Cloud computing adoption is on the rise every year for many obvious reasons. It is no longer a luxury, but rather a necessity to brands. Businesses of all sizes recognizes cloud benefits that enable them to gain competitive advantage whilst driving key business results.
In this article, we would like to share 8 main benefits of cloud computing and the reasons you should move your business to the cloud.
What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing, also known as cloud architecture, is on-demand access to computing services and resources – such as applications, servers, data storages, databases, networking, analytics and intelligence – through the internet, which are hosted at a remote datacenter managed by a Cloud Services Provider (CSP). The CSP makes these resources available and typically only charge for the cloud service you use.
Benefits of Cloud Computing
Compared to traditional on-premise IT, cloud computing offers a plethora of advantages to users:
1. Cost Effective
Cloud computing eliminates the capital expense of investing in new hardware and software, minimizes the effort in setting up and running on-site datacenters, and reduces the overall cost of managing and maintaining your IT infrastructure.
As most cloud computing services are on pay-as-you-use basis, you don’t have to worry that you end up paying for features you neither need or want. You will only be paying for what you use.
2. Scalability and Flexibility
Cloud computing provides the ability to scale elastically – you can scale your cloud capacity up or down quickly to suit your situation, allowing flexibility as your business needs change. In other words, this means delivering the right amount of IT resources right where they are required.
This flexibility will give you a competitive edge as it can make a significant difference to the overall efficiency of your organization. Ultimately, using cloud services frees up your time so you can focus on running the business.
3. High Speed
Most cloud computing services are provided self-service and on demand. This reduces latency issues and increases speed across the board, even if data processing requirements increase. This means that huge amounts of computing resources can be accessed in seconds, giving you the extra time to focus on more important matters and taking the pressure off capacity planning.
4. Data Security
Most business leaders have security concerns when it comes to adopting cloud computing solutions, as business data is paramount for every organization. Cloud providers eliminate this concern as they offer a wide range of methods, policies and controls that strengthen your security posture overall, protecting your data and infrastructure from potential cyber threats.
With cloud, the data being transmitted over networks and stored in databases will be encrypted for maximum protection. This makes the information less accessible to potential hackers or unauthorized personnel. Having your data stored in the cloud essentially ensures that it is properly backed up and protected in a secure and safe location, giving you peace of mind.
5. Loss Prevention and Disaster Recovery
If you are not on the cloud, you are at risk of losing all your valuable data you had saved in your local hardware permanently. Despite the best of intentions, the local hardware can be misplaced, malfunction, or even stolen. With a cloud-based server, however, all the information you have uploaded to the cloud remains safe and easily accessible from any devices, as long as you are connected to the internet.
In the event of a natural disaster, crisis or power failure, cloud-based services provide quick data recovery, allowing you to conduct business as usual, minimizing any downtime and loss of productivity. This is important as part of your business continuity planning, especially in times of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic.
6. Automatic Updates and Integration
Traditional IT infrastructure requires a significant amount of time and resources to manage and maintain, keeping the systems up-to-date. When deploying updates, the systems will undergo downtime and become available for some time.
Cloud computing services, on the other hand, run on a global network of secure datacenters, which are automatically and regularly updated to the latest versions of software, servers and computer processing power. In addition, cloud environments also integrate with common DevOps tools and logging systems which makes it easier to monitor and detect issues in production. This saves valuable IT resources spent on external IT consultation.
7. Quality Control and Improved Collaboration
In a cloud computing environment, all files and folders are stored in one place and in standard format. As such, you can maintain consistency in data, avoid human error, and keeping record of any revisions or updates made by anyone. This is especially useful when everyone is accessing the same information.
In addition to that, cloud computing makes collaboration a simple process. It gives your employees the ability to communicate, access, edit, upload, download and share information more easily and securely even though they all work remotely at different locations.
8. Sustainability
The adoption of cloud computing supports environmental proactivity – powering virtual services, improving energy efficiency, reducing commuter-related emissions (remote working), and essentially reducing carbon footprint.
This can be a great initiative of going green for your organization, given that it is now more important than ever to come up with solutions that address wastefulness at every level of a business.
The importance of cloud technology has become more apparent when the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded. Organizations began to accelerate their end-to-end digital transformations with cloud to reinvent themselves, propel through crisis and thrive in uncertainty.
We learnt that the way to navigate through uncertainty is through forward thinking and innovation on how to provide and achieve new opportunities. The time is now to move to the cloud, to build and expand capabilities, to beat the unforeseen circumstances. After all, it is better to be well-prepared than to play catch-up when the crisis is still evolving.
Volservers Solutions is a trusted digital consultancy and IT services provider in Malaysia with the expertise, experience and enthusiasm in Software (Web and Mobile Apps) Development, Managed IT and Cybersecurity services, helping your brand to thrive in the digital age with ease and confidence.
For more information on our cloud services, please contact us at +60193688882 for a free consultation with our digital experts.