2022 small business trends

I think the push to more cloud based systems will continue. Just before COVID we moved our Finance software to the cloud. This was a huge blessing in disguise for us. Prior to the could, you had to be on-site to access the Finance packages. But, as people were working from home or out sick during COVID, our Finance Director could continue working since they now had access to everything online, from any internet connected device. I think we will continue to see remote working for those that can. Unfortunately with our small staff, we will be on-site for the foreseeable future, which i am ok with. I spend enough time at home, and kinda missed coming into the office to see my 'work friends' on a regular basis. 

I think the push to more cloud based systems will continue. Just before COVID we moved our Finance software to the cloud. This was a huge blessing in disguise for us. Prior to the could, you had to be on-site to access the Finance packages. But, as people were working from home or out sick during COVID, our Finance Director could continue working since they now had access to everything online, from any internet connected device. I think we will continue to see remote working for those that can. Unfortunately with our small staff, we will be on-site for the foreseeable future, which i am ok with. I spend enough time at home, and kinda missed coming into the office to see my 'work friends' on a regular basis. 

I suspect the shift to cloud will continue, but we'll need new sign-in options. Not everyone is as tethered to their phone as two-factor systems require.

hybrid approach seems to be the best way of going about it.  

I am torn on cloud based software.  I appreciate the benefits of less infrastructure onsite, and the vendor being responsible for the maintenance and up keep.  I do not like that a misconfigured security policy that I have no control over could expose my data.  I don't like that a failed router somewhere down the line could shutdown our center.  With my data onsite, I could go a couple of days without internet and continue to work.  If I lose access to our cloud service we are shut down.  It seems like I read something new every week where Office 365 or Azure is down so people can't authenticate.  An AWS bucket was misconfigured so data was exposed.  I have two ISP's now with the option to switch to cellular hotspots for the third, but it won't make a difference if the connection at the cloud service fails.  I know it is the future but the control freak in me really hates to relinquish that control.