3 Ways Cloud Computing Helps You Build A Productive Hybrid Work Environment

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we work, and there’s no turning back. With more employees getting used to working from anywhere, more businesses are opening up to the idea of hybrid work.

As traditional workspace is deemed unfit for the “next normal”, lots of companies are turning towards cloud-based solutions to help their employees stay productive wherever they are.

What does hybrid work really mean?
Let’s start with what hybrid work really is. At its core, the idea of hybrid work is to give employees an opportunity to freely choose how they want to split between the office and home. With this workplace model, employees can make their own arrangement of where, when, and how they work best — on site, fully remote, or a combination of both.

Due to its nature where employees are in and out of the office, not physically in the same space, the hybrid work model requires new, upgraded ways of communicating and collaborating to ensure not only successful relationships, but also productivity and efficiency. This is where cloud computing comes as a solution.

How does cloud computing support a hybrid work environment?
The general nature of cloud computing is nothing new; almost everyone is familiar with how the cloud works. What we’re looking at is how the cloud and cloud-based tools help you establish a healthy hybrid workplace.

1. It ensures productivity
In a work environment where you can no longer rely on proximity, cloud-based services and tools allow you to stay connected even when out of the office. You can collaborate and stay productive even when you aren’t together in the same room. 

Cloud-based video conferencing platforms, such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet, allow you to stay in contact with your co-workers despite being in different places. Cloud-based storage platforms, like Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive, enable you to store your data on the Internet, making it accessible anytime anywhere by anyone who has permission. Cloud-based collaboration and project management tools, such as Google Workspace and Basecamp, ensure everyone can contribute and collaborate conveniently from where they are. Finally, SaaS, like CRM (Salesforce, Hubspot, etc.) and HR platforms (Sleekr, etc.) can also help your tasks stay tracked and actionable, ensuring productivity.

2. It ensures scalability
As your business grows over time, changes are inevitable — larger workforce, international recruitment, more departments, longer opening hours, varied working shifts, different applications of hybrid work, etc. With these changes, scaling is inevitable. 

The elasticity of cloud computing allows you to quickly scale up or down to accommodate the changing needs of your hybrid workforce. Whether it’s a temporary change or a permanent one, a cloud solution can support the transition easily with little to no disruptions. What’s more, moving to the cloud is more affordable as you only need to pay for the volume or scale that you use. Meanwhile, with on-premise infrastructure, scaling up and down is more challenging and expensive.

3. It ensures security
Using cloud-based services also helps you stay more secure online. A hybrid work environment is more prone to the risk of not only human errors, but also cyberattacks as a lot of criminals seek to exploit negligence in care or protection. 

Most cloud services operate on a shared responsibility model. The cloud provider is responsible for managing the overall safety of the cloud platform while still allowing you to implement different safety measures you need to protect company data, manage access controls, and set up user permissions. This means two fully-patched, well-configured layers of protection.

To conclude, to build a strong and productive hybrid work environment, you need the right tools. With the advantages it offers, the cloud should be your go-to solution for your hybrid work implementation.