Cloud storage is a service model where digital data is stored on remote servers managed by a third-party provider and accessed over the internet. This approach eliminates the need for businesses to purchase and manage their own physical storage infrastructure. Instead, they can leverage on-demand, scalable capacity from a provider, often paying only for the resources they consume.
Adopting cloud storage offers significant advantages over traditional on-premises solutions. It allows businesses to streamline operations, reduce overhead, and enhance their data management capabilities, moving from a capital-intensive model to a flexible, operational one.
Cloud storage isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. It's typically offered in several deployment models, each catering to different needs for control, security, and scalability. Organizations can choose the model that best aligns with their operational requirements and data governance policies.
While often used interchangeably, cloud storage and cloud computing serve distinct but related functions in a modern IT strategy.
While cloud providers offer robust security, organizations must address key considerations to protect their data.
The cloud storage market is dominated by three hyperscalers: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. These providers lead the industry with vast global infrastructure and a wide range of services. They offer scalable solutions for nearly any use case, from enterprise data lakes to simple backups.
Beyond the big three, other vendors serve specific niches. Services like Dropbox and Box are popular for file synchronization and sharing. Meanwhile, traditional enterprise vendors like IBM and Dell EMC also offer robust cloud solutions.
How secure is my data in the cloud?
Leading providers use robust security like end-to-end encryption and compliance with major regulations. However, security is a shared responsibility; you must still properly configure access controls and manage user permissions to prevent breaches.
What happens if my cloud provider has an outage?
Most providers guarantee high uptime through service-level agreements (SLAs) and have built-in redundancy across multiple data centers. This ensures your data remains accessible and minimizes disruption to your operations during an outage.
Can I switch cloud providers easily?
Migrating between providers can be challenging due to data egress fees, technical complexities, and potential downtime. Planning a multi-cloud or hybrid strategy from the outset can help mitigate vendor lock-in and simplify future transitions.
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a system of distributed servers that deliver web content to users based on their geographic location.
Sales Operations Management streamlines sales processes, tech, and data analysis to help sales teams sell more effectively and efficiently.
Data privacy is an individual's right to control their personal information, including how it's collected, processed, stored, and shared.
CI/CD, or Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery, automates software builds, tests, and deployments for faster, more reliable releases.
A small to medium-sized business (SMB) is a company whose employee count and annual revenue fall below certain industry-specific thresholds.
Learn about below the line, including key strategies for below the line marketing, & distinguishing above and below the line tactics.
Deal closing is the final step in a sales cycle. It's when a prospect signs a contract and officially converts into a paying customer.
Learn about brand awareness, including understanding its importance, building an effective strategy, key metrics to track, & examples in the real world.
Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a cloud model where a provider delivers a platform for users to develop, run, and manage applications online.
Discount strategies are pricing tactics used to attract customers and boost sales by temporarily reducing the price of products or services.
A touchpoint is any time a potential or existing customer comes in contact with your brand, from seeing an ad to receiving an email.
Win/Loss Analysis is the process of systematically tracking and analyzing the reasons why you win or lose deals with prospective customers.
A closed question is a type of query that elicits a simple, often one-word answer like 'yes' or 'no,' or a specific, factual response.
Channel sales is an indirect sales model where a company leverages third-party partners, such as resellers or affiliates, to sell its products.
A talk track is a script that guides sales reps during calls. It ensures they cover key points and maintain a consistent message with prospects.
Phishing attacks are fraudulent attempts to trick you into revealing sensitive data like passwords or financial info by posing as a trusted source.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a digital marketing strategy that uses paid tactics to increase a website's visibility in search engine results.
Nurture is the process of building relationships with potential customers, guiding them through the sales funnel with personalized communication.
A weighted sales pipeline forecasts revenue by assigning a closing probability to each deal, giving a more accurate picture of potential income.
User Experience (UX) refers to a person's overall feelings and perceptions while interacting with a product, system, or service.
Customer relationship marketing is a strategy for building lasting connections with customers to foster long-term loyalty and engagement.
Integration testing is a software testing phase where individual modules are combined and tested together to verify their interaction.
