In this digital world where technology is taking the place of almost all traditional processes and making them dynamic. Cloud computing is also one of them that has become an integral part of our lives and makes it easier to perform complex tasks with the help of computing machines. In recent years, the cloud has become the most popular and in-demand solution for organizations to store, access, and process data. To get a proper answer to how the cloud is changing business, you need to remember the world before the cloud.
There was no efficiency and mobility because data was stored using traditional bookkeeping techniques where people had to be in any specific location if they wanted to read books. This world was very risky because if the library building is burnt out then books would be destroyed. I will try to answer your questions like how the cloud has impacted big companies, the impact of cloud computing in future business strategies, how organizations use the cloud, and how the cloud is changing business.
The IT department of any company needs to continue expanding because the amount of data to be processed is increasing day by day and it is necessary to analyze this data to extract valuable insights from it. Cloud computing is not only the name of storing your data on the internet but it is also capable of doing so much more.
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How the Cloud is Changing Business?
Cloud facilitates confidential information to travel rapidly in both directions: across computing with virtualization technology and scaling up/down to efficiently handle bigger workloads and higher levels of security across thousands of computing machines.
Organizations are changing their business needs according to rapidly changing technology so that they can compete in the online world that is full of competition. Companies have different reasons for using the cloud but the most important one is the lower costs because they don’t need to hire resources for increasing their computational power. The following are the most important
Operational Improvements
It is understood, that most businesses are shifting to the Internet and offering their services outside of their regions and countries because people like online shopping. Nowadays, the remaining traditional businesses are also trying to make their online presence to target more audiences all over the world. These big business brands need a huge storage space that is necessary to fulfill their business needs.
Managed cloud services are highly scalable solutions and ensure that data storage requirements are always met. Why businesses are interested in using cloud services because they will only pay based on the storage amount used and other resources. Why is cloud getting liked and valued by the people because they will only pay as much as they use? So, every business can easily scale up or down based on business requirements and save costs. Big organizations are also hosting other applications and getting benefits.
Nowadays, different collaboration and file-sharing platforms are offering alerts, meeting notifications, code histories, and the ability to code in a collaborative environment that makes it easier to complete the project within a record period. Moreover, there is no need to worry about time zones, waiting for approvals, or individual schedules.
Big companies and organizations are getting real benefits from cloud computing because they can apply a modular approach to business functions. Cloud computing is facilitating production teams to enjoy real-time collaboration and communication over secure virtual networks.
Deal with Customer Needs Effectively
A proactively designed customer support strategy plays a vital role in the success of any organization. Cloud technology helps to create effective, customer-oriented applications and adds a level of personalization. The employees can access the customers’ information from all over the world and offer real-time customer feedback. Cloud computing and hosting have simplified the way of connecting company employees with customers in a well-managed environment.
Cost savings and Cost Reductions
Cloud computing management is a way in which the data is stored in a centralized way and allows anyone to access the same information or data from any location. With the help of the cloud, the employees can work together in tough situations and complete their tasks with better team collaboration within a short period. Once all the processes are aligned, definitely the company’s productivity will be increased and the cost will be reduced.
When you are using cloud business management tools then there is no need to worry about delayed responses to emails or phone calls because concerned persons will be granted access privileges to view or edit any particular project. It will boost overall productivity and save costs and precious time.
Cloud computing services also support cross-platform APIs and make it easier to integrate with several systems. It also reduces infrastructure costs by using the most reliable and powerful third-party infrastructure. Easier deployment and integration of cloud technology allows businesses to be more innovative and agile with minimum financial risks. Small companies could not afford such a quality of services if they wanted to implement their hardware.
Cost-effectiveness
It is another important factor because when you use dedicated servers or other traditional hosting services, you will pay the resource costs whether you are using them or not. However, cloud computing for business or personal use reduces costs because you will only pay for the storage space that you have used and the computing power that you have consumed.
There is no need to hire a dedicated technical team for the management of servers and other technical problems because cloud vendors take care of deploying, managing, and upgrading the systems as per your requirements. If you have a technical team then you can assign them other duties and utilize their skills to increase the overall productivity and performance.
