Most businesses who utilize the cloud report that they have managed to cut costs while still getting the resources they need to perform to spec. Businesses can use the cloud for processing and storing data, as well as application deployment, making it a very dynamic solution to a business’ needs. However, you cannot make decisions based on cost alone. Here are some other factors to consider.
The telephone, as a technology, has been around for quite a while, more or less serving businesses for that entire time. Of course, we’ve seen quite a few advancements in telephony over the years, which has helped it to remain a cornerstone of modern business communications to this day in the form of Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP.
Rarely is there a problem that a cloud solution cannot fix, and as such, businesses are more often turning to the cloud to find ways to handle the many challenges presented to them on a daily basis. Is this reliance on the cloud a good thing, or does it hold businesses back? Let’s take a look at what can happen as a result of overreliance on the cloud.
Your business depends on software for many of its day-to-day operations, whether it’s an email system, productivity suite, or other specialized software. When it comes to acquiring software, you have two options: the traditional method of acquisition, i.e. buying it from a vendor, or subscribing to a Software as a Service solution. What are the differences and how can you make sure your organization is getting value out of its investment?
Cloud computing has been touted as one of the most innovative and important technologies for smaller businesses as they look to compete with larger organizations. How it makes this possible is by offering the dynamic computing environments that can help bring these smaller businesses into the information age without saddling them with massive infrastructure costs while doing so. That’s not to say that the cloud is cheap by any means, and this month we will discuss how cloud computing is a great option and how if it isn’t managed properly, it can be problematic for the businesses that rely on it.
When you think of the government, you don’t immediately think of an organization that is at the forefront of innovation. Sure, they have all that money at their disposal, but most of it goes here and there to try to help the people of a constituency; and, frankly it isn’t terribly efficient. What may surprise you is that governments are embracing cloud services and it tends to benefit everyone. Let’s see how governments are taking advantage of cloud computing.
Cloud computing is being used by nearly everyone nowadays, and most of the time it presents a lot of value that can’t be found with purchasing, managing, and maintaining an in-house computing infrastructure. As an organization begins moving more and more of their computing to the cloud, there is a situation that arises that industry professionals call “cloud sprawl”.
You might be familiar with the concept of hosting a service or application in-house on your own server units, and if you are, you know all about the struggles that come along with doing so. But what if we told you that you can get the same benefits of hosting your own applications and IT systems without the need for any of the bulky equipment taking up space in your office? Yes, that’s right—you too can host your business applications, even if you do not have the space to do so, and it’s all thanks to the cloud.
The cloud is a great tool to improve the accessibility of applications and data, but with so many options available to businesses, it can be a bit intimidating to get started with it. Let’s go over some of the various types of cloud solutions available, as well as some of the more well-known services that you might find helpful.
When we talk about the cloud, what springs to your mind? The cloud might sound like a business buzzword, but in reality it’s one of the most important components of a technology infrastructure, especially in today’s online environment. Considering the ongoing pandemic and unpredictability that the situation brings, you don’t want to wait any longer; you should have started thinking about implementing the cloud yesterday.
Cloud computing has been one of the most utilized tools for business in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it crucial for businesses to give remote access to tools and one effective way to make that happen was to look to the cloud. This has expanded an already booming market and presents businesses of all sizes with the opportunity to get the computing they need without huge upfront costs. Today, we’ll take a look at the cloud computing market and how you can leverage hosted computing solutions to improve your business.
Businesses have many problems they need to solve. With technology, the process typically starts with identifying a problem, researching solutions, and finding one that will successfully work to solve the problem. Traditionally, when dealing with technology, a company would procure the hardware and hire technicians to implement the solution and deploy the services needed. If they had to borrow money to do it, they would because the profits would presumably be more than the payments even with banks tacking on interest.
A lot is made about cloud computing and its cost and time saving benefits, but when your business is small, a lot of times, it could just be looked at as an unnecessary addition to your computing infrastructure. Today, we thought we would go through a few ways that even the smallest of businesses can utilize cloud computing.
