The top cloud storage providers often provide the most significant personal cloud storage as well as the best free cloud storage. These same providers also typically offer the best cloud storage options for corporations. The required and vital emphasis on cloud storage security and collaboration tools differentiates cloud storage for businesses from other types of cloud storage.

Therefore, while selecting a service, it is crucial to consider security, usability, affordability, and accessibility. A few cloud services are generally recognized as the best in the industry.

In this blog, learn about several benefits cloud computing may provide for your small company. Here is our guide to the most excellent cloud-based services for enhancing your company.

What is Cloud Storage?

The term “cloud storage” refers to a specific kind of cloud computing that allows users to upload, download, and manage data and files via the internet through a third-party cloud storage provider accessible via public or private networks.

The provider is responsible for storing, managing, and maintaining the storage servers, infrastructure, and network to guarantee that your data is available on demand at an almost unlimited scale and dynamic capacity.

The use of cloud storage eliminates the need to purchase and operate your own data storage infrastructure, providing you with adaptability, scalability, and durability in addition to data access at any time and from any location.

Choosing a Cloud-Based Data Storage Service

Here are the following criteria when selecting a cloud storage service:

Intuitive thinking is required.
The service should provide a reliable platform for storing data online.
The process of uploading files and retrieving them later should be simple.
You must choose a service that provides high-quality client applications and an intuitive online interface.
Try to find any group communication software.
The cloud storage service must include options for managing different versions of files.
Ensure that there are many layers of protection, such as encryption, two-factor authentication, etc.
If you’re experiencing temporary bandwidth issues or an unreliable Internet connection, you should be allowed to use the cloud storage option.
Make sure there is compatibility, excellent customer service, and affordable options.

Best Cloud Storage for Business

Microsoft OneDrive is our top option for the best cloud storage for businesses due to its integrations with Microsoft 365 as a cloud storage and synchronization platform, AES 256-bit encryption, and the Personal Vault, which provides limitless end-to-end encryption for all corporate clients. In addition to Dropbox Business, you should examine IDrive, Nextcloud, Backblaze, Tresorit, and SpiderOak.

Google Drive

Google Drive is probably used by anyone who has ever used Gmail. It is known for its cloud storage services and helps everyone get around the annoying 25 MB limit on email attachments. Did you know it’s an excellent solution for small businesses as well? Google Drive has many incredibly useful features that help people work together. The system comes with Microsoft Word, which you may know as Google Docs. It lets you make documents that your team can edit, save, and share. You can even suggest changes that the rest of your team can see. You can make spreadsheets, slide shows, and more.

Google Drive can also store any file. I use Google Drive to store huge Photoshop files and manage customer bills and project deadlines. Google Drive allows you to preview files without installing the software. Adobe Creative Cloud firms benefit since customers may preview Photoshop and Illustrator files without installing them. Google Chrome, Gmail, and Google+ integrate with Google Drive.

Box for Business

Secure file sharing, enterprise-level security, file sync, support for several platforms, IT and admin controls, reporting, and one-on-one technical assistance are just some features Box offers for business.

The basic plan is free and includes 10 GB of storage space, while the pro plan costs $10 per month and provides 100 GB. One of the three business options offers 100GB of storage for $5 per user per month, while unlimited storage is available for $15 per user per month for enterprises with at least three users.

The enterprise plan includes the option for clients to request modifications. Users may choose and select among several business subscriptions based on the availability of features like Microsoft Office 365, active directory, and maximum file size.

Dropbox

Dropbox is a popular personal cloud service that you may be familiar with. Cloud storage is free for everyone who needs it, and they mainly shine in serving the needs of smaller enterprises. Dropbox is the industry standard for storing, sharing, and syncing files, making it simple to collaborate on files across teams from any location at any time.

Dropbox for business augments its free products by providing support for multiple users. Also included is 1 TB of storage per user, equivalent to a desktop computer. In addition, it offers centralized administration and activity monitoring, extra security options, and the ability to trace and restore older versions of data.

There is usually one employee who inadvertently saves an item you need. It occurs, but Dropbox is not affected. Dropbox is also very cost-effective, particularly for small businesses with few workers.

Spideroak

SpiderOak is a cloud storage service with a strict zero-knowledge policy for protecting user information. In other words, not even SpiderOak, under duress from law enforcement, can access your data in the cloud after it has been uploaded. The whole of your data is encrypted from beginning to finish. However, SpiderOak only offers consumer-level plans, not enterprise-level options.

SpiderOak One Backup is a cloud-based backup and storage service. The corporation has dabbled in other industries, including health sciences and energy, so it is only one of its many products and services. It is a cloud-based storage and backup service that facilitates effective file sharing and collaboration in the workplace. It works on Windows, macOS, and Linux equally well.

Zoolz

Zoolz provides outstanding functionality, robust security, and compliance with all applicable laws. The interface is straightforward, and the platform provides first-rate customer service. Amount of users, server backups, and external drive connections are unrestricted across all plans.

