outage and other technical issues. The in-house IT technician would not be able to handle if a problem or technical issue arises in the platform or system. Thus, the business management will not have other options instead of connecting with customer support to resolve the issues.

The platform dependencies or implicit dependency is one of the prominent disadvantages of cloud computing. It is also known as vendor lock-in, where it makes it impossible to migrate from one cloud platform to another. Moreover, the migration process can be complex, expensive to reconfigure applications, while meeting the requirements of a new host. Apart from that, additional data security and privacy vulnerability issue arise during migration.

Although cloud computing can reduce the overall reduction in staff and hardware costs, it can be expensive for small-scale and short-term projects. The estimated cost could be higher than the expected price tag. It is always wise for organizations and businesses to have an experiment with the offerings and make sure what will work the best for the business management.

It would not be reasonable to state that the Nepal IT market is completely untouched by cloud computing. There are many businesses that are currently using Office 365 that is SaaS (software as a service) and a few of them are also using PaaS (platform as a service). However, rarely any businesses have opted for IaaS (infrastructure as a service) and DraaS (disaster recovery as a service) in the case of Microsoft Azure. The main reason behind many businesses have not moved to cloud computing, is because cloud providers are not being able to show a decrease in TCO (total cost of ownership). In addition, privacy, service quality, performance, and legal regulations are primary challenges when it comes to cloud adoption in Nepal.

But the fact that Nepal has many small and medium enterprises provides a huge opportunity for the cloud market. Another advantage can be in terms of implementing E-governance in rural areas using the cloud. Cloud Computing also enables people to work from anywhere with a simple connection to the internet. This increases the productivity and efficiency of work. The Government of Nepal is working towards the concept of digitalized Nepal increasing the value of cloud computing in Nepal.

Without any doubt, the cloud computing platform or service is the future for most organizations and businesses. However, it is always better for the business management to have the necessary know-how about the service provider. In lack of computing experience, business management can seek advice from an external cloud computing consultant. Cloud management consultants can assist the business management with the best solution or advice by assessing the current and future needs of the organization. Therefore, depending upon the circumstances, cloud computing has its benefits and drawbacks for business management.