The cloud has proven to be an extremely useful tool for modern businesses. Not only does it provide anywhere-anytime access to applications, processing, storage, and more, it also delivers those products as a service, allowing an organization--or an individual--to budget for recurring costs rather than major upfront ones. This provides your organization with functional, supported, and secure computing environments that eliminate a lot of the support costs that traditional computing environments require. It sounds like a perfect scenario for small and large businesses alike, but things aren’t always what they seem, as a lot of cloud users have found that they have incurred several hidden costs by using cloud platforms. Today, we take a look at these hidden costs.
A short time ago, cloud computing was a resource that was only taken advantage of by organizations that could afford to virtualize and manage their hosted platforms. Nowadays, many businesses, including startups, are using cloud computing for their organization’s primary computing functions. As this enormous shift happened, many of the world’s largest companies have pushed their cloud platforms forward to offer secure storage, software deployment, and even communications for organizations that are either just starting out, or are looking to reduce their capital computing and support costs.
Ever the innovators, many of the Internet’s giants have begun introducing new cloud pricing models that actually charges customers by the amount of computing they use, rather than relying on service agreements that bind them to a certain service plan. While this shift is only currently being undertaken by Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and a handful of the other large software developers in the world, it is easy to see how it can be a much more sustainable system than the service offerings that are offered today.
Providers: Maximize Profits with Advanced Usage Tracking
For cloud providers, the boom in cloud computing took a fair amount of time to happen. Platforms like Salesforce utilized cloud computing by giving customers access to all of the software through a relatively simple-to-use web interface. Amazon Web Services (A.W.S.) took it to the next level a couple of years later when they developed and deployed a set of services through their web-based interface. These services, such as, data storage, computation, and support, provided organizations the computing resources they need at a price point that made sense for their bottom line. The access from anywhere was the biggest selling point, and allowed early commercial cloud platforms to find success.
A few years later these service packages started to pop up everywhere. You had data storage, infrastructure, development platforms, software; basically any type of computation you needed for your business, available by entering a service agreement with the vendor of your choice. As many more companies begin to offer cloud computing packages, the larger corporations that have long-been offering these technologies begun to look at how to get the highest profitability out of their cloud platforms. Of course, raising their prices could work, but may be counter productive with the immense supply of cloud providers now available.
Instead of increasing the price and risking losing customers, A.W.S., Microsoft, and Google are all going to a “serverless” cloud computing pricing model. This means that instead of paying for a service package for your organization, you will pay for how much you actually use the platform. It is basically a toll-based system. For every million times code is run, the customer is charged a certain amount, say a penny. The amount of math at play here is staggering, but how do you think this pricing model stacks up against current cloud service prices?
Consumers: Actually Pay For the Cloud YOU Use
Consider for a minute that there are multi-million individual “transactions” made daily by the users of an organization. Every time a customer runs code, it is thought of as a transaction. If you have the sophistication to track this information over networks, you can set up a truly fair pricing model. Organizations that use more computing will pay more, while organizations that use less will pay less. By implementing this demand-latent manner in which to collect fees, these extraordinarily large companies will inevitably take over a larger share of the cloud industry. Demand for cheaper computing, no service contracts, and reliable support is more pressing today than it has ever been.
This innovative way to push the limits of this technology forward isn't without its naysayers; and, in this case, there are sure to be many. Not much has been made about this shift in pricing, as not many platforms have implemented it. As these analytics systems become more proficient, however, you will likely see cloud providers that simply cannot compete with this pricing platform. By offering their own modified system, one that will allow them to take advantage of the price trend without gouging their loyal customers for more money, companies may yet hang on to their market share.
Cloud growth has been substantial and changed the way people think about the acquisition of computing resources. With the new pricing model that the big providers have, it’s clear that the next innovation for cloud computing is to implement a true pay-as-you-go system. To learn more about the latest cloud computing innovations, or how to leverage hosted computing for your business, call us today at (732) 291-5938.
Every business owner needs to understand the pivotal role that technology plays in their business’s growth. However, many companies just aren’t able to keep up with the latest trends and developments. When this happens, they miss out on important opportunities to grow, and when an organization falls behind the times, they fall out of practice. When they fall out of practice… well, you get the idea.
