Cloud Computing Advantages

Hi Guys! Hope you’re well today. Thank you for clicking this read. In this post today, I’ll walk through Cloud Computing Advantages.

Growing a business requires keeping up with modern technologies. And cloud computing is no different. Even though it’s not a new term and has been around for a long while, it still encompasses a huge potential to effectively run and manage business operations. Cloud computing is the provision of computing resources over the internet. These resources include storage, processing power, and databases.

Integrating more technologies (like IoT, AI) into the business models means it opens up opportunities to produce a large amount of data. And it’s very challenging to store and process that data on on-site data centers. This is where cloud computing comes in handy. It has the potential to effectively handle the flood of data while giving remote access to the developers to manage that data from anywhere in the world.

I suggest you read this entire article as it aims to cover the advantages of cloud computing.

Keep reading.

Cloud Computing Advantages

Cloud computing comes with scores of benefits. A few of them include cost saving, scalability, mobility, unlimited storage, security, instant collaboration, automatic software update, and more. we’ve discussed them one by one in the section below.

1: Cost Saving

Cost is crucial when it comes to successfully running your business. You need to take careful steps to spend capital investments. Using traditional ways to handle your data allows you to spend an upfront payment for the installation of complex IT hardware infrastructure. And this is not enough. You need money to maintain, scale and upgrade that system to effectively handle your data. Cloud computing prevents you from setting up hardware on-site and your data is managed and stored remotely over the cloud with data centers. You don’t need experts to use computing resources. Everything will be taken care of by the cloud service provider.

2: Scalability

Scalability is another big advantage that comes with cloud computing. You are not bound to pay for all the computing resources. Service providers offer pay-as-you-go service which means you’ll only pay for the resources you use for your business. For instance, you can pick the specific bandwidth, storage, and processing power to handle and store the data. Business requirements increase as the business grows over time. And at times it happens, based on the customer’s current needs and requirements you need to customize the approach. If you require less storage and processing power, you can ask for it from the service provider.

3: Mobility

Cloud computing offers mobility which means your data is not stored in any specific computer hard drive. That data is available online and anyone with an internet connection can access that data. This saves you from program failures or power shutdown. If the system on your location is not working, you can access the data from a different location as long as you have the device to work on and a strong internet connection.

4: Unlimited Storage Capacity

With cloud computing, you create a virtual office to handle the onslaught of data. It gives you the power to ask for unlimited virtual access to handle that data. With traditional data centers, creating unlimited storage capacity is very difficult since you need to upgrade the hardware which requires huge investments. This is not the case with cloud computing. Data centers are handled globally by the service provider and you only pay for the resources you use.

5: Security

Security is important to turn your business into a brand. More customers will rely on your applications if they know the information they share with you is safe and carefully handled. Data on the cloud computing servers is secure. No need to worry in case your sensitive data is deleted. Data centers on cloud computing are located at different locations and they create the copy of your data at different locations. This means if you’ve lost the data or the server at one location is down, you can use another server from a different location to claim that data. Cloud computing also offers an access management feature that gives access to sensitive data to your employees only, preventing that data from being attacked by potential hackers.

6: Instant Collaboration

Cloud computing allows instant collaboration between workers. Especially if you are working with freelancers or employees from remote locations. Any file or information shared on cloud computing gives instant access to that data from anywhere in the world. For instance, Google Drive or Dropbox are examples of cloud computing. Data available on these applications can be accessed by anyone anytime.

7: Automatic Software Update

The software and applications available on cloud computing get updated automatically. You don’t need IT experts to do manual updates. This is the job of your service provider. They instantly update their systems and software for security purposes to avoid any potential threats.

8: High Speed

In cloud computing data is managed over the internet. This means you can easily try new ideas and can simply apply new tweaks in the software within seconds. The data is remotely handled and any new software deployment gives you instant access to find the information in the software or any newly introduced application.

9: Disaster Recovery and Back-up

Cloud computing offers disaster recovery and backup features. At times the updates on your applications don’t work out and you instantly require the previous version. Cloud servers store the backup of your previous version. And if one server is down, cloud computing quickly moves the customers to the running servers, preventing you from big financial loss.

10: Better Control

Cloud computing allows you to have better control over data. It gives you different types of cloud models to pick from like public cloud, private cloud, and hybrid cloud. If you want to process your sensitive data locally, you can pick a private cloud, or if you want to store a large amount of data you can pick a public cloud. And the hybrid cloud is the combination of both private and public cloud which allows you the selectively handle and process your data over different clouds. Moreover, if you don’t want to remain dependent on one service provider, you can get services from two different service providers, this gives you to have better control over your sensitive data.

11: Competitive Advantage

Not every company picks cloud services to handle data. Some are not even aware of this architecture and even if they are aware, they are not willing to incorporate this infrastructure into this business model. If you choose cloud computing to manage your data, you will remain ahead of your competitors and can better store and process your data.

