Benefits to Cloud-Storage of Your Association Information

Running a Condominium Association or Homeowner Association requires hard work and lots of patience. For most COAs and HOAs, it makes more sense to hire a management company to streamline daily operations. For any professional HOA/COA manager, data management is a very crucial skill. Any association requires that the management company they hire organizes their finances, vendor lists, resident fees, maintenance schedules, etc. In most cases, management companies provide and manage a full contact base for their clients.

As an HOA or COA, evaluating community management companies; it's important that you ask about the management software they use. If you've done your homework, you'll choose a management company that offers cloud-based storage for association information. The following are some of the benefits that tech-enabled communities get to enjoy from cloud storage:

1. Easy access to data

In an onsite storage environment, board members manage their records and communications in the office on a desktop or laptop. This means that they have to travel all the way to the office to access and share data. This can be quite inconvenient, considering that board members may have other commitments to keep them out of the office.

Cloud storage makes accessing and sharing data becomes as simple as opening and sending a link. With the right cloud storage implementation, board members can sync files and data anytime and from wherever they may be. 

2. Easy backup and recovery

Onsite storage systems are prone to malfunction. Removable storage devices can also be easily stored and damaged. If any of these storage systems experience technical hitches, accessing the information stored in them can turn out to be daunting. Data can also be lost permanently. 

Once information is stored on the cloud, worries that data could be lost become a thing of the past. A cloud storage environment also provides enough storage to ensure that all data is backed up. It also offers an easy way to restore data from a backup. With the right cloud storage solution, board members that their data is safe and ready when needed. Users only need a PC or a mobile device and an internet connection to access and share data. 

3.  Increased cost savings 

Data storage volumes can grow significantly over several years, as associations gather more information about that's relevant to the day-to-day operation. Running an on-premise data center can be costly as it requires robust IT infrastructure. An association can end up spending a lot of money setting up the IT infrastructure and paying IT experts who run the data center.

Cloud-based storage for association information offers associations many ways to save money. The cost savings come about because documents are in digital form. As such, less hardware is required for storage. Since the cloud is scalable, it becomes a potentially ideal data storage model that can reduce associations' total storage costs. 

4.  Increased data security

All HOA and COA associations have access to sensitive owners' data. From driver license information to credit card numbers to social security numbers, the HOA/COA management company becomes responsible for keeping this sensitive information safe. Board members must ensure that the management company takes the necessary steps to protect HOA data from data hackers. 

When an HOA/COA management company works with a trusted cloud provider, they can rest assured that their client's data is safe and secure. This is because cloud-based storage offers encryption. This is where data is transformed using encryption algorithms and is then placed on a storage cloud. Board members can have peace of mind knowing that unauthorized users cannot access their sensitive data.  

There are many reasons it's smart for HOA and COA boards to hire management companies but data-security, ease of access and cloud-hosting are just a small fraction of what the CiraConnect portal solutions offer. Our Board Portal is the most comprehensive community management platforms and for homeowners the CiraNet Owner / Resident Portal makes living in an HOA that much easier.