10 Reasons Why Cloud Storage is Essential to Startups

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TL;DR: Starting a business comes with endless challenges. To keep your team and work protected, you need to secure a reliable cloud storage solution. Here are ten reasons why. 

Operating a startup or a small business can be like fighting with your hands behind your back. You need to consistently invest more money to grow, and you consistently need to grow to earn more money to fund those investments.

Because of this notoriously uphill battle, adding any unnecessary risk into the equation is unwelcome. That's why one of the first orders of business for any company should be to secure a reliable cloud storage solution. 

From risk management to improving your team's remote collaboration capabilities, here are ten reasons why trustworthy cloud storage is essential to every modern startup. 

1. Every Business Should Be Able to Survive Hacks, Crashes, and Accidents

Smart business owners will acquire the tools needed to protect themselves from hackers, network crashes, and physical accidents—like an employee spilling coffee on their computer, for instance.

While you can't outright prevent these occurrences, backing up all of your data with reliable cloud storage providers will mitigate or eliminate any damage done. For a startup that's relatively new and working with low-volume types of data (i.e., documents and images), even a terabyte of storage space will go a long way.

For example, Koofr Cloud Storage is an acclaimed provider with a terabyte of cloud storage space for just $160 (reg. $810) while it's on sale. 

2. Cloud Storage is Affordable and Offsite

Obviously, the main idea of backing up data is to have security in case something happens to your original files. Physical hard drives have been doing this for a long time, and they continue to be valuable and important tools for startups.

That being said, physical hard drives can often be expensive while possessing the same vulnerabilities as your main device or drive. For example, if there were a fire and your backup drive was in the same building as your main one, you would leave your company and its work vulnerable to elimination. 

High-end hard drives built for 20TB of data often cost hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars, which not every small business owner has lying around. With this $100 (reg. $1494) deal on 20TB with Prism Drive Secure Cloud Storage, your team could save on offsite storage that's safe from any unexpected threats to your in-house data. 

3. Privacy Will Save You Time and Money

Startups can't afford to live without top-of-the-line, military-grade encryption for their data. From keeping information safe from competitors to adhering to privacy guidelines and laws for your particular business or industry and protecting unfinished work, investing in privacy can save you time and money in the long run. 

Every cloud storage service that's worth your time offers a high level of encryption. The aforementioned Prism (and many others) provides AES 256-bit and HTTPS encryption to keep users' files safe when uploading and residing on the platform.

It's also a common and best practice for providers to maintain zero-knowledge and no-log policies, meaning they promise not to track your activity or look at your data themselves. 

4. Work Faster and Smarter From the Cloud

Physical hard drives and computers limit your team's work to the confines of its devices. If you have one onsite backup hard drive, that means you can only have one person uploading data to it at a time. Most modern backup storage solutions allow multiple uploads simultaneously.

This not only saves time, but it also means one storage account can be used by employees around the world at any given moment, empowering the team to work faster and more efficiently.

One example of a provider that supports multiple uploads at once, Amaryllo Cloud Storage has 100GB of space on sale for just $30 (reg. $59) for a limited time. 

5. Collaborate Easier With Cloud Backups

As we move down this list, it's becoming clear that cloud access is one of the main benefits of cloud backup. Building on the accessibility of internet-based storage, most of the best platforms include features that make sharing data and collaborating with teams around the world simple, fast, and easy. 

Whether your team shares work with clients in different time zones or contractors operating remotely, being able to share data via links can save incalculable amounts of time. 

In addition to easy sharing, services like Internxt Cloud Storage offer automated syncing to all platforms, including Linux. For a limited time, lifetime access to 2TB is only $200 (reg. $599). 

6. Back Up With Any Device From Anywhere

By utilizing cloud storage instead of solely physical backups, startups open themselves up to work faster from anywhere. In addition to offering file sharing, most modern cloud-backup platforms also allow users to upload from any device anywhere with an internet connection. 

For startups, having the ability for team members to instantly share data collected on work trips can be a major advantage. Say you're embarking on a content creation campaign; giving your team the ability to upload photos they take with their smartphones directly to a shared folder will maximize your sourcing potential. 

7. Modern Cloud Solutions Support Large File Backups

^{Photo via Fotis Fotopoulos on Unsplash}

One of the main reasons to opt against cloud storage up until now has been that teams working with large swaths of data—developers, filmmakers, animators, etc.—haven't been able to find solutions that could handle sizable uploads. 

Fortunately, Prism has found a way to support large file transfers with its 20TB lifetime deal.

Additionally, you can find large-file transfer support with a range of cloud storage providers, and your team can maximize its backup capabilities by investing in high-speed internet and uploading with an ethernet cord. 

8. Streamline Efficiency 

Sometimes finding the file you need for a specific task or project can be time-consuming. For startup founders and execs looking to maximize productivity and reduce waste, it's worth considering how much easier it is to locate a file within a cloud solution than elsewhere. 

Each of the services listed in this article features file-searching tools that enable users to seek out a piece of data and find it instantly. They also often include file preview functions that can help you zero in on a specific file in a large group filled with similarly labeled titles. 

9. Link Cloud Accounts to Broaden Your Backed-Up Network

If your startup already is using a free or paid online cloud storage solution, consider the advantage of bundling subscriptions together to further your network of secure, safe data.

Solutions like Koofr make it easy to connect existing accounts from places like Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon, and OneDrive. This way you can work with partners via your Google Drive or OneDrive while also maintaining all of your backups stored in one central location. 

10. Secure Better and Faster Browsing for Your Team

In addition to offering added security, cloud storage subscriptions liberate your work computers from the weight of holding data. So by keeping projects backed up on drives and cloud storage platforms, you can open up your team's computer processing power to work faster and better. 

On top of lightening a given computer's load, you can also secure faster browsing and computing with a private cloud service like Internxt Cloud Storage, which offers faster and smoother web access in addition to encrypted, reliable cloud storage. 

Empower Your Startup to Survive—and Thrive

^{Photo via Austin Distel on Unsplash}

By withholding cloud storage from a team, leaders are limiting their ability to grow and thrive in a modern environment where every competitor can share files instantly, access them around the world, and rely on their safekeeping. 

Instead of adding another element to the long list of challenges your startup will face, secure a reliable cloud storage solution and set your team up for success. 

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