Every business owner is painfully aware of how much their mission-critical software costs them. Yet, one metric that eludes many managers and CIOs alike is just how much value they’re getting from their software. Thanks to the cloud, assigning value to software and making decisions about enterprise technology accordingly, is easier than ever before!
Cloud computing has taken the business world by storm, fulfilling so many needs and simplifying as many processes. If you’ve been on the fence about incorporating the cloud into your IT infrastructure, you should know a few of these benefits to help you make your choice.
Cost Efficiency
Let’s face it, when you’re running a business, cost is a factor in every decision you have to make. Leveraging the cloud for any of a variety of purposes can help you to trim some expenses and make some others stretch a little further. A cloud setup provides the ability to scale your resources to match your needs, ensuring that you aren’t paying for more than you need. This simplifies your budget, and may help free up some capital to invest in other business needs.
Multiple Purposes
While the cloud is most famously associated with storage, it has the capability to serve your business in other ways as well. For instance, the cloud can host your software solutions for you as a part of a Software as a Service agreement. In these cases, any time there are improvements made and a new version is available, your solutions will be upgraded immediately.
Alternatively, the cloud can be used to facilitate a backup and disaster recovery strategy. By housing a backup of your data in an offsite cloud environment, it will be safe should some calamity damage your in-house infrastructure. In these cases, you can even virtualize your systems and run them directly from the cloud to preserve productivity while the office is repaired.
Finally, we return to storage, as it relates to the collaborative benefits to be had with the cloud. By storing business files and data in the cloud, you and your employees can share access and work together to achieve your shared company goals--whether or not you’re anywhere near each other.
Security
Your data is undeniably precious to your business, and as a result, it must be protected from threats from all sides, both external cyber crime and internal user error. Using the cloud permits you to keep your most sensitive data accessible on a need-to-know basis, and allows you to wipe a device in the hands of someone who doesn’t need to know, if need be.
If you want to use the cloud to accomplish these things, reach out to The Connection, Inc at (732) 291-5938.
If you’re like most businesses, you almost certainly rely on email on a daily basis. However, if your email is hosted on an in-house server, you are becoming less like many businesses, as they are moving their solutions to the cloud. Here’s why you should follow suit and make the switch yourself.
The cloud has revolutionized the way that businesses approach computing. Companies can implement solutions in a flexible and accessible model that makes it much easier to take advantage of technology solutions. Yet, you should know that not all clouds are the same, and you can’t treat them as such. Here are four questions that you need to ask your cloud provider about the services that you’ve been rendered.
What is Your Business Responsible For?
Depending on the cloud provider that your business goes with, you’ll want to know exactly what their responsibilities are. For example, the cloud provider might be responsible for security to a certain degree, with the rest of the responsibility being shared with your organization. How can you best protect your organization if you don’t know who is responsible for what? You should clearly outline the responsibilities of both your cloud provider and your own organization.
What Type of Cloud Security Do You Need?
You’ll inevitably have different cloud-based services that you take advantage of. Whether it’s an Infrastructure as a Service type of solution or a Software as a Solution approach to cloud computing, your security needs will change. Your cloud provider should be able to adapt to the needs that your business has.
What Kind of Training is Offered?
It’s great if you know how to use your business’ cloud solution, but what about every other one of your employees? While you could spend all the time to make sure that your business’ employees know how to work with your cloud services, why should you waste the time doing so if your cloud provider offers it for you instead? The more time you can save, the more money you can save. Furthermore, cloud training shouldn’t be limited to during the implementation process; instead it can be used incrementally to keep everyone up to date on the latest and greatest practices.
How Much Visibility Do I Get?
In this case, visibility can be defined as insight into how your business’ data is stored, managed, and secured. Depending on the type of cloud provider and services you work with, you’ll have varying data visibility. For example, a small business might have limited control over its business’ data. On the other hand, a larger enterprise or corporation is trusting the cloud provider a lot with their patronage. This patronage also offers a considerable insight into the way that your data is being used.
If you want a cloud provider that offers complete and total transparency, The Connection, Inc can help. To learn more, give us a call at (732) 291-5938.
Mobile? Grab this Article
