In part one of a four-part series on cloud computing basics, we highlight the advantages of moving to the cloud.
Part one of a series.
There are many reasons companies choose to move their infrastructure and applications to the cloud.
Some of the most common advantages of moving to the cloud include reducing costs, increasing security, expanding global reach and accelerating innovation.
Reducing Costs
Running a data center is not cheap. Things like rent, air-conditioning, and physical security add up – and that’s before you even get to the actual costs of the servers and the humans that maintain them!
Cloud computing providers, such as Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure, leverage automation and economies of scale to keep costs low. They also provide multiple payment options that allow you to pay just for the capacity you need, when you need it.
Increasing Security
One of the most common worries about moving to the cloud is security. Just like with your on-premises servers, you are responsible for your data in the cloud. This includes application security, identity and access management, client and server-side encryption and firewall configuration.
However, your cloud provider takes responsibility for the security of the cloud, reducing the things for you to worry about. This typically means they handle things like physical access to data centers, uninterruptible power supplies, air conditioning and fire suppression.
If your industry or region has special compliance or data residency requirements, check if your cloud provider meets the required standards. The most popular providers, AWS and Azure, routinely work with healthcare, government and other regulated industries, and likely will meet or exceed your specific requirements.
Expanding Global Reach
By using the cloud, you can get your applications and data closer to your customers much easier. In a traditional model, you would need to deploy servers all around the globe — a time-consuming and costly approach.
With the cloud, you can expand your global footprint in mere minutes – at a small fraction of the price.
Accelerating Innovation
With reduced infrastructure headaches, your company can spend more time focusing on its core business and accelerate innovation.
The cloud is flexible, allowing you to select the operating systems, databases, web application platforms and other services you may need. Since you are not locked into one single setup, you can experiment to find what works best for you.
We know you may be a little confused on all the cloud terminology – and we don’t blame you. Stick around, because the next post will explain what it all means!
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