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Cloud computing represents a new model for delivery and consumption of IT services based on the Internet, usually utilizing scalable and often virtualized resources as services over the Internet.

Ten benefits of cloud computing for your business:

1. Focus on your core business activity. Cloud computing provides more automation and managing of your business technology, allowing you to focus more on your core business activities.

2. Reduces Cost. With cloud computing, your business pays incrementally, only for the services they use, reducing overall business costs by not forcing you to pay energy costs associated with idle time.

3. Employee Mobility. Your employers can access important applications, data, and files to conduct business from wherever they are, rather than having to remain at their desks.

4. Easy Implementation. Since there is not a need for hardware purchasing, software licenses, or implementation services, your company can get cloud computing services started quickly and easily.

5. More Secure Data Sharing. Cloud services allow your company to share internal data over the cloud, rather than making your internal data center itself available to outside parties.

6. Increased Storage Capacity. By utilizing the Internet with virtual cloud services, your company can store much more data, than it would be able to on private computer systems.

7. Flexibility. By using a shared resource, agile and automated distribution of computing resources among the users in the cloud allows for more flexibility.

8. Environmental Benefits. Cloud computing reduces hardware consumption, energy costs, and carbon dioxide emissions.

9. Easily Customized. Cloud computing gives your business the opportunity to build custom applications on a user-friendly interface. In a competitive world, your business needs to stand out from the rest. Customization will help you do this.

10. Enhances collaboration. Multiple users can collaborate easily on shared web documents. Since all the documents are hosted on the cloud, anyone in your company with an internet connection can log into the web and start collaborating.

Verizon Communications Case Study:

According to Fari Ebrahimi, senior vice president and chief information officer for Verizon Services Operations, by implementing an internal cloud computing process, Verizon improved IT performance by 400 percent and reduced their IT costs to one-third of what they were. In lieu of this information, Verizon decided not to build any new data centers, but to actually decrease them.

Cloud computing is an excellent solution for business looking for better utilization of resources, flexibility, security, lower costs and environmental sustainability.

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Jason Dick is a Marketing Specialist at Northwest Computer Support. Mr. Dick has been sharing his technology writing on the web since 2003. He's a native to the Pacific Northwest and enjoys the camping, hiking, and fishing available there. Northwest Computer Support is a one-stop IT services provider helping businesses in the Greater Seattle area manage their IT needs. They have been in business in the Greater Seattle area since 1977.