There is no doubt in this that the most commonly used generic term these days is cloud computing. It is the range of services offered on the internet or you can say on the cloud. Cloud computing is when businesses use remote servers to store and access data instead of relying on local hard drives.
Since the inception of cloud computing, there has been a huge explosion of cloud-based applications and services in IT. The number of hovering risks around cloud migration are enormous. The number is going to expand more in the future as businesses have become used to the term cloud.
With each passing day, businesses are defining new cloud initiatives and all thanks to the rising popularity of cloud computing. Let us learn more about cloud computing, its types, benefits, and the best-known platforms for the same in this post.
About Cloud Computing
Cloud computing refers to the on-demand availability of computing resources which includes computation and file storage irrespective of the time. With the option of adding the new resources anytime, the user no longer needs to manage the resources actively on their own. Consequently, all this makes it easy to scale the operations.
In simple words, cloud computing is using someone else’s computer to carry out your business operations. The large scale enterprises often look for large clouds as their data and functions are spread across multiple locations.
Features of Cloud Computing
The primary features of cloud computing include:
- The customers are asked to pay only for the resources which they are using and this, in turn, minimizes the overall cloud expenditure.
- Another great feature of cloud computing is that businesses can always ask for more resources when they require the same and can scale their operations without delaying them much.
- The users can also access the cloud-based applications from any location, any device, and at any time.
- All the updates are handled by the cloud vendor as this is an added responsibility on him to fulfill the changing needs of the customers.
Kinds of Cloud Computing
As there are numerous cloud computing software, there is no single kind of cloud computing service that suits the requirements of the businesses. With time, there are different cloud models and services which are offering the right solution for diverse business needs.
Consequently, before choosing your ideal cloud computing service, it is best to figure out the kinds of cloud deployment which include the public, private or hybrid cloud. Let us learn about these kinds of cloud deployment.
Public Cloud
The public cloud is the one that is operated and owned by third-party providers. Here, the services which are offered by the cloud providers are open for public use. The perfect example of a public cloud is Microsoft Azure.
Private Cloud
As the name itself indicates, the private cloud deployment model is meant for use by a single organization. The services and infrastructure are maintained on the private network either present at the data center or hosted by third parties.
Hybrid Cloud
The next cloud deployment model is a hybrid model. It is a combination of public or private cloud and enables the businesses to move the applications and all of the data to the secure and agile business model.
Benefits of Cloud Computing
It is the benefits only that are persuading the businesses to opt for the cloud computing services in their business operations. There is not one but multiple reasons why businesses are increasingly resorting to the cloud computing models and they include disaster recovery, data analytics, data backup, and digital security.
Out of all these reasons, the biggest reason which is shifting the business’s focus toward cloud computing models is digital security as it is the main challenge they are facing at present. Fortunately, by way of cloud solutions, businesses can pass through the challenges easily.
It is the cloud solutions that enable businesses to respond to complex and fast-changing business landscapes. As a result, businesses operate more effectively and tend to serve customers better. On average, the businesses tend to witness around 53% growth in overall revenue compared to the competitors when they invest in cloud solutions.
Besides the ones mentioned above, here are some other outstanding benefits of cloud computing for businesses.
- Enhanced security and efficiency
- Increased mobility
- Disaster recovery
- Cost-effective
- Scalable
- Automatic upgrades
Best Cloud Computing Platforms
Nearly every business is pretty familiar with the ample cloud computing platforms available in the market but there are only a few of them which are regarded as the best ones. Some clear leaders in the cloud computing market are Amazon ( AWS ), Google ( Cloud ), and Microsoft ( Azure ).
But the real difficulty lies when it’s time to choose one out of these three. Consequently, let’s make the distinction between all these three and make it easy for the businesses to choose the one.
Google Cloud Platform
This cloud platform is offered by Google. It allows the user to build, deploy and scale cloud-based services, websites, and applications that Google uses for its end products. There are numerous big brands such as Spotify, Twitter, and Forbes which make use of the Google Cloud for their business operations.