Conclusion

Cloud computing gives you benefits like security, scalability, unlimited data storage, data recovery, high speed, and more.

One wrong move in the initial steps of picking the right service provider can drastically impact your business.

It takes the right knowledge and skill to implement cloud computing into any business model.

Make sure you’re handling your sensitive data in the right hands who know how to effectively incorporate this cloud model into your organization.

Rest assured, if the service provider is reputable and expert in what they do, you’ll be better off with the cloud model to enhance the productivity, revenue, security, and collaboration of your enterprise.

That’s all for today. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading this article. If you’re unsure or have any questions, you can reach me in the section below. I’d love to assist you in the best way possible. Thank you for reading this post.

What is Cloud Computing?

Hello Folks! Glad to have you on board. Thank you for clicking this read. In this post today I’ll walk you through What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is not a buzzword anymore. Even though most companies are familiar with this term, they don’t know what it does and how it works. If you’re one of them, this read is for you. In simple terms, cloud computing allows you to use computer system resources over the internet. This means you can manage your data remotely over the internet from anywhere in the world. We’ll touch this further in our article.

I suggest you read this post all the way through as I’ll cover what is cloud computing, how does it work, the types of cloud computing, the advantages of cloud computing, and the future of cloud computing.

Let’s get started.

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is a way of storing, processing, and managing data over the internet. Simply put, it’s the on-demand availability of IT resources online. These resources include data storage, computing power and databases. This way you don’t need to worry about handling data over the computer’s hard drive or on-site data centers. This liberates you from managing hardware circuits, software patching, and on-site IT drills, giving you online access over data centers through which you can efficiently manage and process your data.

With the onslaught of IT workloads, companies harness the power of cloud computing. It’s not only fast, economical, and secure, it also gives better control over data. No matter your location, as long as you have access to the internet, you can control your information online.

Google Drive and Dropbox are the best examples of cloud computing where you can access and manage your information online. Companies can use it for regular tasks like data processing, data management, software development, data protection, backup and disaster recovery, server virtualization, data analytics, and other real-time applications.

How Does Cloud Computing Work?

There are three basic parts of cloud computing.

1: Device (like computer, tablets, smartphones) through which you access data

2: Cloud with data centers where data is stored and processed

3: Internet which connects cloud with the device

You might be familiar with the term client-server model. Here user with the device is the client and the cloud with data centers are the servers while the internet connects the users with data centers.

Prior to cloud computing, handling and storing data was challenging. Companies used to install their own data centers that required proper maintenance and regular on-site check-ups to make sure they were running well, which resulted in more oversized bills and more space to accommodate them. It was impractical, expensive, and less efficient.

But cloud computing has dramatically changed this behavior. Now companies don’t need to worry about maintaining, scaling, securing, and managing their IT infrastructure, instead, they can focus on providing a better user experience with quality products. The organizations get these reousrces with pay-as-you-go terms which means the more resources they use the more they pay over time.

Companies that provide cloud computing services often offer monthly subscriptions and give users access to their computing resources. They don’t need to get in the hassle of updating servers, buying software, getting more machines to back up the data, and updating software to avoid potential security threats. The service provider takes care of all of that for them.

Types of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is perfect for businesses that have a lot of data to deal with. Cloud computing is mainly divided into three major types.

Public Cloud:

The public cloud offers compute resources like storage, memory, networking, and CPU. Public cloud vendors host these resources with globally and fully managed data centers. You can pay the vendors and rent these resources to develop your IT infrastructure.

The managed services in the compute resources include security systems and database servers that set you free from the hectic drill of managing and installing the whole solution into your local and on-site data centers.

The common leading providers of cloud computing services include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Microsoft Azure. You can hire the compute resources from these vendors as per the needs and complexity of your business operations.

Private Cloud

The public cloud is shared by a range of organizations while the private cloud, on the other hand, is specifically developed to meet the business needs of a single organization.

Some businesses don’t feel comfortable working with the public cloud. They want their separate and private cloud on their on-site data centers. Private cloud is perfect and ideally suited for single private organizations.

Two options there: companies can host private cloud or they can involve third-party vendors to host their private cloud on their system. This gives them the ability to immediately get access to the compute power based on their businesses. This setup is best for businesses that are a bit obsessed with the security of their systems.

Hybrid Cloud

Hybrid cloud gives you the ability to combine both public and private cloud and use them to your advantage. You can use either of them for a specific purpose. For instance, you may want to get unlimited storage space from the public cloud but you want to process the sensitive data on your private cloud.

This means if you running out of computing resources from the private cloud you can get the services of the public cloud to fulfill your business needs. It gives businesses advanced flexibility to move data across both clouds without a full commitment to the public cloud’s vendor.

And cost management is another blessing that comes with hybrid cloud. If you own a private cloud you need to install data centers on-site which require proper care and a capital expense. But with the public cloud, you only pay for resources without having to worry about the management of data centers.

