Property management can require a lot of resources when dealing with large portfolios and employee pools scattered around the country. The technology infrastructure needed to support communication and data processing is often too complex for multifamily owners to manage on their own. That’s why cloud computing is becoming an ever more relevant part of the conversation in the multifamily industry.
According to Chris Gatch, chief technical officer and senior vice president of service management at Atlanta-based Cbeyond, cloud technology represents the opportunity for companies with remote workers and properties to upgrade network connectivity while creating a consistent IT experience.
“It’s much easier to provide services to a wide group of distributed employees and offices when the services themselves are being derived from a higher plane,” says Gatch. “And tenants are going to be adopting cloud at an increasing basis.”
Gatch explained that cloud technology is designed to consolidate the increasing number of necessary software applications and infrastructure onto a single service provider network which is accessible across an entire portfolio. Essentially, every complex level of technology infrastructure is moved offsite to a service provider environment.
“If you don’t address complexity correctly, not only can it cost you money, but it can also cost you effectiveness and it can cost you uptime,” said Gatch.
Currently, direct fiber that supports the cloud is being installed in a growing number of multifamily buildings. More multifamily managers are recognizing that to cloud-enable their businesses and home users, they will need more bandwidth than they’ve traditionally had access to.
“Over time what I think we’re going to see is that apartment managers will be clamoring to have this kind of access in their building. It’s going to be necessary for them to win tenants,” said Gatch.