How the cloud is changing business in this digital world can be analyzed from different aspects companies don’t need to invest in hardware, they will only pay for the services they are using.
Security Considerations
With the increasing attacks of hackers, it is mandatory for any website either accept online payments or not. Maintaining a higher level of security is necessary to build the trust of clients. Cloud providers implement a higher level of security mechanisms to fulfill the security needs of any organization. If you need extra security then you can also ask your managed cloud hosting provider to implement advanced security techniques. The data is stored in a centralized location protected with ironclad security tools to ensure a higher level of security.
There are many options available for storage of your data on the cloud such as SSD drives or extensive data caching. Cloud providers expertly configure the hardware and provide faster data access as compared to local storage. The cloud provides secure storage and enables stronger security measures for the quality of services.
Enhanced Flexibility
Cloud computing in business offers a maximum level of flexibility because employees working on a project or company can work together on a project from all over the world with a higher level of flexibility and mobility. It was not possible because of location restrictions but now anything is available without any time or location restrictions. Mobile devices make it possible to access the updated files with real-time collaboration and updates.
Work Never Stops
Data and files are available all the time, so anyone can get the updated files or edit them from anywhere having an internet connection and a computing device. How the cloud is changing business goals and impacting their productivity? Cloud makes it easier to work from anywhere anytime, so it requires a different level of commitment to work responsibilities. In other words, the cloud provides a shared and collaborative environment where many developers can work on the same project with real-time communication.
Why Organizations are Shifting To Cloud-Native?
Let me introduce the cloud-native software approaches that are used to release the stress and low-impact changes of components of any given software application. A study of cloud-native application architecture and its impact on businesses is necessary to understand the real benefits. Big software applications are divided into several “microservices” that can be tweaked with little effect on a running piece of software.
Traditional complex software often has different relationships known as dependencies with other codes that save precious time in rewriting the code again. By orchestrating, microservices are stored in portable units, called containers. Now, it is possible to deploy and manage applications worldwide, from any single location without any difficulties.
Kubernetes was the most popular open-source software developed inside Google to run many global applications for orchestrating. Nowadays, google runs about 2 billion containers a week on its Kubernetes which is managed by the cloud-native computing foundation having its members Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon, and many others.
Blackrock (the world’s largest asset manager) recently created an investor research application with the help of Kubernetes in 100 days. It is understood that Kubernetes encourages real-time collaboration where both junior and senior staff work together with much more rapid feedback from the customers.
How to manage the cloud is not your headache because you just rent computational power instead of buying assets. So, the cloud is the name of more flexible operating expenses rather than fixing capital commitments. How it was made possible? Because we shape our tools first (implementation of cloud technology) and then our tools shape us.
Most Common Cloud Services Adoption
1. Web Hosting
Most of the business brands require extensive computing resources with the highest level of security and availability. Some small-sized businesses can’t afford the greater resources, so cloud hosting facilitates both types of businesses with the highest level of scalability. They will only pay as much as they use the resources and enjoy a higher level of security and management without hiring any technical staff.
2. Productivity Solutions
Cloud computing business helps organizations to reduce disaster recovery downtimes and reduce IT workloads. It also increases the scalability, collaboration, and consistency of customers and employees.
3. Email Hosting
Cloud-based email hosting stores your corporate emails in an off-site, highly protected, and secure location. Moreover, there is no need to take care of your data storage and backups. It also saves the extra costs of onboarding employees to manage these tasks.
4. Content Filtering
Content filtering is a way of blocking access to content that may be deemed offensive, or inappropriate. In this internet world, where employees are accessing the website content from their own mobile devices, corporate-owned PCs, and BYOD (bring your own devices) programs. So, the risk of cyber-attacks like malware and phishing is increased. Content filtering is used by organizations to minimize these risks by making such content difficult to access for illegal, inappropriate, and objectionable content. In proactive business strategies, content filtering techniques are deployed across all content channels.
5. Online Backup / Recovery
In case of any disastrous situation, you can lose your confidential and important data if you take your backups to local storage. It is a proactive way to store your backup files on the could so that you can easily access your data from anywhere and start again your working even in any disaster.