A qualified lead is a prospect vetted as a good fit for your product. They match your ideal customer profile and show genuine interest.
Targeted marketing focuses on specific consumer groups whose needs align with your product, allowing for more personalized and effective messaging.
A Customer Data Platform (CDP) is software that gathers and organizes customer data from various touchpoints into a single, unified profile.
A sales territory is a specific group of customers or a geographic area that a salesperson or sales team is responsible for managing.
Learn about B2B buyer intent data, including sources and types of buyer intent data, & key benefits of leveraging buyer intent data.
Quality Assurance (QA) is the systematic process of ensuring a product or service meets specified quality standards from development to delivery.
Dynamic territories are fluid sales assignments that adjust based on real-time data, ensuring reps can focus on the highest-value accounts.
Demographic segmentation divides a market into groups based on traits like age, gender, and income, allowing for more targeted marketing efforts.
Fulfillment logistics is the entire process of getting an order to a customer, from storing inventory to picking, packing, and final shipment.
A Target Account List (TAL) is a focused list of high-value companies that a business specifically aims to convert into customers.
A sales funnel is a model illustrating the customer's journey from initial awareness to the final purchase, narrowing down leads at each stage.
Sales operations analytics is the practice of analyzing sales data to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire sales process.
OAuth is an open standard for access delegation. It lets you grant apps access to your data on other services without sharing your password.
Generic keywords are broad search terms that lack specific details like brand or location. They attract a wide audience with less specific intent.
Learn about B2B sales channels, including types of B2B sales channels, strategies for effective channel selection, & integrating technology in B2B sales.
Functional testing verifies that software performs its intended functions as specified in the requirements, ensuring it works as users expect.
A sales playbook is a guide that outlines your sales process, best practices, and tools to help reps sell more efficiently and consistently.
Rollback procedures are a set of steps to restore a system to a previous, stable version after a failed update, ensuring minimal disruption.
Psychographics categorizes people by their attitudes, interests, and lifestyles, revealing the 'why' behind their purchasing decisions.
Learn about B2B marketing attribution, including challenges in B2B marketing attribution, & key metrics for effective attribution.
Software as a Service (SaaS) is a cloud-based model where users subscribe to an application and access it over the internet.
Sales conversion rate is the percentage of prospects who take a desired action, like making a purchase, turning them into customers.
A Request for Proposal (RFP) is a formal document that outlines a project's needs and invites qualified vendors to submit bids to complete it.
The awareness stage is the first step in the buyer's journey, where a potential customer realizes they have a problem or an opportunity to explore.
Your email deliverability rate is the percentage of sent emails that successfully land in a recipient's inbox, rather than bouncing or going to spam.
A Letter of Intent (LOI) is a document declaring the preliminary commitment of one party to do business with another, outlining the chief terms.
Predictive lead generation uses data and AI to find prospects most likely to buy, helping teams focus their efforts on high-value leads.
Data mining is the process of discovering patterns, trends, and useful information from large datasets to make better business decisions.
CRM data is the information businesses use to manage customer relationships. It covers contact details, purchase history, and communication logs.
A Data Management Platform (DMP) is a tech platform used to collect and manage data, mainly for digital marketing and advertising campaigns.
Google Analytics is a web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic, offering insights into user behavior and marketing effectiveness.
Low-hanging fruit are the most obvious and easy-to-tackle tasks or goals that provide a quick, valuable return for minimal effort.
Inside sales metrics are quantifiable measures used to track the performance, activities, and effectiveness of an internal sales team.
Average Selling Price (ASP) is the average price at which a particular product or service is sold across different markets and channels.
Technographics is data that outlines a company’s technology stack, helping B2B teams identify prospects based on the software and hardware they use.
An AI sales script generator is a tool that uses artificial intelligence to create personalized sales scripts for any outreach scenario.
Marketing analytics involves measuring and analyzing marketing data to understand campaign performance and improve return on investment (ROI).
A/B testing is a method of comparing two versions of something, like a webpage or email, to determine which one performs better with your audience.
DevOps is a culture and set of practices that merges software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) to shorten development cycles.
