Cloud Computing – Features and Benefits

Cloud computing is the growing trend in recent years. It has not only provided profound benefits to developers and software engineers but has also revolutionized the way businesses operate and manage their operations. Businesses no longer require physical offices and other resources to do their work and cam manage quite well using the cloud based resources and have remote places to store and process their data as well as to manage their projects and tasks by many collaboration and management tools available in the market.

Cloud computing essentially means managing resources and operations from a remote location on the internet using a cloud based software. These resources can be data centers, infra structure and platforms for performing tasks remotely or one of many collaboration tools that may help people to schedule, meet and work in collaboration from remote places. There has been great increase in cloud based applications and people are coming forward with new ideas and creating applications and solutions that help businesses online with great efficiency and faster speed. As Roy Stephan, Founder and CEO, PierceMatrix says “With the cloud, individuals and small businesses can snap their fingers and instantly set up enterprise-class services.”

Cloud based applications do not reside in the businesses physical location but is spread across the different remote locations and performs tasks using remote servers. This helps businesses to run smoothly and deliver their customer with smooth transactions and fast delivery of products.

This article aims to highlight the features, types and benefits of cloud computing so that businesses out there can make a fair analysis when purchasing cloud computing softwares for setting up their online structure. The market is full of different products which cater to the different needs of the business community but clients tend to be confused and at a loss when they want to select the best suited and cost effective software applications from among the sea of available applications. After reading through, the clients can then be aware of the different types of cloud computing applications and their suitability to their needs.

Types of Cloud computing with Examples

Cloud based computing can be of different types. Some common types are IaaS (infrastructure as a service), PaaS (Product as a service), BaaS (Backup as a service) and SaaS (Software as a service). All these types are usually providing some cloud based resource to the client business. It may be backup and sharing using remote data centers like the popular products google drive and Microsoft one drive. These BaaS applications not only let user keep regular backup of their business data but also maintain the data reliability and data security. This means that user data is secure to travel among multiple environments and being accessible to the end users across the world from any device.

Some cloud based vendors (IaaS) may provide computing power using fast platforms and structuring softwares that may share the workload of a company online using the internet instead of using physical locations. This enables businesses to expand their business using online environment and share workload through online means. Examples of this type of cloud computing are IBM and AWS. They help users to deploy their business and provide infrastructure and management services that link the business together using the cloud.

Another type of cloud service may be cloud based software applications or services (SaaS) that can help users solve a specific problem. For example dotnet report builder is a cloud based reporting tool that can be integrated into an existing database solution to provide customized reports keeping all the work load in the cloud and sharing results with the user in beautiful data visualizations. This ad hoc reporting tool helps users to add the cloud based solution into their existing software as a plugin. The overhead and background tasks are performed remotely at the vendors’ data servers and the result set is transported to user’s screen to give them the desired output in a jiffy.

Benefits of Cloud computing

The most obvious benefit of making use of cloud computing to manage the workload of your business is that you do not need to invest in elaborate physical locations and data warehouses as these can be purchased and managed online. This results in reduced IT cost which would incur if the company had to purchase expensive hardware and dedicated servers and setup a complete IT infrastructure. All this can be done remotely just by purchasing an IaaS product. This helps individuals and small businesses that can now have an online setup in no time delivering quality service to their customers and end users. The though is so captivating that it gets many businesses to setup and expand their venture.

Added benefits are fast delivery of data and services as well as smooth transactions. As the computing and delivery is online and not dependent on a physical location there is no threat of a breakdown or slow access as data is not restricted and can be accessed from multiple locations through different access paths. This helps to maintain the speed of online enquiry and delivery and the cloud software is accessible from any browser on any device.

Cloud computing and cloud based services ensure flexibility and scalability and it depends solely on the discretion of the business in the increase and decrease of their working capacity. If they want to expand their business and start a new chain of products, they are able to do so just by purchasing additional capabilities online or adding extensions to their IaaS software. There is no added cost of physically expanding their work capacity or purchasing expensive software and hardware to supplement the expansion. This not only leads to ease of work but helps businesses to put their creative ideas to practice without additional financial burdens.

Another benefit that probably out shadows the rest is accessibility and being able to reach out to people all across the world. Your product is not now limited to local markets but is accessible to different far away countries across the globe. This opens up new prospects for business community and is a great temptation for customers as well to be able to experience newer variety of products available to pick and choose from.

Cloud computing promotes work efficacy by introducing many collaboration softwares and task management softwares that help colleagues to manage their workload and collaborate effectively online. Many online video conferencing tools are available like Zoom and Ms Teams that help employees to come together in online meeting and discussion boards and share files and submit tasks using online means.

All in All, cloud computing has not only benefitted many businesses in growing and expanding their horizons but also provided people with a secure platform to deploy their software. As quoted by Marc Benioff, Founder, CEO and Chairman, Salesforce – “If someone asks me what cloud computing is, I try not to get bogged down with definitions. I tell them that, simply put, cloud computing is a better way to run your business.”

Quotes taken from – https://www.dsm.net/it-solutions-blog/our-8-favorite-cloud-quotes-and-why-they-matter

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