The cloud: an immense asset companies should protect

Chas Moloney, Marketing Director, Ricoh UK & Ireland  

 

With the advent of remote and hybrid working solutions, cloud systems have fast become the norm for the majority – if not all – businesses. The driving need to set up new working structures which allow for greater team agility forced companies to identify ways to transport the office into the employee’s home. The cloud was a perfectly natural fit.

Cloud software offers an incredible level of flexibility, independence and accessibility from everywhere, requiring nothing more than a stable internet connection. For us at Ricoh, the cloud has always represented a vast possibility of growth. We are well accustomed to working in the cloud and, as an integral part of how we do business, this isn’t going to change. We will continue to evolve our cloud technology and study its evolution and crucial role in workplace development. Even in a physical context such as the office, the cloud is an incredible asset to increase productivity and facilitate exchanging and reviewing documents and data.

However, the future of the cloud can’t lie in simply purchasing more memory space – it’s much more than that. Companies need to step forward and develop a distributed system that can allow better management and mitigate any department silos in the business. Cloud, at its most effective, is a collaboration tool. Meaning that the full potentiality of the cloud can only be properly realised if this system is used in the right way by leaders, IT professionals and employees. In fact, in our report Leading Change at Work, we found that across all businesses – public and private –  siloed decision making and working practices were the biggest hindrances to productive working.

Therefore, good management of the cloud relies on how it’s managed, distributed, and secured. Distributed cloud environments offer different cloud options, which offers a personalised service so companies can tailor both employee and customer services and outputs. The ability to leverage and scale data across borders by utilising distributed cloud offers businesses an unparalleled opportunity to provide a new form of professional services. Essentially, the cloud can be an incredibly effective tool when it is personalised to the need of the company and the customers.

This isn’t to say the cloud doesn’t have its flaws – like all facets of remote working, the biggest impact on uptime and resilience is a poor network and support from outdated legacy tools. Physical offices are installed with the best high-speed connectivity from the start, but people’s homes are a different matter. A slow internet connection can be frustrating, and it can diminish the tasks completed and cause issues with things like conference calls which will be imperative during this time. Cloud services that are slowed down due to reduced connectivity speeds are not just a nuisance but a cost to a business – it’s effectively a waste of paid licence fees. To prevent this, businesses should create and implement a cloud-based technology platform to create a network environment that can facilitate mobility and increase efficiency. They should also ensure employees have the right hardware to sit alongside their more modern software.

Outdated hardware also poses an incredible threat to cybersecurity, with data security only as strong as your weakest router. The rapid digital transformation towards remote and mobile workstations has exposed private data both of employees and companies to higher risks, making increasingly urgent the need to safeguard personal data and enhance cybersecurity activities.

Today, awareness around cybersecurity and data protection is higher than ever in the past. According to our 2020 report, The Conscious Workplace, 1/5 of managers were worried about the security of their network connections. Investing in these networks will undoubtedly make life easier for your employees, but it will also help prevent security threats. Unfortunately, connecting devices and entire workspaces to the internet can leave you exposed to cyber-attacks, so making sure your network is the best it can be is more critical than ever.

Ultimately, the cloud is a great resource that should be exploited and protected. With hybrid working likely to stick around for longer than anyone originally planned, careful examination and investment must be paid to ensure greater longevity and safety.

 

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