The cloud has become one of the biggest buzzwords in recent years. It solves an age-old problem for businesses across different industries: how do you take advantage of the power of computing without maintaining your own hardware?
The cloud solution is simple. Cloud providers will handle the servers, networking, and security. From there, businesses only have to deal with their own operations.
As cloud offerings have grown more sophisticated over time, more and more services are now available via the Internet. Whether you want to store your company's data, run analytics, deploy new software, or host your website, you'll find a service or solution that already exists on the cloud.
How Does the Cloud Work?
The cloud model takes the infrastructure out of the equation completely. Companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and others have vast server farms and data centers around the world. Those centers are home to thousands of computers.
When a business wants to store data like customer transactions, for example, instead of purchasing servers and databases, the company simply purchases some computing power or storage from a cloud provider.
The company then uploads their data securely to that cloud provider's servers, and can access the data anytime anywhere with an Internet connection.
Why Should I Migrate My Business to the Cloud?
The cloud offers a more secure and scalable computing platform. As your business fluctuates and grows over time, your cloud subscription will scale as well. You'll only pay for the computing power you use in each billing cycle.
Cloud providers also invest heavily in physical and network security so your data is safe in their hands. Rather than focusing your resources on purchasing servers and maintaining them, you can focus on actually using the computing power for your own benefit.
You'll also get access to a variety of services provided by these companies. This can include databases, analytics frameworks, machine learning algorithms, and more.
All around, cloud is a more cost-efficient solution that gives you access to advanced applications for your business.
What Kinds of Services Are on Cloud?
Services on the cloud fall into three basic categories. There is Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS).
Here are the services you'll get in each of these categories.
IaaS
As the name suggests, IaaS covers all your infrastructure: basic hardware to get a website or application up and running.
This includes data storage, compute capacity, networking, and security. Cloud providers will also give you access to logs and monitoring. You'll get to write policies that determine the level of automation you want your services to have.
PaaS
This suite of services is designed to make it as easy as possible to develop and deploy applications on the Internet. This includes support for API development, communication, databases, and business analytics tools.
These services are perfect for software developers looking for a secure environment to quickly deploy new code and monitor its functionality in real time.
SaaS
Many companies develop software to run on the cloud. Applications like Microsoft Word, Google Drive, Slack, and others are all hosted on their companies' respective clouds, and you access them via the Internet.
These are examples of SaaS: full-scale software packages that you can use online. The benefit of using services like these in the cloud versus onsite is twofold. Firstly, you'll be able to access your data from anywhere. Secondly, you'll be able to collaborate more efficiently with anyone who has access.
How Do I Migrate to Cloud?
Moving your workloads and data to cloud is right up our alley. If you are considering migration, contact us. We can guide you through the process and help you find the right cloud subscription and services for your needs. Through our managed IT services, we can handle all of your IT load while you focus on your business.
