There are many advertised benefits of cloud computing, such as scalability, cost reduction, and storage on demand. While these points help to showcase the advantages of using virtualized data centers or third-party services, they don’t reveal all of the benefits.

Once the agreement has been signed, and your systems and processes are set up with proper training for users, something happens. The initial use benefits of cloud computing are realized, and surprisingly for most, additional advantages begin to emerge. These unexpected advantages provide a lot of value that the business didn’t plan for. The following are some examples of the unexpected benefits that emerge after cloud computing has been implemented:

Competitive Advantage 

We live in an extremely competitive global economy, and the advantage will go to the organisations that leverage the latest technologies.  To do this, businesses must have the leadership and guidance of their CTOs, CIOs and other technology leaders. These executives shouldn’t be spending all their time overseeing maintenance of in-house IT systems, instead they should be using their time to focus on more important business operations. Statistics have shown that up to 70% of all IT budgets are tied up in routine maintenance. But with cloud computing IT executives have the time and freedom to think and act strategically, and use their time and energy for more important business endeavors.

Increased Flexibility

Lack of time and money often puts a hold on the pursuit of new ideas in both long-standing organisations and entrepreneurial ones. Have you ever wanted to design and test a new product or service but you didn’t have the time or money? With the availability of on-demand cloud resources, you can get new configurations up and running within hours, or even within minutes. This eliminates time as an obstacle, and because users are only charged for the amount of time they’re spending on the cloud, helps to reduce the financial investment needed.   The best innovation comes from experimenting, and the cloud offers the ability to try new ideas without costly investments in money and time. 

Adopting Successful Business Processes

Many business owners believe that cloud computing levels the playing field for all business customers. However, cloud services are based on the collective learning and suggestions of customers, and new customers benefit from formulas, processes, and interfaces that have been tested and proven to deliver the best business results. 

Fast Transitions

It can take months, or even years to transfer data and records from one system to another. Sometimes it can’t be accomplished. Even government agencies deal with this problem, and some agencies today have staff working to manually code information from one system to another. This takes a lot of time and effort, when systems in the cloud can be transitioned quickly and easily.

Resource and Energy Efficiency

As for resources in the cloud, less equipment is required to run workloads, which reduces data center space and the eventual e-waste footprint. And with energy, less physical equipment is being used, so less electricity is being consumed.  In addition, the pay-per-use and self-service ability of a cloud-based infrastructure allows users to consume only the computing resources they need.