Cloud computing is computing based on the internet. Where in the past, people would run applications or programs from software downloaded on a physical computer or server in their building, cloud computing allows users the same kind of access through the use of the internet.
When you post a photo on Instagram, you’re using cloud computing. Have you logged into your online banking today? You’re using cloud computing. You’re probably using cloud computing right now even if you don’t realise it. If you use an online service to send emails, edit documents, watch TV or films, listen to music, store pictures and other files it’s likely that cloud computing is making it all possible behind the scenes.
In short, cloud is becoming the new normal. According to the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) 63% of UK businesses are planning to move their entire IT estate into the cloud in the near future.
Why are so many businesses moving to the cloud? It’s because cloud computing increases efficiency, helps improve cash flow and offer many more benefits…
1. Cost – reduce hardware spend: Cloud computing cuts out the high cost of hardware as well as the round the clock electricity for power and cooling and the IT experts to manage the infrastructure. It adds up quickly. Cloud computing is easy to set-up and manage and makes any new IT project look far friendlier.
2. Speed: most cloud computing services are provided as self service and on demand, so even vast amounts of computing resources can be provisioned in minutes, giving businesses more in terms of flexibility.
3. Global Scale: the benefits of cloud computing services include the ability to scale elastically. If your office becomes inaccessible you will be able to access your systems from anywhere if they are hosted on cloud servers.
4. Productivity: on site data centres typically have lots of ‘racking and stacking’ – hardware setup, software patching, and other time consuming IT management chores. Cloud computing removes the need for many of these tasks so your IT teams can work on more important business goals.
5. Performance: the biggest cloud computing services run on a worldwide network of secure data centres, which are regularly upgraded to the latest generation of fast and efficient computing hardware. Security and software updates are also added to the cloud servers by the providers meaning one less thing for your business to worry about.
6. Reliability: cloud computing makes data backups, disaster recovery and business continuity easier and less expensive because in the event of anything going wrong data can be mirrored at multiple redundant sites on the cloud providers network.
7. Work from anywhere: with cloud computing if you’ve got an internet connection, you can be at work. No need for VPN’s, no firewall configuration etc… means easy access at home or overseas.
Not moved to the cloud yet? The Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) have research that cites the most popular reasons for using the cloud are flexibility (77%), scalability (76%) and reliability (74%). So, if you own a copy of our software and are thinking of migrating to a new server, or you are considering ‘cloud’ as an IT policy please get it touch.