The cloud, a vague term used to describe all sorts of things involving the internet, has long confounded cautious Canadians, who have for years approached the ambiguity with our conventional conservation.

In terms of adopting cloud computing as a standard business practice, Canada ranks below Japan, France, Germany, and the US, the latter of which leads adoption rates. For example, 70 percent of American businesses use some form of server virtualization, while just 47 percent of Canadian business do. The UK and Germany sit much higher than Canada as well at 68 and 61 percent respectively, according to a study conducted in 2011.

We say that enough is enough: as the cloud continues to gain ubiquity and enter the mainstream, Canadians need to step their game up and embrace it with enthusiasm.

Benefits for cloud adoption, public or private, are both obvious and myriad: high cost savings potential, more efficient use of resources, and tremendous flexibility and scalability opportunities. These benefits can be realized by virtually any company, tech or otherwise, with a broad range of practical applications. 65% of executives in Canada are interested in using the cloud to save money, according to a report from CA Technologies Canada, while 58% are strongly motivated by the scalability potential.

While in years past, security was a significant concern, the cloud has come a long way in terms of protecting valuable information and being accessible only by the correct people. More important, Canadian-specific services are helping to keep our data in our country, not in the US, where the cloud gets tangled up in the complexities of the Patriot Act and may be more prone to government spying. For example, local companies such as Ontario’s Canadian Cloud Backup offer a robust portfolio of cloud-related services for discerning Canadian customers.

“It’s easier than ever for Canadians to utilize the cloud,” says Chris Medeiros of Canadian Cloud Backup. “And the cloud is delivering more benefits to businesses than ever, too.”

“Like it or not, the future of business online is in the cloud,” agrees Damon Gudaitis, a marketing coordinator for technology services company Optimus Information. Historically, this has meant putting your data on US soil or under control of US companies.

Although it’s true that Canadian internet companies have lagged behind their US counterparts in investing in real cloud infrastructure in Canada with multiple regions and availability zones, Canada is actually a brilliant choice for cloud infrastructure located near the US but not in it—as Gudaitis notes, our cooler climate helps reduce the substantial data center cooling costs, while our relatively abundant renewable energy appeals to a companies looking to establish enough data centers to form a true cloud.

Canadian clouds are not a matter of “if,” but rather “when,” according to Medeiros. And as barriers drop and security improves, there are fewer and fewer reasons for Canadian companies to hesitate when adopting this emerging technology.

Originally published at http://www.techvibes.com/blog/its-time-for-canadians-to-embrace-cloud-2014-02-03 Posted by Knowlton Thomas on Feb 3, 2014