Technology
5 min read
There's no denying that cloud technologies have become the new normal. A recent survey from Logic Monitor predicts that by 2020, 83% of enterprise workloads will be in the cloud.
The future looks bring for cloud technologies. IDC predicts that spending on cloud computing spending will grow at over 6x the rate of IT spending through 2020.
Companies are now spending an increasing amount of money to develop software that automates processes, optimizes operations, and makes sense of vast collections of data. It's not incidental that the best solutions on the market are based on the cloud.
But does it make sense for your business to migrate to the cloud?
Read on to find out why the cloud is so prevalent today and what benefits it brings to organizations.
Cloud computing enables businesses to access software using the internet connection. That way, the software acts as a service rather than a product companies need to build, grow, and maintain. Cloud computing also provides new methods for storing and sharing data. The key benefit of the cloud is that it's contents are available to the staff at any time and from any location or device.
When it comes to cloud computing services, businesses can choose between three major categories that include:
Organizations can pick any of these services depending on their individual needs and requirements.
Now that you know what cloud computing is all about, here are some excellent reasons why you should move your business to the cloud.
When you invest in solutions based in the cloud, you can be sure that the resources you get perfectly match your needs. Naturally, cloud services offer a high degree of flexibility.
For example, if you need one of two servers, you can set your needs accordingly and pay for the work of these servers by the hour or even minute (usually combined with the required computing power).
The best thing about the cloud is that you don't need to invest in any infrastructure upfront only to learn that you're not making the most of your resources. In the cloud, you get exactly what you need – and you can adjust your solution to match changing needs.
Suddenly, many customers start using your application. Your current infrastructure isn't enough, and you need additional servers to manage the extra load. You need to purchase new equipment, add it to the server room, and configure it to help you out. That's going to be expensive and time-consuming. Also, you're running the risk that the users of your app experience downtime and lose trust in your brand.
You experience a sudden influx of new customers to your application. Fortunately, your app is based on the cloud. None of the users will experience any downtime or lagging because your cloud servers expand automatically to manage the workload. You don't have to monitor the number of people using your application or change anything manually. The cloud provider will make sure that you get the exact amount of resources you need.
Server rooms come with their fair share of expenses. It's not only about buying machines and keeping them in a designated space.
It's also about maintenance. If your local machine fails, you need to have another one with data backed up to keep your operation running. Usually, we're talking about 3-4 additional machines that drive the costs of local infrastructure further.
Here's how cloud providers take care of their machines:
The server room is closely monitored for performance, and as soon as a machine fails, it's replaced with a new one. Cloud providers hire plenty of people whose sole responsibility is ensuring that everything is in order. Equipment components are replaced dozens of times during one day.
Cloud-based services experience downtime so rarely, that when they do, it becomes headline news. Do you remember when YouTube had a 15-minute global outage back in 2016? That goes to show that cloud downtime is sporadic.
Cloud providers have the best engineers on board to take care of their equipment. Finding and recruiting experts of similar class and certification is next to impossible for companies.
In a recent survey, 66% of IT professionals said security is the most significant issue in the adoption of an enterprise cloud computing strategy.
Cloud providers do everything they can to ensure the highest security of data stored in the cloud. Giants like Google or Amazon employ the most talented software and hardware engineers to take care of their infrastructure.
Updates and security patches are implemented automatically. It's far more likely that an administrator of a local infrastructure makes a mistake rather than the well-trained group of experts who take care of the cloud services.
Moreover, data is replicated across geographically distributed data networks to ensure top security and high availability. Geo-replication systems improve the response time for applications, but also ensure that even if one part of the provider's infrastructure experiences downtime, operations are maintained thanks to services stored in other geographical locations.
The geographic distribution of data centers managed by cloud providers offers businesses unique options. For example, an organization can choose to store data on servers located in the United States and thereby be subject to the American legislation.
Cloud providers ensure high security of data by introducing innovative authentication methods, permissions, high configurability, or the possibility of accessing the cloud through a private connection (VPN).
Banks and other financial institutions that manage highly sensitive data are moving to the cloud because they realize that cloud providers operate with resources that greatly surpass the capabilities of individual organizations.
Expanding your local infrastructure may take days, if not weeks. After all, you need to purchase new equipment, add it to your existing infrastructure and configure it, so it fits your server room.
In the cloud, getting a new server takes a quarter of an hour. The cloud provider monitors your needs and expands the service when necessary.
For example: When more users than ever start using your application, the cloud provider will quickly expand the service to match your new demands. Similarly, when the traffic in your application drops, the provider will reduce the number of used servers accordingly.
Organizations that want to stay on the leading edge of their industries invest in cutting-edge software that helps to make sense of data but also operate proactively on the basis of changing circumstances.
That's where artificial intelligence (AI) solutions come. Applications that take advantage of machine learning to enable highly-innovative features require access to large data sets and high computing power. The cloud offers access to both.
In fact, experts predict that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will become the leading factors driving cloud computing adoption by 2020.
Organizations that want to take advantage of such technologies will need to migrate to the cloud.
Cloud computing has many advantages to traditional infrastructure. Cost reductions, flexibility, and scalability, high uptime, optimal performance, and security – all these features make cloud services into one of the best technology solutions for businesses of all sizes.
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