Around two-thirds of UK adults are predicted to work remotely in the mid-term (at the very least), as found in research compiled by Ciena. The study, undertaken in May this year, showed that around 69% of British adults are working from home at least part of the time, and they plan on doing so even after the current health crisis is done and dusted. For remote teams, having control over their work environment is often balanced by insecurity over the stability, security and accessibility of data. This is where cloud storage systems – such as GoToMeeting, WebEx and Dropbox – can be of great aid, with  each cloud system offering different advantages that companies can opt for depending on their needs.

Businesses can currently choose from three models of cloud service:  Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS). Examples of SaaS include those which are currently in use by most businesses in the UK (Dropbox, Google Apps, Cisco WebEx, etc.). PaaS systems include Windows Azure, Apache Stratos, and OpenShift. IaaS comprises Amazon Web Services, Google Compute Engine, and more. As stated by cloud specialists,  Taylored Systems, the system you choose very much depends on your budget (whether or not you can afford IT staff), whether or not you need a bespoke system, and whether or not you are willing to manage hard drives, servers, storage, and the like. What is the difference between the three systems, and do you need basic or specialised services?

If you are a small business that needs a quick e-commerce solution, you are working on small projects, or your work simply requires a forum on which to share text and images, then SaaS may be sufficient for your needs. However, SaaS solutions have various limitations – including interoperability (integration with apps), lack of support in terms of designing and managing integrations, and data security (if you have large volumes of data or sensitive client data, using a public cloud-based service is not ideal). SaaS is also poor from a personalisation perspective; your business may find performance limited, since you are fully dependent on how the vendor controls the service. Moreover, if you have complex apps, data and services requiring integration, then SaaS just won’t cut the cake.

Most businesses actually use a combination of services (for instance, IaaS and SaaS), while those requiring optimal personalisation opt for PaaS as well. With IaaS you essentially pay as you use services such as virtualisation, storage and networking. With PaaS, you rely on both hardware and software tools. The advantage of an IaaS-only model is that you don’t need to maintain an on-premise IT infrastructure. The disadvantage is that you will need to engage external IT managers to keep hardware in an optimal state and to ensure everything is in working order. PaaS is primarily used by developers  who are building software or apps, so if your business wants to create unique applications while saving time on developing complex codes, this solution may be for you.

In the UK, as in the rest of the world, remote work is becoming a more interesting mid-to-long-term solution for many businesses. For small businesses sharing small amounts of non-sensitive data, SaaS is usually a sufficient solution. However, those requiring bespoke models usually turn to PaaS or IaaS. PaaS is the most expensive of the three (as it requires significant outlay on IT staff) but it is the chosen solution by companies creating complex, bespoke applications that require an optimal degree of personalisation and flexibility.