6. Infrastructure
Cloud infrastructure (IaaS) offers additional benefits of lower ownership costs, higher scalability, and flexibility. You can choose the right cloud service models like Saas, IaaS, Paas, and Faas according to your needs.
7. Industry-specific Applications
Many industries have different software vendors who have developed a specific business application to perform particular tasks. So, the Cloud facilitates industry-specific applications.
8. Business Support
Around 28%of experts are using the cloud as business support and getting the real benefits of advanced technology.
9. Application Hosting
Today, application hosting is not a tough job. Before the cloud technology, the applications were hosted on different shared and dedicated servers connected to the internet. But now you can easily host your applications with greater flexibility and enhanced security.
Enterprise Cloud Usage is Increasing
20% of the enterprises said that their annual spend exceeded $12M and 26% are reporting between $2.4M to $12M. Annual public cloud spending by enterprises has increased as compared to last year and 13% have $600K to $1.2M as you can see in the picture given below:
Public Cloud Adoption for Enterprises
AWS is the most widely used public cloud provider with 76% of the users and only 12% are experimenting. If we compare the Azure and AWS usages according to 2019 then both are increased with 9% having a closed gap. There is no need to worry about the management tasks because you have the option to buy a fully managed AWS Cloud.
Why Cloud VPS is Getting Value Over Traditional VPS?
VPS (Virtual Private Server) is the name of a hosting solution in which a physical server is divided into different independent parts or many physical servers work as a single server using visualization technology. Cloud VPS is also a similar concept because it also provides the same functionality but with on-demand resources. Both are most widely used but you need to choose one that provides you the incentives you are looking for. Let’s take a look at the features of both in terms of functionality, scalability, data security, cost, and availability.
Traditional VPS
VPS hosting provides the options of customization, configuration, and administration like a dedicated server but it has lower costs than a dedicated server and higher than a shared hosting solution. Traditional VPS also provides scalability in processing power, memory, and storage space. The key features of a Virtual Private Server are control over the virtual environment and security with the help of the same standards used for dedicated servers.
Every traditional VPS comes with a fixed price every month or any specific time duration but when people increase the resources like memory, CPU cycles, and backups then they will pay more accordingly. Everyone can increase VPS resources as per the business requirements.
Cloud-based VPS
As I have discussed earlier, Cloud-based VPS also offers the same functionality but you will pay the bills based on usage. The Cloud VPS is an ideal solution for unpredictable traffic and resource usage with higher availability. Once your business requires more space or computing power, you can get more resources within minutes and there is no need to change your server settings or data migrations.
Cloud-based VPS vs Traditional VPS
The following are the main reasons that make Cloud-based VPS the best Virtual Private Server in the market:
1. Self-recovery Hardware
Consider a real-time example of a building where the electric generator provides the power supply in case of electricity failure and tolerate the fault. Cloud-based VPS also provides the ability to proactively handle the failures and minimize the risk factor.
Consider the situation to understand how is this possible. when a component fails then it moves to another active node automatically with the help of virtualization technology. It means there is no downtime or any loss of service.
2. Scalable and Centralized Storage
Cloud VPS comes with a safe and centrally managed Storage Area Network (SAN) that provides the following features:
- There is no need to maintain different disks
- Faster backup bandwidth and high-speed network
- Get quick and easy access to your data from all over the world
- Resource allocation as per your requirements
3. Efficient Load-Balancing
A gradual increase in the volume of website traffic can affect performance and increase the difficulties of your website visitors. In the case of traditional VPS, you will upgrade your server plan but in Cloud VPS, workloads are distributed across the nodes or servers in such a manner that each resource gives an enhanced performance.
4. Instant and Unlimited Scalability
There is no need to worry about the fluctuations in your business because you have the option to manage it more effectively. Cloud VPS hosting allows businesses to instantly scale up/down resources like disk space, bandwidth, CPU, and RAM as per their business requirements.
Final Words
Cloud-based resources with advanced functions help organizations to create new opportunities within a short period. Another main advantage of cloud technology is the ability to shift the IT landscape to focus on different business strategies instead of dedicating time and valuable resources to technical problems. In short, cloud technology is not an alternate option but a pillar for future businesses.