Your guide for choosing the right cloud storage solution for your organization

Cloud storage is one of those technologies that companies are adopting more and more every day. It helps organizations lay a strong foundation for their business while offering agility, flexibility, and efficiently at a lower operating cost. 

If your business is planning to invest in a file management solution, you have reached the right place. Below are five basic capabilities that you should look for in a cloud service provider before purchasing. 
 

1. Security, privacy, and compliance 

With data being perhaps the most valued asset for any business, data security is the first aspect you should look into. You need to pick a solution that offers enterprise grade security for your company files while ensuring the solution meets all the industry standards for safety and privacy. Here are some basic features that a cloud storage solution should have:

• Comprehensive network security and monitoring techniques to provide multiple layers of protection and defense

• Intrusion-detection mechanisms to monitor network and employee systems, as well as report any suspicious activities or violations

• Data centers with strong physical security at all points in time

• Data encryption at rest and during transit 

2. Scalability and flexibility 

Change is the only thing that is constant. The solution you choose must help your company adapt to your ever-changing business environment and scale as your teams grow. Cloud storage solutions should offer a virtual infrastructure that's both scalable and flexible. Find a tool that leverages functionalities like these: 

• Shared space with control over storage allocation 

• Flexible pricing plans 

• Storage add-ons 

• Upscale and downsize your plan based on your needs

3. Accessibility

The key benefit of the cloud is information availability and accessibility. With the right cloud storage solution, your company can ensure your employees can have access to information they need at the right time, regardless of their work location. Make sure to check if a cloud service provider offers mobile and desktop apps so your teams can have constant, secure access to their information even when they are offline. 

4. Disaster recovery 

While cloud storage helps teams stay connected to their work from any device, it can also expose business files to certain kinds of threats. Imagine an employee loses their laptop which had business data synced to it or a team members tries to share confidential files with people outside the organization. To tackle these situations, make sure the solution you pick has these functionalities:

• Remote wipe for devices 

• File-sharing restrictions 

• Employee device management 

• User-level and file-level activities reports 

5. Interoperability 

Nearly every organization today strives to be a technology-enabled to help their business longevity. This focus on implementing the latest technology into every process is meant to help their teams achieve their goals more quickly and efficiently. 

However, one challenge businesses face during this process is that with every new solution they implement, they may end up creating more and more information silos within the organization. This increases the gaps between different departments and creates newer challenges for the teams. This is why it's essential to make sure the technologies your company invests in should be capable of streamlining information among all your business applications. 

There are file management tools that integrate with multiple other apps—including CRM, email, and project management—to ensure data created across these applications is stored under a single roof. This helps break down information silos within your company and enables better cross-departmental collaboration.  Many service providers also offer comprehensive bundles that include tightly integrated applications. These solutions make your purchasing decisions easier as they offer a unified platform which streamlines workflows by default, eliminating the need to find ways to integrate different technologies. 

Deciding to move your files to the cloud is more like the first step towards digital transformation, and in doing so, it's vital you consider the above aspects to choose the right storage solution for your business. You might be drawn towards simply finding the most cost-effective solution, but without robust security and the necessary collaboration features, it might fail to impress in the long run. Scalability, interoperability, accessibility, and disaster recovery—make sure any solution you consider checks every box on this list. Invest in a solution with these characteristics to boost your company's growth in the long run. 

Ready to start your search for a cloud storage solution? Here's how WorkDrive, Zoho's cloud storage and content collaboration platform, stacks up against alternatives like Google Drive and Dropbox.