Converting to a paperless office involves several steps to ensure that you will be able to transition your business quickly and easily.

Make sure to consider all the variables for your business.  Do you need to have your documents indexed so they’re easy to find, or do you want the ability to manipulate them as you need to?

Once you have a good idea of what you want your system to do, you need to select a document management system and a platform to implement and use your newly converted documents.

The next choice is the type of system you want to use to store and manage your documents.  You could use a dedicated server that’s located in your office, or select a cloud service that eliminates cost and increases flexibility.

The industry standard is moving away from dedicated servers and towards cloud-based services.

This transition has given cloud service providers the ability to present several different options that change the functionality and access for their customers.  You can choose from three main options: public cloud computing, private cloud computing, and hybrid cloud computing.

Let’s take a look at some of their differences, and what they offer to help you manage your electronic documents better.

Public Cloud Services

A public cloud service is a free or pay-as-you-go service where companies provide services like storage, email and more to anyone that chooses to use it.

You probably have accessed or used one of these systems recently- do you have a Gmail account, utilize Google Drive or DropBox, or use any other web-based service that stores or passes along information?

All of these are public cloud services.  If you can use it at little or no cost to you, you’re probably on a public cloud.

There’s a lot of advantages to public cloud services:

The biggest advantage of the public cloud is cost

You’ll always have a free option, but if you need to expand your capabilities or capacity, it’s an incremental cost increase instead of a costly investment in additional resources or infrastructure.  Paying as you go is a great way to ensure that your systems are affordable and easy to upgrade.

Public cloud services are also very reliable

To ensure access to anyone that wants to use it, public cloud providers have to have multiple data centers and enough servers to ensure that there will be little to no down time if something happens to fail.  This ensures that your cloud-based systems should always be functional, and repaired quickly if something causes an outage.

There’s also a lot of different types of public cloud services

No matter what you’re looking to do, there’s probably a service out there that you can try- or use- for free.  It gives you the flexibility to try new products without having to invest thousands of dollars to implement them.

Public cloud solutions are a mainstay for businesses and individuals- but be wary of the security and privacy implications of using this type of cloud service.  If you need assurance that your information is protected, a private cloud might be a better solution.

Private Cloud Solutions

A private cloud is structured almost identically to a public cloud.  One of the main differences is that the cloud services are controlled and accessed by an individual organization within their firewalls.

Private clouds typically have proprietary architecture that allows the organization the ability to control the data they have stored on the private cloud.

Simply put, it gives an organization more control of what happens with their data, how they control that data, and offers dramatically increased security measures.

If you’re considering a private cloud, here’s some of the advantages that differ from what we’ve already listed above:

• The most critical difference between public and private cloud services is the increased ability to implement greater security measures and ensure your information is kept private.
  Since a private cloud is managed in a controlled environment, you have the ability to lock down access and increase network security.

• Since a private cloud is only accessed by an individual company, that organization has complete control of all aspects of the network, which gives you the ability to shift resources and implement changes.
  You can also customize the network for your businesses’ specific needs instead of trying to force your business into a cookie-cutter solution.

If you’re tremendously concerned about security and external access to your network or want to customize cloud services to your business, a private cloud could be the right solution for you.  Keep in mind that there will be additional costs to consider due to the fact that private cloud services need additional infrastructure and customized configuration to make it work within your company’s firewall.

Hybrid Cloud Solutions

A hybrid cloud solution is the happy medium between a public and private cloud service.  It gives you the flexibility to utilize both types of services depending on the level of security and types of services that you would like to use.

For instance, maybe you want to have a platform that is completely secure for your critical documents and development, but you still want to have the convenience and compatibility of a web-based email system.

With a hybrid cloud solution, you can integrate the two and have the best of both worlds.

Hybrid Clouds have an option built into the private section of the service called cloud bursting.

Essentially, if you have your entire infrastructure on a private cloud, you can set up this hybrid option so that if your network has performance issues, the service will switch non-critical functionality over to a public cloud to make sure you maintain the integrity and performance on your private cloud, or just allocate all non-critical functionality on a public cloud permanently.

Since a hybrid system combines the best features of private and public cloud services, you can select which functions work best for your company and create a functional, secure, reliable cloud solution for your company.

Not sure what Cloud Solution will work? MIS Software can help!

MIS Software will help you find the right cloud solution that fits the needs of your company.

To get started, fill out the form on the Contact Us Page. Our team will help you find the right solution for your business.