Cloud technology is growing exponentially, driving disruptive changes in how people work, socialize and communicate. Businesses are rapidly moving to adopt cloud technologies as they embrace the benefits of this flexible way of working.
In the past, companies may have been reluctant to adopt a cloud solution because of concerns around data security, privacy and governance. In recent years concerns around these issues have been addressed. In addition, providers of many cloud offerings now have a strong track record giving confidence that businesses can securely implement cloud technology within their organizations.
Features
Below are some reasons to use cloud computing:
A cloud environment can be less expensive –by partnering with a service provider, the cost of storage and other services can be significantly less than on-premises solutions.
- Flexibility – as your organization’s needs change, a variable-cost, on-demand cloud environment allows you to remove or add additional services as needed.
- Efficiency – reducing governance costs, providing the ability to scale quickly, and enabling faster provisioning.
- Security: – prevails right from the hardware itself to encryption and backups.
How to successfully implement cloud solutions
The move to cloud technology does not happen overnight. The significant benefits that a cloud solution offer need to be considered and weighed against the costs of making this change. In many cases, where companies have been slow to implement a cloud solution, they often point to issues around data security as their number one reason for holding back from implementing a cloud strategy. Companies are still not clear about the security issues surrounding cloud implementations.
The truth is that when implemented correctly, cloud technology can offer significant benefits over other solutions, including cost savings and ease of use to access information from any device.
Any developer or department in your organization can use the resources they need without purchasing hardware or licenses.
Top 10 Benefits of Business Cloud Computing
- Get access to software on any device, anywhere in the world on demand.
- You will only pay according to your usage when you need it – no higher upfront costs or huge overheads.
- Scale-up and down your IT resources quickly and easily to adjust to fluctuating capacity demands.
- Enjoy greater flexibility and control over the security and privacy of your data and applications since you don’t own or manage any hardware yourself.
- Receive an improved service with better support – larger providers tend to have more customer support staff and IT experts available than smaller businesses can afford on their own.
- Enjoy improved service availability and faster access to new software releases since your providers will continually make performance enhancements.
- Reap the rewards of lower energy usage, as your provider’s IT systems are likely to be more ‘efficient’ than any system you could install yourself.
- Avoid significant capital expenditure on hardware, software and staffing.
- Enjoy total peace of mind from the security and reliability of your provider’s systems – they will have invested far more insecurity than you could afford to do yourself.
- Engage a highly flexible workforce who can adapt quickly to meet your changing needs 24 hours a day
Disadvantages of Cloud Computing
The significant drawbacks to cloud computing are security and privacy. Many public cloud providers can get away with not providing as much protection as other businesses can.
Some privacy issues also revolve around the amount of access the cloud provider has to your data. The cloud also poses a significant danger if a server is compromised. However, you can install an extra layer of protection by the use of super fast VPN servers. If a server is hacked, it’s not only the customer’s data at risk but all of the other customer’s data hosted on that server as well. As such, you ought to secure your online transactions and personal data.
Finally, there is the challenge that businesses face in figuring out how to back up their data stored in the cloud. Even with their added complexity, Cloud backups can be less expensive than backing up data on your servers, but it’s more difficult to back up data than it is to protect it. Businesses should carefully consider the drawbacks of cloud computing before deciding whether to store their data in the cloud.
Conclusion
Cloud computing is growing at a rapid rate, and it seems everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. Enterprises and SMEs are embracing cloud computing as it reaches new heights and penetrates different markets and sectors.
Cloud solutions are trendy lately, with many businesses adopting their use, especially small to medium-sized companies. A cloud solution is a service that is hosted remotely and accessible through your internet connection. There are numerous advantages of cloud solutions, including the fact that they can help a company store more data at a fraction of the cost of doing it themselves.