Work anywhere, anytime

Work anywhere, anytime

“We have gone from a world that was connected, to a world that is hyper-connected” – Tom Friedman, author and New York Times foreign affairs correspondent.

The idea of a traditional office space is changing quickly. We are no longer confined to our desks and as such more and more people are working from locations that are far more convenient.

The hyper-connected world that Tom Friedman refers to is allowing us to talk 24/7 to people all over the world. Business does not switch off in the evenings or weekends, in our hyper-connected world we are talking to and working with people all over the world at all times of day and night regardless of where you are, be it the office, home, Starbucks or a hotel reception.

The reason that we can work anywhere, anytime, is thanks to the developments in cloud computing. In most cases, on-premises hardware limits a business to a physical office space and if the hardware has an issue then business is heavily impacted. The majority of hosted IT services now offer 99.99% uptime with inbuilt resiliency so that if there is an issue, a backup machine is on hand to take the workload and your business operation is not affected.

Being able to access your business information online opens up huge possibilities. Many of the benefits are in areas that are often overlooked. Job satisfaction can be greatly increased if your employees can work one day a week from home. This allows them to cut out commuting time and spend more time with their family and friends. 

Working from a location of your choice can greatly increase productivity thanks to the reduction of involuntary distractions (meetings, colleagues wanting to engage in chit-chat, managers asking for updates when you’re in mid-flow).

Expand your employee and partnership horizons. By having hosted IT services you can look beyond the local pool of potential employees and partners. With cloud computing you can have employees all over the world connecting to a central space to work from which opens exciting opportunities for business owners of all sizes.

The world is changing fast and traditional views of work life are changing with it. If your business is not looking at allowing its employees to work anywhere, anytime and your competitors are then they will have access to the best talent and be a more attractive place to work.

Now is the perfect time to begin to look at what cloud computing can do for your business and how you can ensure you stay ahead of the competition.

John Lissenden is business development manager at Fasthosts Internet Ltd. John is an expert in helping businesses find a money-saving IT solution, and advises on cloud computing and virtualisation.