(NC) The New Year always brings an opportunity to reset goals and refocus—especially when it comes to your business agenda.

One area businesses large and small should hone in on is IT. Ask yourself: are you making the most of the technology available today? In particular, cloud-based solutions are helping businesses cut costs, empower employees and compete with larger counterparts by offering flexible services.

As you enter 2012, consider these four ways cloud computing can help small businesses streamline service for increased profitability and performance:

1. Cut costs: To lower overall costs and increase efficiency, maximize the right set of tools for your business with a pay-as-you-go type approach to IT. By removing maintenance and storage responsibilities through the cloud, you’ll experience a higher level of service and reliability, including an immediate response to emergency situations.

2. Empower your employees: For staff on the go, cloud solutions like Microsoft Office 365 (www.office365.ca) offers employees easy and secure access to company data via their PCs, phones and browsers—no matter where they are.

3. Free up internal resources: By placing the storage and management needs in the hands of a third-party provider, a company alleviates the burden placed on its in-house IT department. This allows more time to focus on business-critical tasks and innovation.

4. Keep it secure: Cloud-based technology also offers real-time backup, which results in less data loss. These solutions are also less prone to hacking and data leakage, as the actual whereabouts of your data is kept highly confidential.

credit: www.newscanada.com