Taken from PC World Magazine, January 2012 Edition

Outsourcing IT functions such as payroll, website hosting, email, and enterprise resource planning has long been normal for businesses of all sizes. But outsourcing critical functions – such as database and file servers, application development, and document storage – gives many organizations pause. Experienced IT admins point to recent well-publicized outages, data losses, and hacking incidents that have cost companies big in lost productivity, lawsuits, penalties, and even bankruptcy. Nevertheless, your business could benefit significant from using cloud services. Here are the main savings and advantages.

1 – You’ll save on infrastructure, by not having to purchase server, software and maintenance.

2 – You’ll save on setup and management, because the cloud providers have knowledgeable, experienced administrators.

3 – You’ll save on utilities, because you have less equipment in-house to run.

4 – You’ll get better performance and better features, due to the fact that cloud providers can afford much better equipment and more up-to-date software.

5 – Your company will become more agile, as the cloud-based service can implement the latest features quicker than a small business.

6 – You’ll enjoy more fault tolerance, because cloud providers maintain multiple data centres, redundant internet connections, and continual backups.