An SMB's data rarely lives in one place: an Access database on a workstation, shared files, an ERP, a few cloud tools. As long as everything works, nobody worries about it. The day a workstation dies, an employee leaves with their access or the volume exceeds what the tool can handle, the question becomes urgent.
This section gathers our articles on data management and the cloud from a decision-maker's point of view: why and how to move off Microsoft Access, how to plan the data volume of a piece of software, how an audit log detects anomalies and how to structure permissions to protect the company without slowing teams down. The common thread: centralized, traceable data available to the right people.
Access 2016 has been unsupported since October 2025, it handles concurrent access poorly and a corrupted database is rarely repairable. A web application backed by a central database offers the same data-entry comfort, with backups, history and access from any workstation.
Data volume is the amount of data a piece of software has to store and process over time: transactions, documents, history. Planning it at design time avoids slowdowns and unexpected hosting costs as the company grows.
Yes, provided you pick a reputable host, encrypt data in transit and at rest, manage permissions by role and test your backups. Hosting in Canada also meets the requirements of Quebec's Law 25 on the protection of personal information.
