How to Convince Your Boss to Use Cloud Storage
Legitimate request. So you’re the employee tasked with being on top of all of the onsite backups…or else! Should you try to persuade your boss to consider the cloud, you’d be wise to come prepared.
The truth is that there are many advantages in using cloud-based, offsite storage for backups. But you, as an employee, are bound to know which facts, figures and statistics will speak to your specific boss.
We will divide bosses in general into four different personality types. Obviously, any boss out there can be a mixture of many types, so you can mix and dabble in the suggestions below. And if you, the reader, are a boss and not an employee…um, maybe go to read a different post? It’s never pleasant reading how others are trying to manipulate you.
Following is a list of the four boss types along with the relevant strategies:
Type A: Boss obsessed with being economical – This is easy and will take you around 30 days of slow and steady tactics to reach your goal. Innocently drop comments like, “Wow…it takes me at least fifteen minutes to back up every day, I wonder what else I would be able to accomplish in that time if we would move over to automatic cloud-based backups?” or “Our external hard-drive is nearly full, I think it’s time to buy another. What a pity, so much cash upfront.” You get the picture.
Type B: Boss passionate about saving the environment – Sit by your desk, dutifully backing up those files and exhale dramatically, “What a pity. All this energy expended onsite when a mere fraction of power would be needed if we would backup our data offsite.” SIGH. “And I read somewhere that many offsite, cloud-based storage facilities use renewable energy sources.” Shake your head back and forth for emphasis.
Type C: Paranoid boss who is terrified that his business will crumble – In the midst of a regular work day, with no warning, drop the bait and nonchalantly ask, “Hey, just wondering what you would do if this place got burglarized or flooded? I read that many businesses crumble and die a quick death when they loose all of their data in one fell swoop. Maybe it’s time for us to backup our files safely offsite? What do you think?”
Type D: Boss Terrified of Appearing Nerdy – When your boss is in earshot, joke among your colleagues, “Hey guys, it is like totally not cool that we are so old-fashioned round here, backing up our files onsite. It is soooooo behind the times. D’ya think we’ll ever move on to bigger and better things like cloud-based backups, or are we doomed to remain in the prehistoric ages? Have a floppy disk, anyone?”
As an employee, you really will have more time to devote to the business’s true needs and goals if you have one less responsibility to do, namely: onsite backups. Honestly, any boss, regardless of his or her type, can easily realize that cloud-based storage is the cutting-edge, environmentally friendly, safe, efficient and affordable way of keeping the company’s data safely backed up. As boss, s/he is the one that stands to gain the most on the deal.