Video email involves embedding a short video directly into an email. This lets recipients watch your message without leaving their inbox.
Compliance testing ensures a product or system adheres to specific regulations, standards, or policies set by governing bodies or organizations.
Funnel analysis is a method for understanding the steps users take to complete a goal, revealing where they drop off in the conversion process.
Learn about business process management, including benefits of implementing BPM, steps to effective BPM, common BPM mistakes to avoid, & BPM tools and software.
A Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) is a prospect vetted by marketing and sales, deemed ready for a direct sales pitch after showing intent to buy.
Feature flags let you remotely control features in your app without new code. This enables safe testing, gradual rollouts, and quick rollbacks.
Learn about brand loyalty, including how to build brand loyalty, benefits of brand loyalty, measuring brand loyalty, & strategies for increasing loyalty.
Kanban is a visual project management method that uses a board to visualize workflow, limit work-in-progress, and maximize team efficiency.
Sales metrics are quantifiable data points that track and measure a sales team's performance against specific goals and objectives.
Lead response time is the duration between a potential customer showing interest and your team's first point of contact with them.
Learn about B2B, including what is it, its key elements, the benefits of B2B partnerships, the differences between B2B and B2C, and strategies for effective marketing.
Internal signals are data points from your own systems, like website visits or product usage, that indicate a customer's buying intent.
Persona-based marketing uses fictional customer profiles, or personas, to create targeted messaging for specific audience segments.
A Quarterly Business Review (QBR) is a recurring meeting to assess performance against goals and align on strategy for the next quarter.
Signaling is using credible actions to convey information about quality or intent to a less-informed party, effectively building trust.
Inbound sales attracts interested prospects who've engaged with your brand, letting sales reps connect with warm leads instead of cold outreach.
Price optimization is the process of finding the ideal price for a product or service to maximize profitability or other business objectives.
Cost Per Click (CPC) is a digital advertising model where an advertiser pays a fee each time one of their ads gets clicked by a user.
Employee engagement is the emotional commitment an employee has to their organization, motivating them to contribute to the company's success.
MOFU, or Middle of the Funnel, is the crucial evaluation stage in the buyer's journey where leads compare solutions to their known problem.
The buying cycle is the journey a customer takes from first realizing they have a need to making the final purchase decision.
Accessibility testing is a software testing method that verifies an application is usable by people with disabilities, like vision or hearing loss.
Competitive analysis means identifying your rivals and assessing their strategies to pinpoint your own business's strengths and weaknesses.
Lead routing is the automated process of distributing incoming leads to the right sales reps based on predefined criteria.
Single Sign-On (SSO) is an authentication method allowing users to access multiple applications with one set of login credentials.
Serviceable Available Market (SAM) is the segment of the total market that your business can realistically serve within its geographical reach.
Think of a trademark as a brand's unique signature—a word, symbol, or phrase that legally protects its identity and sets it apart from the rest.
Customer Retention Rate (CRR) is the metric that measures the percentage of customers a company has kept over a specific period of time.
Revenue forecasting is the process of estimating a company's future revenue, using historical data and market trends to guide strategic planning.
Customer experience (CX) is a customer's total perception of your business, based on every interaction across the entire customer lifecycle.
Demand capture is the strategy of engaging potential customers who are already actively looking for a solution that your company provides.
Conversational intelligence (CI) is AI technology that analyzes customer conversations to find insights that help sales and support teams improve.
Mobile app analytics involves collecting and analyzing data from mobile apps to understand user behavior and optimize the app's performance.
Account match rate is the percentage of target accounts successfully identified and matched against a specific database or data provider.
Private labeling is when a company rebrands a product made by a third-party manufacturer and sells it as their own.
A cloud-based CRM is a customer relationship management tool hosted online, letting teams access and manage customer data from anywhere.
Time on site, or session duration, is a key web metric that tracks the total time a visitor spends on your website during a single visit.
A Data Management Platform (DMP) is a software that collects and organizes audience data from various sources for targeted marketing efforts.
The sales pipeline velocity formula is a key metric that measures how quickly deals move through your pipeline and turn into revenue.