Cloud Computing has in a short span of time gathered quite a buzz in the IT industry. Described in a nutshell, Cloud Computing entails letting a skilled third party take care of your data, hardware, and software and all the predicaments that are associated with having them locally. All of these necessities are provided for by the Cloud Computing solution provider remotely on their optimized servers and made available to the subscriber via the Internet. It’s a convenient way of reaping all the benefits this new technological phenomena has to offer without having to worry about pitfalls and performance bottlenecks.
This modus operandi of Cloud Computing has gained it legions of new converts and their ranks grow frequently as more and more organizations come to realize the potentials through Cloud Computing. What was described in the first paragraph is but a cursory overview of why Cloud Computing continues to gain new converts!
Let’s now take an in-depth look at why more and more businesses want to incorporate Cloud Computing in their overall I.T strategy.
Adopting Cloud Computing for the Enterprise
Let’s consider the example of Gugino’s pizza delivery service located in Fairfax, Virginia. Being a thriving business, it wasn’t uncommon during rush hours and on weekends to have orders flying in at unprecedented speed. It became increasingly difficult to rely on scribbling down orders. Orders were lost, delivered to wrong recipients or delivered twice. Gugino’s then decided to use a CRM over the Cloud for customer tracking and logging orders. Since the CRM is hosted over a cloud, the pizzeria has managed to circumvent the trouble of actually operating and caring for their data center and other worries like security and updates.
This little example elucidates quite a few prime advantages of Cloud Computing –
Cost Saving
No need to purchase expensive software and hardware. No need to worry about having a specialized staff to ensure that your IT infrastructure keeps functioning optimally as these tasks are taken care of by the Cloud Computing solution provider. Updating software and managing the server is all done for the subscriber. Mr. Gugino now has more time to focus on expanding his business than worrying about IT infrastructure.
Scalability
Not every workday is similar in terms of workload. One of the characteristics of Cloud Computing is to scale resources up or down on demand. During peak hours, the level of service can be easily increased and just as easily be scaled down during slow hours. The “Pay as you go” payment model has become one of the top reasons Cloud Computing is fast gaining traction.
Easy Availability
Being hosted on remote servers makes the data available from virtually anywhere over an Internet connection. It’s safe and protected against malicious software and hacking attempts and most Cloud Computing solution providers have stringent physical security as well.
Conclusion
Cloud Computing enables enterprises to streamline and optimize their offerings to customers much more efficiently over the Cloud than through traditional I.T models. The points stated above are some of the benefits that are realistically achievable through application deployment over the Cloud. However, we advise that you run a thorough research into any new models of deployment of offerings in I.T and accordingly conduct your due diligence into how Cloud Computing and Managed Cloud Services can redefine your I.T offerings, whether in-house or as an offering to your customers.
