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Cloud Storage Solutions for Small & Mid-size Businesses

21 Aug, 2015
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Cloud computing is playing a pivotal role in transforming the productivity of small businesses with its triple fold advantage of cost reduction, increased data security and the possibility to work remotely. The cloud provides a flexible and scalable platform, which drastically increases opportunities to manage, share and control its data.

According to Forbes, 78% of U.S. small businesses will have fully adopted cloud computing by 2020 more than doubling the current 37% as of today. The U.S. Small & Medium Business (SMB) cloud computing & services market will grow from $43B in 2015 to $55B in 2016.

Small to mid-size businesses should seriously consider optimizing opportunities in cloud computing and cloud storage solutions, and capitalize on their own big data to make better decisions in the future. Check out our round up of the most popular cloud storage solutions for SMBs.

1. Amazon Web Services

Amazon’s expansive technology platform allows startups of all sizes and kinds to run lean and frees them to be fast, agile, and global while still being efficient with their IT spend. And as they evolve and become more sophisticated, they can plug in to AWS’s continuous service and feature innovations to make their ideas realities.

2. Rackspace

Rackspace offers managed solutions from ecommerce to hosting, big data to hybrid cloud, Rackspace specialists can architect, run and support all of your cloud workloads 24x7x365. This allows you to harness the power of the cloud for your strategic business goals without the common hindrances that come from trying to manage it yourself.

3. Microsoft SkyDrive

Microsoft SkyDrive allows you to work seamlessly with free Office Web Apps, edit online at the same time as your collaborators, and track versions.

4. Zoolz Business

Zoolz Business uses Amazon AWS infrastructure to provide three levels of encryption and the reliability of multiple storage devices across multiple facilities.

5. Dropbox for Business

Dropbox for Business bulks up its basic services of syncing and sharing personal files between the cloud and PCs and/or mobile devices, to support multiple users, provides 1 TB of storage per user, centralized administration/activity monitoring, additional security settings, and the capability to track and recover previous versions of files.

6. SugarSync for Business

With SugarSync for Business, you can sync and share files and folders from any PC, Mac, iOS, Android device, or even a Blackberry.

7. Carbonite Business

Carbonite Business gives you 250 GB of backup space to share between an unlimited number of computers, external hard drives and NAS devices.

8. Box for Business

Box for Business allows you to centralize business data in the cloud for easier collaboration, as well as several other interesting features such as the capability to share screenshots and screencasts from your desktop, search for text with the content of files and integrates seamlessly with several third party apps.

9. Google Drive

Google Drive is a cloud-based file storage and sharing service paired with the SaaS-based productivity suite (previously known as Google Docs), which lets you create and edit documents via the browser.

10. Microsoft OneDrive

Microsoft OneDrive offers a whopping 15 GB free storage, and seamless integration with Windows operating systems.

11. LiveDrive for Business

LiveDrive for Business provides an affordable storage solution for SMBs, where you can backup all your office computers, NAS and network storage devices. You also have the option to provide each user with a private storage space, and monitor and manage team collaboration.

12. OpenDrive

As a part of OpenDrive’s affordable storage solution, you get features such as auto syncing, file versioning, redundant backup, mobile apps and custom branding.

13. SpiderOak

SpiderOak is unique for its "Zero-Knowledge Environment", where it lets you create your password on your own computer and keep it there, so that no one else can use it to decrypt your data.

14. MozyPro

An Online Backup for Small Business, MozyPro can automatically back up your critical files hat reside on desktops, laptops, or servers. The company’s software is compatible with both Windows and Mac.

15. CrashPlan

CrashPlan has an interesting pricing scheme that lets you choose between backing up an unlimited amount of data per computer or an unlimited number of computers for a given amount of data.

16. Acronis Backup to Cloud

Acronis Backup to Cloud backs up complete images of workstations, servers, or virtual machines, allowing you to restore anything from a single file to an entire server.

17. JustCloud

JustCloud offers a scalable solution to run your business from the cloud. Its business plan provides automated and scheduled backups, automated video backups, file and folder sharing, document management, mobile apps and more.

18. Egnyte

Egnyte provides a customizable small business solution with flexible access to files, shared folders with permissions, and central administration and reporting. It features multi-level data encryption, automated sync, FTP integration, mobile apps, Google Apps and Salesforce integration, and custom branding.

What cloud storage sites do you use at your organization and which ones would you recommend? We would love to hear about your business favorites in comments below.

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Ankita Katuri
Software engineer at coMakeIT
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