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Storing your data in a central, secure location is a must in today’s business world. With the cloud, your company no longer has to juggle multiple software and hardware on premises—a simple online application, such as Office 365, takes care of all your needs. One of the first things you should consider moving to the cloud is your business email.

Let’s take a look at why the cloud is one of the best business email solutions on the market, and the benefits you’ll receive from taking the leap.
 

1. Cost savings

Arguably the biggest concern people have with using the cloud is how their budget will be affected. Contrary to popular belief, cloud email solutions are much cheaper and more cost effective than conventional in-house email servers.

When you manage an in-house email server, you have to pay for the server, operating system, email platform, electricity, cooling components, and necessary staffing resources. In contrast, the per-user cost of hosting email on the cloud is a lot less and more structured.

For example, while a traditional in-house email server charges you every 2–4 years, cloud platforms distribute payments across several months and years so you don’t have to pay any lump sums. These payments also cover the expenses of maintaining your servers and pushing updates to them.

The total cost of a particular cloud email solution depends on how many users have access to the server, the storage capacity of the server, and the amount of memory consumed on an hourly basis. All of these considerations are factored into your payment plan to ensure you pay only for what you use.
 

2. Disaster recovery

One of the biggest advantages of hosting your business email on the cloud is having access to disaster recovery services. And in today’s world, disaster recovery is essential if you want to protect your organization’s assets.

If you rely on a conventional server, you have almost no guarantee of data protection when a disaster (virtual or physical) inevitably occurs. This means that if your server crashes, all your data will be lost—and you’ll have a very hard time recovering.

On the other hand, cloud servers such as those hosted by Microsoft ensure your data is secured and backed up in remote data centers. So even if your on-premises server crashes, your data will still be backed up off site.

3. Data Security

When cloud computing was first introduced, people were initially quite skeptical of adopting it because of security concerns. They thought it would mean opening themselves up to malware, spam or phishing attempts.

For instance, how many security experts do you currently have on your team? It is safe to assume none. However, a mature cloud provider will have a team of trained professionals as well as all the latest technology to identify and block any malicious email content.

Over the years, cloud computing has become more reliable and secure—even more so than traditional on-premises solutions.

Blog: Top Office 365 Security Tips for MSPs

4. Consistent uptime

It’s a common misconception that using business email solutions in the cloud can increase downtime for any large-scale enterprise. However, the reality is quite the opposite.
Cloud-based emailing solutions improve uptime and thus business operations. This is possible because providers tend to have access to a number of multiple redundant sites that most end users just could not afford by themselves.

For any business this could prove to be rather beneficial, considering uptime is essential to smooth operation.
 

5. Global access

Many of today’s employees work globally. As such, your business needs to offer its employees global access to email servers. Cloud email solutions are hosted by data centers distributed globally and help increase accessibility, making it easier for your employees to access their emails and stay on top of their work regardless of where they may be.

Blog: How to Support Remote Teams with Office 365

 

6. Scalability

Cloud business email solutions are fully scalable, both vertically and horizontally. This makes them especially ideal for businesses that expect to grow in the near future—such as if your company plans to hire additional employees.

Scalability ensures that you don’t experience downtime or service disruptions due to increased workload as your organization expands. Scaling may entail acquiring additional software licenses, increasing the total storage space (disk and memory), or distributing the workload across multiple servers.
 

7. Licensing

On-premises email servers involve lots of hardware and software that you have to regularly upgrade—and the costs add up. But you don’t have to pay to update cloud email servers—all you have to do is get your updates online, and your work is done. You’ll receive updates as soon as they become available. And automatic updates make your life even easier.
 

8. Office applications

If you choose Office 365 for your cloud email, you’ll also get access to additional productivity apps that come with the suite—like SharePoint, Skype for Business, and more. For just $7.50 a month, you’ll be all set with your cloud email and apps. Also, since Office 365 is owned by Microsoft, integrating it with Exchange mailboxes and other apps is quite easy.

Within a few minutes any organization can start benefitting from a robust business email solution without any large upfront costs or IT infrastructure.

Written by The Sherweb Team Collaborators @ Sherweb