This has once again been a banner year for the cloud. Seven out of ten companies are using cloud services as of the end of 2011.  By 2013 it is estimated that the cloud computing market will be generating a $150-billion-dollar profit per year.  Cloud computing, and especially mobile cloud computing, has experienced rapid growth in 2011, and its prospects look equally bright in 2012.

As I have mentioned in an earlier post, all types of companies have “cloud capabilities.”  Any application that is accessed remotely through the Internet (as opposed to onsite) shares many of the same benefits as cloud computing.  Hosted IVR is Plum’s service equivalent of cloud computing, and while the popularity of hosted IVR has increased ten-fold, Plum contends with many of the same issues that all companies offering cloud services do.

The three main issues often cited by businesses large and small when contemplating a move to the cloud are security, cost and access to the latest, most cutting edge technology.  The rapid growth of the cloud sector has been overwhelmingly popular with those companies that are early-adopters, but there has been hesitation for those that are less tech savvy.  These are the three most oft mentioned concerns of those undertaking a large-scale data migration to the cloud.

Plum’s customers need not worry.  The three primary concerns of customers considering a hosted solution are actually not concerns at all.  In fact, there are pronounced benefits that come along with all three aspects of cloud hosting, which will be explored as follows: