It’s the New Year! Have you resolved to get in better shape? How about the shape of your business? Are you going to keep trudging along at the same pace with the same old hardware clogging up your data center? Don’t you think it’s time to look to the future and get a head start on your competition by moving to cloud computing?

In case you’re still shaking the cobwebs out of your head from the holiday celebrations, I’ve put together a list of 10 cloud resolutions for 2013. Just pick a few of these to help you and your business start 2013 right!

1. I resolve to spend less time in the data center and get my hearing back. Have you ever walked around a data center? You can’t talk without shouting, and you can easily catch a cold from the refrigeration needed to keep all those machines running cool. Besides, if you spend too long in there, you’ll tend to speak a lot louder in the regular world.
2. I resolve to ensure other people understand that clouds aren’t just those fluffy things in the sky. It seems that many people still think clouds are what produce rain or sometimes block the sun. But more and more companies are turning to the cloud to solve real business problems.
3. I resolve to donate my unused hardware to charity instead of letting it gather cobwebs in my data center. When you use cloud computing, you can control your spend and use of server resources at a much finer level. And because you “lease” the virtual resources, you can afford to give up the physical ones.
4. I resolve to understand the difference between SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS so I don’t sound like an “aaS.” There’s a difference between software vs. platforms vs. infrastructure as a service. Think varying levels of control and capabilities.
5. I resolve to better forecast my infrastructure use instead of just rolling the dice. You wouldn’t build a house without a budget, and you shouldn’t build out infrastructure without knowing how much you’re going to use it.
6. I resolve to take more vacations while managing my infrastructure remotely. With the cloud, you can get out of that loud data center and into the real world. The nice thing about having scalable, controllable infrastructure is being able to manage it remotely from a web browser using an API or a mobile application.
7. I resolve to scale my flexible infrastructure much the same way my tummy scales after the holiday (thank goodness for sweatpants)! Programmatic control of your infrastructure and IT spend means you now have the flexibility to adapt your business to market conditions and customer demands.
8. I resolve to convince my IT department to get their heads out of the clouds and invest in the cloud. If your IT department is still manually provisioning out-of-date physical servers that take weeks or months to deploy, it’s high time they look into cloud computing so they can focus on other stuff.
9. I resolve to stop throwing my cash out the window by spending it on physical hardware. The cloud lets you to control your costs and requisition virtual environments on-demand.
10. I resolve to test out GoGrid’s high-performing cloud infrastructure. It’s the start of a new year, and time to start a new cloud project! Contact a GoGrid cloud specialist for a $100 service credit to help you get started, and be sure to mention this cloud resolutions blog post!

Happy 2013! May our clouds help produce success for your business this year!