What Is Cloud Computing? Why Is It Essential to Businesses in the Digital Era?

What is cloud computing? Today, we live in a world that is constantly evolving. Every organisation is driven by new technologies. This is why digital transformation becomes the key to survival. Cloud computing is an essential part of that, catalysis for changes. Currently, every organisation uses customers’ experiences to assess its performance. The cloud-based business model helps you employ new channels to deliver memorable experiences to customers, differentiating your strategies and solutions from competitors.

Cloud Computing’s Importance to Businesses in Digital Era

Cloud computing is the delivery of maintenance, storage, management, processing, analysis, and security over the Internet (‘The cloud’). Data is not stored on local devices, but in the cloud. You can use the data to monitor systems, improve processes, increase work efficiency, better cost management, and enhance digital experiences for customers.

Cloud Computing’s Models

Generally, there are 3 models to cloud services.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

Cloud providers host application software and provide customisable services to customers worldwide. Examples of providers include Google Apps, Dropbox, BigCommerce, HubSpot, etc.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)

In this model, cloud providers allow customers to deploy software and hardware, including development environments, databases, or calculation platforms designed to help develop web applications. Examples of providers include Windows Azure, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Heroku, GCP, etc.

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)

In this last model, third-party vendors provide access to processing resources such as storage, databases, security, sizing, network components, or servers. Examples of providers include Digital Ocean, Rackspace, etc.

Cloud Computing – The Change Driver in Digital Landscape

To stay competitive and add value, your organisation should introduce digital transformation when the IT infrastructure needs to be upgraded. In addition to cloud solution, an organisation can incorporate new technologies which help automate as well as improve speed and efficiency of operations. Examples include AI (Artificial Intelligence), ML (Machine Learning), big data analytics, IoT (Internet of things), etc. These technologies require immense computational power and storage. Cloud computing is a great solution to integrating these diverse technologies.

Benefits of Cloud Computing

• Flexibility in managing and growing your organisation. Theoretically, cloud computing helps ever-changing organisations save. They do not have to invest in in-house IT infrastructure and maintenance.
• Cost-effectiveness. Clous solutions can be adjusted and customised to match business requirements via scalable framework. Your organisation only pays for what you use. You can choose solutions which are more cost-effective instead of installing and maintaining costly on-premises IT infrastructure.
• Security. Cyberattacks or threats could breach data or personal information stored locally. Data on cloud hosting can be mirrored at multiple redundant sites. Thus, when a node is breached or inoperable, data in different nodes are still intact and secure.
• Parallel computing. Enabled by cloud infrastructure, people can collaborate without hierarchy – be it top-down or bottom-up. Different teams can operate and access the same information remotely, making their work easier and faster.

Digital transformation changes consumer behaviors. Organisations need to adapt to the new digital reality. Take advantage of cloud computing to configure a framework for sustainable digital transformation. A cloud solution can lead to innovations. Developers gain access to compatible APIs. Cloud services provide analytics, functional programming, and a low-code development platform. All are essential to making informed decisions for launching your products and services.

Digital transformation is an opportunity to differentiate yourself. You can enhance customers’ innovative experiences and capabilities whilst adding value to your business.

9 Reasons Cloud Computing are Essential to Growth in Digital Age 

1. Scalability

The main advantage of cloud computing is its innate scalability. For example, your IT solutions can be resized quickly and conveniently. Effects that take place immediately can reverberate across the entire organisation. 

In the past, we could not scale environments on-demand. The scalability of organisations were limited by hardware sizes and computing power. But migration to the cloud unlocks those limitations. Cloud truly revolutionises the way you manage technical resources. 

2. Innovation

Innovation has a direct connection to organisation’s growth. Out-of-date technology stifles the ability to test out and adopts modern solutions.

Tackling back-end performance can be a major challenge, especially in the part of web applications. Adopting the cloud as an infrastructure for innovation helps drive performances, reduce costs, and increase agility. For example, organisations developing IoT products need to accelerate their innovation, which can only be done with the help of cloud computing. In conclusion, cloud computing supports the IoT industry to innovate and introduce products or services which benefit the world.

3. Cost Effectiveness

Cost-effectiveness is one of the main reasons that make cloud computing essential to your business. Migration to the cloud can be costly. But addressing cost-related challenges is not about how much you can save during migration. It should be about how much you currently spend on existing IT services compared to how much less you would spend after migrating to the cloud.

Calculating the real costs of cloud solution ownership can be daunting due to varying requirements and solutions available. We recommend seeking a cloud partner to help estimate the costs. However, cloud computing’s true value comes from the environment’s additional functions, including

• Agility
• Scalability
• Higher DevOps performance or overcoming old-fashioned software development that forces you to choose between stability and speed of delivery

4. DevOps Improvements

DevOps’s main benefit is improving the quality and implementation of new innovations. The communications are flexible. Teams can collaborate throughout the entire development lifecycle.

 The ability to add new functions without compromising stability is the main reason organisations are switching to the DevOps model. If an organisation does not combine cloud computing and DevOps, it misses a tremendous opportunity to employ faster product development processes along with clearer business operations provided by the cloud.

Constant improvements and releases of new functions, without a negative impact on the application’s stability, are one of many reasons cloud computing is essential to your business.

5. Compliance and Increased Security

Major cloud service providers employ strict standards on security, compliance, and data protection. This helps alleviate a concern about migrating essential data, including both business and consumer data, to the cloud business owners have. You can rest assured that top cloud service providers have invested considerable resources to develop advanced security protocols as well as to comply with regulations/best practices.

Organisations in highly regulated industries such as healthcare, public sectors, pharmaceuticals, and defence must absolutely adhere to specific requirements to ensure data completion. All leading companies in these industries are using cloud computing.

 6. Flexibility

Flexibility is one of the most cited reasons why cloud computing benefits businesses. An obvious advantage is cloud infrastructure is more flexible. Cloud’s definition of flexibility also extends to its model that future-proof newer cloud computing technology.

Technology sector is constantly evolving. Adapting is not only for survival, but also for growth. In the past, business expansion was a costly attempt, heavily focused on recruitment, and heavily invested in a certain project. Sadly, those efforts were barely fruitful.

Nowadays, organisations are equipped with technical capabilities to expand on demand. The resizing capability is possible because of cloud’s computing’s flexibility. The cost for flexible cloud computing has also become much more affordable when compared to traditional IT resources.

 7. Simpler IT Infrastructure Management

One challenge business leaders has been facing is allocating resources to R&D of new solutions whilst maintaining security and operations of the complex IT infrastructure.

Cloud service providers are responsible for security and managing basic infrastructure. Organisations will then have spare resources they can dedicate to other parts of operations.

For example, when migrated to cloud computing, an organisation will undoubtedly have more resources left, which they can allocate to develop businesses, enhance customer’s experiences/relationships, or test out new growth models.

8. Varieties of Service Models

There are 4 main models for cloud adoption: public, private, hybrid, and community.  Each model has its own pros and cons. It is important to consider your cloud strategy early on. The current trend leans towards hybrid so you are not tied to one service provider.

 9. Constant Growth of Industries

In less than 10 years, cloud infrastructure has been widely adopted by top organisations. Cloud has become a next big thing. It will only grow, especially alongside the IoT industry that is expected to grow exponentially in a few years.

With AI, ML, edge computing becomes more ubiquitous (especially in cloud computing environment), industries can only grow and quickly transform. The growth in computing power and end-user functions will have a direct impact on businesses in all industries from today until the next decade.

Source

sam-solutions.us

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