In our blog about the benefits of cloud computing for businesses, we give you an insight into what cloud computing is, and how you can use it to optimize your business processes. While the term “cloud computing” became famous thanks to storage services, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, and iCloud, there are many other services cloud computing provides us. Take, for example, Salesforce’s CRM systems. The Salesforce software is fully cloud-based, and therefore much easier to integrate, access, and use in organizations than traditional software that needs to be installed on every device. Here’s a list of 6 handy cloud services that businesses and startups can use to optimize their productivity.

1. Asana

Asana is a cloud-based platform that provides its users with a digital project management dashboard that allows users to organize and share projects across multiple teams. You can easily create to-do lists, assign (recurring) tasks to your team members, and keep track of the status of each project and task. Asana differentiates itself from the crowd of other task management applications by making all tasks visible, transparent, and easily accessible for the entire team. This way, everyone can be up-to-date with each others’ tasks.

All created tasks, uploaded documents, to-do lists, and progress is securely saved in the cloud. This allows its users to access, view, and amend their files and tasks at any time, from any location. This way, teams can work together remotely without losing track of their progress and the current status of projects other team members are working on. In today’s day and age, when teams are often prevented from coming together in real life, having a centralized space for remote project management is key to keep business processes running.

2. Google Cloud Platform

Google Cloud Platform is a developer service that allows users to save and amend data directly within Google’s own infrastructure and includes features like data compression, data management, and data encryption. Software developers can make use of GCP to build, test, and deploy applications on the web. It provides a place for organizations and individuals to centralize the process of building and running software, as well as keeping track of data analytics. Because GCP is cloud-based, it allows software developers to create heavy and large applications they don’t have to store on their own devices. Besides saving storage on their own devices and servers, it also allows multiple teams to work on the same projects at the same time, from any location, at any time.

3. HubSpot

HubSpot is an online cloud-based tool for inbound marketing and sales. HubSpot provides users with a platform on which the process of content creation, social media communication, SEO optimization, mail list subscription campaigns, and other marketing-related activities are centralized in one single dashboard. It’s an online marketing manager and helps users to, for example, monitor their social media campaigns or manage mailing lists and SEO. HubSpot’s use can be compared to the functionalities of Asana, but is specifically focused on marketing and sales practices.

4. MailChimp

Staying on the topic of cloud-based marketing tools, MailChimp allows users to manage mailing lists and email campaigns in a centralized space, in which all data is stored in the cloud. Because MailChimp is cloud-based, the Cloud Elements Marketing Hub API allows its users to connect their MailChimp application to other cloud marketing services like HubSpot. Using a cloud service such as MailChimp allows you to easily stay in touch with your clients and end-users, and provide them with personalized and valuable insights into the product you sell.

5. SurveyMonkey

Along the lines of getting in touch with your clients and end-users, SurveyMonkey is an online cloud-based tool that allows its users to create and share professional surveys, and store, access, and adjust them from wherever they are, whenever they want. SurveyMonkey is a great tool for businesses to get insights into their audience and their needs and preferences and create user data-driven strategies. SurveyMonkey’s cloud-based nature allows users to store their personalized surveys in the cloud, and access them at all times and analyze the data and results.

6. Zoom

Zoom is an online application that allows users to communicate with each other by video calls through cloud-based peer-to-peer software. The key difference between cloud-based video calling and traditional video conferencing is the fact that cloud-based video conferencing functionalities are hosted in the cloud, and therefore don’t require expensive and hard-to-maintain in-house servers. Besides that, it provides an overall safer user experience, as cloud-based video conferencing services work alongside your firewall, facilitating secure meetings.
Zoom provides an overall pleasant user experience, as its cloud-based nature makes sure that the application is compatible with most technologies and devices. It also maintains itself regarding updates and scalability, so you don’t have to worry about ending up with an outdated application.