End-to-end 256-bit AES encryption is one of Zoolz’s most impressive security features. The platform is fully compatible with regulatory standards such as HIPAA and GDPR. You also get live help 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In terms of functionality, the hybrid storage system will save a duplicate of your data in both the local server and cold storage, allowing you to execute backups whenever it is most convenient. Zoolz also has sophisticated filter and picture recognition technologies that you can use to sift through your photo collection.

p.Cloud

pCloud is an excellent option for media enthusiasts. It is due to the inbuilt pCloud music player’s functions, which automatically create playlists by artist, album, or folder. Its video player is also rather sophisticated, allowing you to adjust playback speed and convert video files to different formats.

The virtual drive offered by pCloud will be useful if the storage space on your device is filling up with media files. Similar to Local Disk (C:), pCloud may install a virtual disk on your device that utilizes your cloud storage rather than the space on your hard drive.

As part of its backup function, pCloud allows creators who love to share on social media to back up photographs they have previously posted to their socials. This function also enables you to back up your whole device to the cloud and transfer all of your data from another cloud service to pCloud.

IDrive

IDrive is one of the excellent online backup services for small companies, offering 5 TB cloud backup storage for $13.90 per year. Click on the notification area to access IDrive settings and change backup schedules.

Until the client restores it, the data on the server and during transmission is encrypted. It helps you back up data from typical user folders, including documents, music, photographs, etc. The user may choose the original backup device from the dropdown menu to restore the backup file straight to the PC.

Its checkboxes allow folder restoration. Share preferences and sync devices. Signing up for IDrive allows users to send files quickly.

One may download any file by browsing directories or selecting a machine from the Backup menu. The software lets you back up anything from your phone. IDrive is a full-featured business internet drive with a fast backup speed.

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure lets you operate virtual desktops and apps with cloud storage and backup. It also has built-in migration tools. Businesses may move Windows servers and RDS to other devices.

Hybrid cloud services integrate and manage environments well. Its online service and iPhone, Android, and Windows phone applications support most platforms. Small to medium-sized businesses may use the solution. Online seminars and knowledge-based documentation help customers.

Even a growing organization may have security, scalability, and analytics. It also has multi-layer security and data backup from the start. After granting staff data access, keep files secure—solid cloud service for all company models.

Why is Cloud Storage important?

For small and large businesses, cloud storage can deliver agility, cost savings, security, and simplicity. Cloud storage is elastic. It means you have to pay for what you use so that you may scale up or down depending on demand. It’s a method for businesses to store data online securely, making it accessible from anywhere to authorized users at any time.

Cost-effectiveness

Cloud storage eliminates the need for costly hardware upgrades, time-consuming manual storage provisioning, and the diversion of valuable operating resources to deal with temporary but significant increases in data volume. You need to pay for the space you use, and you may easily expand or contract your storage as needed.

As data gets scarce and infrequently used, you may migrate it automatically to less expensive storage, generating even greater cost savings. By relocating storage workloads to the cloud, you may lower the total cost of ownership by eliminating overprovisioning and the expense of maintaining storage hardware.

Increased agility

With cloud storage, resources are accessible with a single click. You minimize the amount of time necessary to make these resources accessible to your company from weeks to only minutes. It leads to a significant boost in your organization’s agility.

Your team is liberated from procurement, installation, administration, and maintenance responsibilities. And since cloud storage interfaces with a vast array of analytics tools, your team can now extract more insights from your data to drive innovation.

Faster deployment

Infrastructure should always be in the way of development teams once they’re ready to start. By using cloud storage services, IT can swiftly provide the precise quantity of storage required at any given time and location. Instead of worrying about storage infrastructure, your team can focus on creating innovative solutions for challenging application issues.

Efficient data management

With cloud storage lifecycle rules, you may undertake effective information management operations, such as automating data tiering or securing data to meet compliance standards. Using replication and other techniques, cloud storage can also use to build multi-regional or worldwide storage for your dispersed teams.

You may organize and manage your data to support certain use cases, achieve cost efficiencies, enforce security, and fulfill legal needs.

Virtually unlimited scalability

The cloud’s almost infinite storage space makes it easy to scale up rapidly and easily. It eliminates the need to worry about running out of space on-site. Analytics, data lakes, backups, and cloud-native apps may make optimal use of cloud storage’s up-and-down scalability. Users can handle simple storage allocation procedures and wait for new hardware to access storage.

Business continuity

Cloud storage providers safeguard your information by keeping it in facilities built to military standards. As several devices fail at once, cloud storage services are built to identify and fix the problem as soon as possible. Using versioning and replication solutions, you better safeguard your data and speed up recovery if accidental user activities or application failures occur.

Final Thoughts

With cloud computing, small businesses may benefit from increased privacy, security, collaboration, data storage and backup, accessibility, and server maintenance.

In addition to having a reasonable budget and a large company, both are crucial. Additional space and features may become necessary as your business grows.

I hope this article will serve as a starting point as you select the best cloud services for your small business.

For more additional tools that may help your business, you can also use Microsoft Family 365. You can access all of the traditional Windows Office features and functionality from earlier editions. Also, you can experience the tremendous gains in functionality that cloud-based office packages provide.

The Top Cloud Storage Services for Small Businesses