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If you are worried about the price tag that would come with making the switch to cloud computing, you aren't alone 20% of organizations are concerned about the initial cost of implementing a cloud-based server. But those who are attempting to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of using the cloud need to consider more factors than just initial price they need to consider ROI.

Once you're on the cloud, easy access to your company's data will save time and money in project startups. And, for those who are worried that they'll end up paying for features that they neither need nor want, most cloud-computing services are pay as you go. This means that if you don't take advantage of what the cloud has to offer, then at least you won't have to be dropping money on it.

The pay-as-you-go system also applies to the data storage space needed to service your stakeholders and clients, which means that you'll get exactly as much space as you need, and not be charged for any space that you don't. Taken together, these factors result in lower costs and higher returns. Half of all CIOs and IT leaders surveyed by Bitglass reported cost savings in 2015 as a result of using cloud-based applications.

Many organizations have security concerns when it comes to adopting a cloud-computing solution. After all, when files, programs, and other data aren't kept securely onsite, how can you know that they are being protected? If you can remotely access your data, then what's stopping a cybercriminal from doing the same thing? Well, quite a bit, actually.

For one thing, a cloud host's full-time job is to carefully monitor security, which is significantly more efficient than a conventional in-house system, where an organization must divide its efforts between a myriad of IT concerns, with security being only one of them. And while most businesses don't like to openly consider the possibility of internal data theft, the truth is that a staggeringly high percentage of data thefts occur internally and are perpetrated by employees. When this is the case, it can actually be much safer to keep sensitive information offsite. Of course, this is all very abstract, so let's consider some solid statistics.

RapidScale claims that 94% of businesses saw an improvement in security after switching to the cloud, and 91% said the cloud makes it easier to meet government compliance requirements. The key to this amped-up security is the encryption of data being transmitted over networks and stored in databases. By using encryption, information is less accessible by hackers or anyone not authorized to view your data. As an added security measure, with most cloud-based services, different security settings can be set based on the user. While 20% of cloud user claim disaster recovery in four hours or less, only 9% of cloud users could claim the same.

One of the factors that contributes to the success of a business is control. Unfortunately, no matter how in control your organization may be when it comes to its own processes, there will always be things that are completely out of your control, and in today's market, even a small amount of unproductive downtime can have a resoundingly negative effect. Downtime in your services leads to lost productivity, revenue, and brand reputation.

But while there may be no way for you to prevent or even anticipate the disasters that could potentially harm your organization, there is something you can do to help speed your recovery. Cloud-based services provide quick data recovery for all kinds of emergency scenarios, from natural disasters to power outages. While 20% of cloud users claim disaster recovery in four hours or less, only 9% of non-cloud users could claim the same. In a recent survey, 43% of IT executives said they plan to invest in or improve cloud-based disaster recovery solutions.

If your organization isn't investing in a cloud-computing solution, then all of your valuable data is inseparably tied to the office computers it resides in. This may not seem like a problem, but the reality is that if your local hardware experiences a problem, you might end up permanently losing your data. This is a more common problem than you might realize computers can malfunction for many reasons, from viral infections, to age-related hardware deterioration, to simple user error. Or, despite the best of intentions, they can be misplaced or stolen (over 10,000 laptops are reported lost every week at major airports).

If you aren't on the cloud, you're at risk of losing all the information you had saved locally. With a cloud-based server, however, all the information you've uploaded to the cloud remains safe and easily accessible from any computer with an internet connection, even if the computer you regularly use isn't working.