Businesses today are increasingly migrating their digital resources and tools into the cloud for a variety of reasons. As such, it should be no surprise if the global end-user spend on cloud services will reach $180 billion by next year. It is bound to happen.

By the end of last year, more than half of U.S. businesses were already taking advantage of cloud-based tools. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits these technologies bring.

• Reduced capital expenses. When businesses leverage tools through the public cloud, they do not have to buy their own infrastructure. Instead, the technology they need to complete business tasks is delivered through the cloud as a subscription, paid for as an operating expense. As most cloud vendors offer versatile contracts, businesses can regularly shop around and take advantage of the latest technologies. However, there are businesses that use a legacy solution for its entire useful life. Even when it becomes dated, and that in the end is a losing game. To be more specific, businesses don’t need to get stuck with servers for more than a decade. Nor do they need to invest in new ones. They can make the most of the latest computing power instead.

• Increased access to business tools. These days, business functions are no longer restricted to the confines of an office. By leveraging the power of the cloud, employees are able to access the tools they need to do their jobs from anywhere, as long as an Internet connection is available. This not only increases productivity, but also gives employees the flexibility they need in modern work environments. According to recent data, by 2015 almost 40% of the world workforce will become mobile and developing countries will be leading the way with enterprise mobility and BYOD policies. A recent Ovum study reveals that over 70% of users in Brazil, China, India, Singapore, and South Africa report using personal phones and tablets for work. Therefore, companies need to provide these workers with cloud-based tools that can be easily accessed.

• Reduced utility costs. Powering your data center can be expensive, but thanks to the cloud it no longer has to be. By migrating resources to the cloud, businesses are able to significantly reduce electricity costs that stem from cooling their own infrastructure. Thanks to virtualization and shared data center space, they also reduce their carbon footprint, as data centers are optimized for maximum efficiency.

• Faster innovation. The cloud frees up valuable resources in terms of hardware cost and manpower costs, everybody knows it. Yet, the cloud also enables unprecedented communication and collaboration among employees. Have you ever been working on something that truly excites you, but at the end of the day you weren’t ready to go home? With resources always at hand employees can access collaboration software to work on projects with their co-workers whenever it’s convenient. This accelerates the speed at which innovation occurs, which in turn increases product time to market. If, for example, two co-workers are designing a script for a television commercial, inspiration might strike one at an odd hour in the night. When the other employee wakes up and logs in to the collaboration tools, they can see their co-worker’s progress and continue where they left off. Rather than employees having to wait until the workday officially begins to collaborate, they can do so whenever they feel inclined. For more information on how the cloud fuels innovation, check out these stories encompassing healthcare and education.

• Scalability. Instead of investing in expensive infrastructure, businesses that leverage the cloud are able to quickly provision resources and add seats and computing power on an as-needed basis. This means that they only pay for what they use and can expand and contract their computing needs as the environment dictates. In this light, rather than buying the infrastructure to accommodate peak seasonal loads, for example, contact center managers can leverage the cloud to ensure that customers’ needs are met in a timely manner, only paying for the extra resources when needed.

The benefits of cloud computing are seemingly limitless. Just to name a few, cloud-based solutions are easy to implement, integration-oriented, and flexible in terms of control and management. Businesses of all sizes in all industries stand to benefit from modernizing their technological infrastructure accordingly. As such, the more providers educate their customers on the benefits of the cloud, the more enthusiastic and comfortable they will be about migrating their resources there.