Cloud solutions – public, private and hybrid – add a valuable component to IT projects and budgets. They allow businesses to scale initial deployments to company-wide services without taking shipments of new servers. Cost control enables management to green light projects based on operational rather than capital budget. Public cloud business solutions move computing and storage off-site to a commercial cloud provider. A private cloud environment keeps the flexible resource pool in-house. Hybrid cloud solutions allow solution architects to meet key operational needs and concerns such as disaster recovery (DR).
Before Cost, the Top Benefit
Cost saving is one of the biggest cloud computing benefits. Many top-10 lists about the benefits of cloud infrastructure cite cost as the top benefit, but there’s one which ranks higher: agility. Easy, cost-effective provisioning of computing and storage resources helps with these challenges (and more):
- Company growth
- Establishing new remote offices
- Adding, moving and adjusting call centers quickly
- Software development and testing
- Website demand fluctuation
- Data mining and business intelligence projects
A New IT Cost Management Paradigm
Cost is a benefit of employing cloud computing resources, as companies shift IT expenditures from capital expenses (CAPEX) to operational expenses (OPEX). The time frame and planning process for IT projects also contract because it takes less time and effort to initiate a service-based project or make changes.
Availability and Demand Responsiveness
High availability keeps your cloud systems online when you need them. The cloud technology concept gives you access to available, redundant resources so you aren’t vulnerable to specific hardware failures. When you need more capacity, your cloud resources can expand to meet the need, and your cloud service provider can customize this for you.
Geographic Coverage
Many cloud solution providers have computing centers around the globe, providing multiple network paths to your company’s services. Availability keeps traveling staff connected and offers backup access to fixed offices. Your web presence can also be distributed so site visitors connect to a geographically convenient server.
Document Control
Cloud-based IT solutions for document management provides data security, backup solutions and global access which is independent of company locations. New technologies provide fast access to large volumes of document data over the network. Scalable storage allows revision histories to expand as needed.
Collaboration
Adopting cloud technology can improve productivity and collaboration among team members. Workers can join together and use cloud-based office tools, video conferencing and marketing or software development tools. Cloud providers take care of mobile and remote office access to a common work environment, and also provide support.
Physical and Network Security
By implementing cloud applications and solutions, you can put your critical computing environment behind a carefully-managed physical and virtual wall. Your on-site servers and data storage may be vulnerable to intrusions through outdated firewall and network equipment, unmonitored user computing equipment and vulnerable wireless endpoints or mobile devices. Cloud solutions are designed and managed by security experts.
Ease of Management and Automated Software Maintenance
Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and other cloud-based offerings provide expert system management, including software upgrades as part of the package. Popular service providers include marketing and customer relations management (CRM), database services, office applications and software development environments. Cloud solution providers can provision your environment with managed software to meet your needs, giving you a control panel for customizing.
Harness the Power of Cloud Computing Solutions Today
A robust slate of benefits makes implementing cloud-based applications and solutions an excellent choice for companies of any size. Experienced IT cloud solution architects can focus on key design elements, such as network reliability, storage location management and the right hybrid balance. They can ensure that mobile access keeps company data secure. Architects can also design for quick recovery to another location in case of natural disaster or building unavailability – this is where cloud solutions shine.
Contact our team today to learn more about how our cloud solutions can help you keep your systems operational and your data secure.
About the Author: EIRE Systems
