Cloud Computing is unstoppable with many businesses relying on the use of business solutions on the Cloud.
This rapidly evolving technology has begun to influence many aspects of the business world and according to an article published recently in Forbes, it has been estimated that in coming years, 47% of companies’ marketing departments will have more than 60% of their applications on the cloud.
The Cloud really is everywhere and yet for many it’s an invisible phenomenon that often they don’t even realise they are using. Web based services such as Dropbox and Gmail integration are in use by much of the population without the knowledge that it forms part of the whole “Cloud” services.
Companies are using Cloud Computing on an increasingly regular basis with their main expectations when investing in platforms on the cloud is to improve the quality of the technology of their platforms and applications, make their business grow and provide better customer service to their customers.
Cloud computing challenges…
The main challenges faced by Cloud Computing in the immediate future, according to Gartner analysts the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company are:
- Computing everywhere: Ubiquitous access (from anywhere and at any time) to computing capacities.
- Cloud – client computing: Union of the Cloud with intelligent mobile devices which will continue to drive the applications that reside in the cloud.
- Infrastructure and applications: defined by software: dynamically model the infrastructure and the communications required by each application.
- Advanced analysis: Companies have to manage huge amounts of data to provide the correct information to the correct people at the right time. Work will be put into analytical technologies that invisibly integrate into all the applications.
And yet for all the above challenges of Cloud Computing, it also incorporates some unique and notable advantages of moving your business into the cloud.
Benefits of cloud computing…
Cost Efficiency – This is the biggest advantage of Cloud Computing, achieved by the elimination of the investment in stand-alone software or servers. By leveraging cloud’s capabilities, companies can save on licensing fees and at the same time eliminate overhead charges such as the cost of data storage, software updates, management etc.
Cloud is environmentally friendly – Energy consumption costs may be reduced as it takes fewer resources to compute and only the resources that are truly needed are consumed by the system.
Optimized server utilisation – as most enterprises typically underutilise their server computing resources, cloud computing will manage the server utilisation to the optimum level.
Dynamic scalability – many enterprises include a reasonably large buffer from their average computing requirement, just to ensure that capacity is in place to satisfy peak demand. Cloud Computing provides an extra processing buffer as needed at a low cost and without the capital investment or contingency fees to users.
Quick deployment and ease of integration – A Cloud system can be up and running in a very short period, making quick deployment a key benefit. On the same aspect, the introduction of a new user in the system happens instantaneously, eliminating waiting periods.
Increased Storage Capacity – The Cloud can accommodate and store much more data compared to a personal computer and in a way offers almost unlimited storage capacity.
Reliability – With a managed service platform, Cloud computing is much more reliable and consistent than in-house IT infrastructure. Most providers offer a Service Level Agreement which guarantees 24/7/365 and 99.99% availability. Your business can benefit from a massive pool of redundant IT resources, as well as quick resolution – If a server fails, hosted applications and services can easily be transited to any of the available servers.
Businesses are under increasing pressure to sharpen their business practices and with Cloud Computing you can do just that. And just as it has been proven here, there is certainly much more to cloud computing than technology alone. The true power of cloud is what the technology, implementing rapidly deployed services in the cloud, can mean for you and your business.
For more information about Cloud Computing, please give us a call on 0345 389 2310 and one of our team will be happy to help, or send us an enquiry online by clicking here.
