What is "the cloud", really? A plain-English guide

"The cloud" is one of those phrases that has been used so much it's stopped meaning anything specific. When your IT provider says it, and when your accountant says it, and when Microsoft says it, they don't necessarily mean the same thing. So let's strip it back.

The cloud is somebody else's computer. That's it. It's a big datacentre — usually owned by Microsoft, Amazon, Google or a UK provider — where your data and your applications run on kit that you don't have to buy, house, cool, insure or replace when it wears out. You pay a monthly fee and get on with your work.

What businesses actually use the cloud for

• Email and office apps — Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace are the two most common. Your inbox lives in a datacentre, not on a server in your cupboard.
• File storage — OneDrive, SharePoint and Google Drive. Files sync to your laptop but the master copy is in the cloud.
• Line-of-business apps — accounts (Xero, Sage), CRMs (HubSpot, Salesforce), booking systems, HR systems. All accessed through a browser.
• Backups — an off-site copy of your important data, kept somewhere the office fire or a ransomware attack can't reach.
• Servers — where you used to have a Dell in the corner, you can now rent an equivalent in Microsoft Azure or AWS, paid monthly.

Why it caught on

Three reasons, in the order that usually matters to a small business. First, you don't have to buy the hardware — no £6,000 server every five years. Second, it works from anywhere with an internet connection, which turned out to be very useful in 2020 and hasn't stopped being useful since. Third, someone else looks after the boring parts: patching the operating system, replacing failed drives, running the backups.

What the cloud isn't

It isn't automatically backed up. This is the single biggest misconception we hear. Microsoft 365 keeps your data available, but if a user deletes something and it ages out of the retention bin, it is gone. Cloud is not the same as backup — you still need a separate cloud backup for your 365 data.

It isn't automatically secure either. Cloud services are as secure as the passwords you put on them. Turn on multi-factor authentication or you're one phishing email away from a bad afternoon.

And it isn't always cheaper. For a business with heavy compute needs or lots of data movement, the monthly bill can add up. The wins are almost always around flexibility and business continuity, not raw cost.

Should you move to the cloud?

For most small and mid-sized businesses in the UK, the answer is yes — and you're probably already there for email. The question is really about what stays on-premise. Some things (line-of-business apps designed for a local server, high-throughput CAD workstations, machinery control) still belong on kit in the office. Everything else is fair game.

If you'd like a second opinion on what's worth moving and what should stay put, we'll happily walk through it with you.