The cloud is a very divisive technology. While there are a great number of people that will readily sing its praises, there are others who believe that it can't – and shouldn't – be trusted for enterprise operations. According to ITProPortal contributor Mati Cohen, one of the biggest issues facing CIOs these days is cloud opposition. Cohen believes that the cloud is doing to software what video did to the radio star, and those who are still adamantly against it are living in the past.
"The 'rocket ship to the cloud' is leaving," Cohen wrote. "Can you afford to be the last one onboard? Do you enjoy installing, updating and maintaining software? Do you aspire to be an expert for every piece of software in your organization?"
The answers to these questions are, more often than not, a resounding "no." It is increasingly being realized that the cloud is a powerful and essential enterprise tool. This is thanks primarily to its ability to revolutionize and re-imagine long-standing means of productivity. In this sense, a prime example of the cloud's value comes in the form of faxing. Fax machines are still essential in a great deal of industries, but the hardware involved has not aged as well as other platforms of communication. But much like cloud connectivity has re-defined the way in which enterprise phone calls are made, it is doing the same for faxing. Those organizations that are looking to upgrade their fax capabilities need to consider how cloud-based faxing can be of worth.
Cloud is the future of enterprise – but only with strategy
At this point, many of the stigmas that have plagued cloud adoption should be on their way to falling out of view entirely. But this does not mean that the path to the cloud will be any easier. Cloud technology is not a "drag and drop" kind of solution in most cases, as it requires significant planning to implement.
"So the message here is that getting the order of a technology deployment correct and taking the time to perform every step – including a formal needs-assessment to develop the correct strategy – is an essential component of successful projects," wrote Network World contributor David Danto.
The key to cloud success is identifying weak points in the organization and trying to figure out how the cloud can be used to spur change. For many companies, nothing fits this bill quite like faxing. Fax servers are still leveraged consistently due to their level of encryption and reliability. Asking modern employees to handle a paper-based missive, however, can be akin to asking for the moon. Staffers much prefer the convenience of email attachments, but the security weaknesses that are indicative of the channel as a whole make it less than viable for enterprise documents. Supplying employees with a means to conveniently and remotely send and receive faxes ensures that fewer instances of data loss will occur without creating an inconvenience for workers.
Enhance enterprise communication, collaboration and compliance efforts with a proven FoIP solution from FaxCore. Contact FaxCore today to learn more about their 'Partly-Cloudy' fax solutions.