Advantages of Cloud Computing

Now you know what is cloud computing and how does it work. Perfect. There are several advantages of cloud computing. A few of them include:

  1. It is cost-effective. The clients demand the service from the companies offering cloud services. Cost may differ for every service depending on the storage and computing power you demand. This way companies don’t need to spend money on purchasing installing and managing IT data centers, instead, they can purchase required computing resources from the service provider.
  2. Flexibility is another advantage that this infrastructure offers. This is not static, but a dynamic and flexible process. You can process and access data from anywhere in the world no matter your location, giving you the chance to scale up your business as you like better and manage data from the locations optimal for your business.
  3. Cloud computing is scalable. Yes, you can increase or decrease the demand for computing resources from cloud service providers as you run your business. This means computing power is directly related to the activities of your business. If at a certain stage you feel you require fewer data to manage and process, you can ask for less bandwidth in your next package. You can even add more users to your plan. Plus, you can even collaborate with multiple service providers at a time depending on your business.
  4. Cloud computing makes data processing fast. This is a centralized approach and the cloud service provider offer access to their data centers that are managed and controlled by experts. Accessing data online from a centralized system makes your data secure and safe.
  5. Cloud service providers strive to comply with their infrastructure with standard protocols. They keep updating their systems and data centers, providing an excellent and reliable user experience. No outsider can play with your data. Only you have access to that data and you can modify and manage it as you see fit.

The Future Trends Of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing becomes a necessary part of the business as the requirement to manage and store a large amount of data grows. And this trend will definitely increase as managing data in on-site data centers is not only expensive, it requires a lot of IT drills to properly install and maintain machines handling and storing data.

We can expect the following future trends in cloud computing.

  • Companies are willing to incorporate hybrid cloud computing into their IT model. Hybrid cloud computing is the combination of both public cloud and private. This infrastructure is mainly used to move data between private and public clouds, providing more flexibility to the users to satisfy their computing needs. What makes hybrid computing so special is its ability to process both analog and digital data. The market of hybrid computing is expected to touch $97.6 billion by 2023.
  • It’s almost impossible to run a successful business without making a footing in an online world. And cyber-attacks, system failures, and data outages are the norm when it comes to managing data online. Cloud computing offers backup and disaster recovery solutions in case of emergency. It creates the copy of your sensitive electronic data and store it miles away in data centers. And if your data original data is lost or compromised, you can ask for a copy of that data from cloud servers. This brings us to the conclusion that more companies will accept this model onwards to make their data safe and secure.
  • We have seen this before and we’ll see it again in coming years – the incorporation of AI with cloud computing. To meet their business needs, companies are now leveraging the power of Artificial Intelligence to run and effortlessly control the activities of their business. AI gives power to the organization to manage and automate their production and manufacturing processes without the interference of any human being. According to IBM, 65% of businesses feel that AI is necessary to handle their business operations and improve efficiency.
  • According to Statista, the total number of IoT-connected devices will amount to 30.9 billion units by 2025. This is huge. This brings us to another remarkable cloud computing trend – Cloud computing in the Internet of Things. IoT in cloud computing serves as a data source (from where data is produced) while cloud computing allows that data to store and process in its data centers. The combination of IoT with cloud computing gives us a model of devices connected intelligently that can manage store and process data automatically without the involvement of an outsider. For example, Alexa is a cloud-computing IoT device that can give you important information from the data stored in remote data centers in the cloud.

Conclusion

Digital transformation is on the rise. And in this era where technology is changing at an accelerated pace, it’s necessary to come up with advanced solutions to manage, store and process your data.

Cloud computing is now a part and parcel of successful organizations. But still, companies, who have reservations about the security of cloud computing, hesitate to transfer their data to a remote location.

For those hybrid model gives the perfect solution where you can get the advantage of both cloud services. For sensitive data, you can pick the private cloud while for the storage of regular and less sensitive data you can choose the private cloud. This way you can move your data and scale your compute resources as per the complexity of your business.

Not to mention, cloud computing has just started. And as the requirements and demands of businesses go complex, companies need powerful systems that not only store their data but also offer advanced processing capabilities. With new advancements in IoT technology and Artificial Intelligence, more businesses will likely adopt cloud computing for the years to come.

That’s all for today. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading this article. If you are unsure or have any questions about cloud computing, feel free to ask me in the section below. I’d love to help you the best way I can. Thank you for reading this article.

Syed Zain Nasir

I am Syed Zain Nasir, the founder of <a href=https://www.TheEngineeringProjects.com/>The Engineering Projects</a> (TEP). I am a programmer since 2009 before that I just search things, make small projects and now I am sharing my knowledge through this platform.I also work as a freelancer and did many projects related to programming and electrical circuitry. <a href=https://plus.google.com/+SyedZainNasir/>My Google Profile+</a>

Share
Published by
Syed Zain Nasir