Benefits of Cloud platform
It is because of the large-scale benefits that the large and small businesses make use of the Google Cloud Platform. Here’s a quick glance at some of its benefits:
- Employees enjoy the freedom of being able to work from anywhere.
- Less disruption upon users adopting new functionality.
- Robust security and flexibility
- High productivity
- Less data storage on vulnerable devices
- Fast paced collaboration
Amazon Web Services ( AWS )
The next best Cloud computing platform is none other than the Amazon web services. It is the ninth year in the row that Amazon web services has bagged the title of best cloud platform. Some of the benefits that amazon web services offer the businesses include:
- Flexibility and openness
- Security
- Economical
- Scalable
Azure Web Services
Azure web services were released in 2010 to offer cloud computing services for building, testing, deploying and scaling the applications through the data centers. The majority of its customers hail from Honeywell, Apple, Fujifilm and many others.
Microsoft Azure web services are a must have for saving money, moving faster and achieving goals. Some of the benefits it offers include:
- Flexibility
- Autoscaling
- Timely customer experiences
- Personalized
- IaaS and PaaS capabilities
Implementing the Cloud Strategy in Businesses
The cloud strategy is defined as a well thought out strategy for implementing the cloud at the organizational level. Here are a few things to bear in mind while implementing the cloud strategy in the business.
Build a Team
The very first step towards implementing the cloud strategy in business is coming up with a team. The cloud team comprises the CTO, IT and networking members. Apart from this, another great option is to hire a cloud consultant company to create a full proof enterprise cloud implementation roadmap.
Analyzing Existing Applications
The next step is analyzing the existing applications. The businesses need to decide which applications need to stay on premise and which ones need to move to the cloud. For instance, the mission critical applications are obliged to be maintained on premise whereas applications which are not mission centric have become obsolete.
Multi Cloud Strategy
The businesses should either build hybrid or multi cloud strategies. But the sad reality is that businesses are still confused between what cloud services to choose from and invest in. consequently it is best to get an answer to the questions as this will help in forming a great multi cloud strategy.
Upskilling
Embracing the change, especially in the IT industry is crucial for the businesses to thrive in the competition. Consequently, it is always said to emphasize on upskilling and do justice to the cloud driven roles at your organization.
Implementation
Rather than moving all the data to the cloud at once, it is better to move it in phases. The three phases of cloud implementation includes:
- Development and testing environments, new products and redesigns of the products and solutions.
- The second phase includes the regulatory solutions, and transactional processing systems.
- The high value assets systems, key infrastructure and legacy source control systems make it to the third phase.
Cloud Computing Service Models
There are three popular kinds of cloud computing service models which are Infrastructure as a service, platform as a service and software as a service. It is these business models which assist the businesses in transforming the digital experience and reducing the infrastructural costs.
What benefits it will bring to the business will depend on the business and functional requirements. Lets have an overview of the different cloud models.
Software as a Service ( SaaS )
Developed by SaaS development company, iit refers to the cloud based applications. These products are available for purchase on pay as you go pricing model. By 2022, the users spending for the model will be around $171,915 Million.
Some prominent reasons for businesses opting out for this model are reduced churn rates, fast paced innovation and faster time to market.
Platform as a Service ( PaaS )
Platform as a service offers a robust framework for the developers so that they can easily build and test the custom applications. But it does not provide software over the internet. Instead of this, it offers a platform to the businesses where the software is usually built. Some common PaaS examples include Openshift and Google app engine.
Infrastructure as a Service
It offers the virtual data centers to the businesses assisting them in building and managing the operating systems, servers and network infrastructure. Microsoft Azure and amazon web services are common examples.
Final Thoughts
Employing the cloud computing business models in the day to day operations is a to initiative for driving growth of the businesses. Every business should step ahead to implement this in the daily business operations according to their business needs and requirements. Get answers to all your queries by reaching out to Skilled Pragati.