Cloud computing has now become the bedrock of most IT infrastructures of several businesses. Analysts predicted that 2013 will the pivotal year for cloud computing as more companies build trust around it, especially with its ability to deliver better business value while reducing operating costs.
This emerging trend sounds nebulous, but it can be digestible once the value propositions behind it are fleshed out. Everyone seemed to have varying definitions of the term. Taking itfrom the perspective of IT professionals will clear the haze.
What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud is simply a metaphor for the “Internet”. But when you couple it with the word computing—that is where the fuzz begins.
Looking at it on the IT-needs standpoint, cloud computing appears as an approach to increase capacity or augment capabilities minusthe additional expenses of investing in new infrastructures, training new personnel or licensing new software. It works like a subscription-based or pay-per-use service.
Instead of buying physical servers to run certain number of websites, you rent server from a cloud computing provider. In this case, you are renting virtual servers and not physical servers.
A good analogy of cloud computing is living in an apartment.There is a bunch of people living in an apartment. While there are different individuals living in the same building, each person has his or her own space.
Benefits of Cloud Computing
1. Brings new level of IT efficiency
One of the most important benefits of cloud computing is that it allows employees to focus on what matters most, not on running and managing IT. The IT folks wear too many hats. What cloud computing does for them is take away one off.
This will allow IT to shift its resources from sustaining existing systems to investing in making innovative services that drive new sources of business revenue and improve operations within the department. Moreover, it helps the IT secure the business and optimize performance across diverse cloud environments.
2. Significant cost savings
Just as apartment utilizes land efficiently, cloud computing is the efficient use of computer hardware.
When the demand grows, providers can easily meet the requirements because of the spare capacities. This is similar to adding rooms to your apartment when the family grows.
Furthermore, the owner shoulders the maintenance of the building, not the tenants. So, it tends to be cheaper than the traditional ways of running and maintaining your own physical servers.
The wage of a person maintaining the server, the room or space that should be specifically built to house the physical servers, the air conditioning, upgrade expenses and more – these are just some of the cost that entails having your own in-house physical servers.
When opt for cloud computing, you only pay for what you use without having to worry of other technology and operational costs.
3. Increase in data mobility and agility
Because data are stored in virtual servers, these can be accessed remotely anytime. That moment when you left your laptop inside a cab is a complete disaster. All files and sensitive information and customer data are gone.
You then turn to the IT to hopefully restore what is lost—that is if they have back-ups. If none, it is a terrible headache for you. This is where another benefit of cloud computing comes in.
With SaaS or software-as-a-service component of cloud computing, the vendor becomes responsible for all the hard stuff. You will be provided with a log-in wherein you can access all your files even if you lose your computers and even if you are travelling.
And again, SaaS lets you focus on running your business and not the technology.
