CLOUD COMPUTING
CLOUD COMPUTINGHOW TO USE CLOUD COMPUTING FOR YOUR BUSINESS?What
is Cloud Computing?The 'cloud' refers to the internet, and
operating 'in the cloud' describes the way you store and access
your data through an internet connection.Cloud computing is a huge
business development, particularly for businesses with multiple
offices or remote employees who arent linked by a single physical
network. Cloud Computing for Business Cloud computing provides a
way for your business to manage your computing resources online.
The term has evolved over recent years, and can be used to describe
the use of a third party for your storage and computing needs.
Cloud computing allows businesses to access their information
virtually, creating a flexible and global way of accessing your
data any place, any time. Choosing the right cloud applications and
using them to their full potential can help your business stay
organized, reduce costs and grow.AgilityThe first main reason for
using cloud computing is agility. Cloud computing delivers improved
agility because it has on-demand self-service and rapid elasticity.
IT resources can be acquired and deployed more quickly and, once
deployed, they can be increased or decreased as needed to meet
demand. This means that enterprises can innovate, introduce new
products and services, enter new markets, and adapt to changing
circumstances.In what ways Cloud Computing could be beneficial for
Businesses?Changing Business Processes
Business agility requires the ability to create new business
processes and change existing ones. This often means adding to or
changing the supporting IT resources. The difficulty of doing this,
and the time that it takes, can be a major barrier to innovation.
Cloud computing can remove this barrier by enabling the enterprise
to add to or change its IT resources quickly and easily.
Productivity
Increased productivity is the second main reason for using cloud
computing. It provides a more productive environment for
collaborative working, and improves productivity by enabling
participants in a business ecosystem to share processing logic.
Cost Efficient
Cloud computing is probably the most cost efficient method to
use, maintain and upgrade. Traditional desktop software costs
companies a lot in terms of finance. Adding up the licensing fees
for multiple users can prove to be very expensive for the
establishment concerned. The cloud, on the other hand, is available
at much cheaper rates and hence, can significantly lower the
companys IT expenses. Besides, there are many one-time-payment,
pay-as-you-go and other scalable options available, which makes it
very reasonable for the company in question.Collaborative
WorkingUse of cloud-based tools for email, instant messaging, voice
communication, information sharing and development, event
scheduling, and conferencing is becoming an increasingly common
feature of business life. This is so much the case that people
often do not think about it as being cloud computing. Nevertheless,
these services generally exhibit the five essential cloud computing
characteristics, and are part of the growing trend to do business
on the cloud.Automatic Software IntegrationIn the cloud, software
integration is usually something that occurs automatically. This
means that you do not need to take additional efforts to customize
and integrate your applications as per your preferences. This
aspect usually takes care of itself. Not only that, cloud computing
allows you to customize your options with great ease. Hence, you
can handpick just those services and software applications that you
think will best suit your particular enterprise.
Quality
The third main reason for using cloud computing is that it can
mean better quality IT. There are several reasons for this. How far
they apply varies from one enterprise to another: an enterprise
with an inefficient IT department is likely to find cloud a more
attractive proposition than one whose IT department provides a
superb service, for example.These reasons include better usage
information, better manageability, better quality of IT provision,
better business continuity, and better carbon footprint.Better
Business Continuity
Businesses wish to continue their operations as normally as
possible in the event of disaster, such as a fire or flood
destroying a data center, but the cost of providing duplicate
systems and recovery mechanisms in-house can be very high. This is
a significant pain-point, especially for small businesses, where
the cost is proportionately higher than it is for large ones.This
means that you must either gain significant costs that decrease
your competitiveness, or risk failing when disaster
strikes.Environmentally friendly
Businesses using cloud computing only use the server space they
need, which decreases their carbon footprint. Using the cloud
results in at least 30% less energy consumption and carbon
emissions than using on-site servers. And again, SMEs get the most
benefit: for small companies, the cut in energy use and carbon
emissions islikely to be 90%.
Work from anywhereOnce you register yourself in the cloud, you
can access the information from anywhere, where there is an
Internet connection. This convenient feature lets you move beyond
time zone and geographic location issues.As long as employees have
internet access, they can work from anywhere. This flexibility
positively affects knowledge workers' work-life balance and
productivity. One study found that 42% of working adults would give
up some of their salary if they could telecommute, and on average
they would take a 6% pay cut.
Architecture of Cloud Computing
When talking about a cloud computing system, it's helpful to
divide it into two sections: the front end and the back end. They
connect to each other through a network, usually the Internet. The
front end is the side the computer user, or client, sees. The back
end is the "cloud" section of the system.The front end includes the
client's computer and the application required to access the cloud
computing system.On the back end of the system are the various
computers, servers and data storage systems that create the "cloud"
of computing services.
Great Cloud Applications and Services for Small & Medium
Enterprises
1. Mozy - mozy.co.ukMozy is an online backup service that
continuously backs up the files on your computer or server. It
gives small businesses the space to back up all their computer and
server files for a very reasonable price, so owners of SMEs know
their files are retrievable, even during a data loss crisis.2. Box
- Box.com
Box.com is like a file folder that all your gadgets and devices
can access. You simply drag a file into Box, and you can instantly
access it from anywhere. If youve ever cursed yourself for leaving
that important file on your office computer or ever needed to send
a client a file immediately, Box can keep that from happening
again.3. Google Apps for Business google.com
Google Apps pretty much eliminate the need for many computer
programs. You can create and save text documents, spreadsheets,
slide shows and more on Google Docs, and several people can work on
one file simultaneously. Google Calendar makes creating and sharing
calendars easy, and event reminders can be emailed to invitees.
Gmail for Business gives companies personalized email accounts that
are easy to set up and amend and that have the flexibility and
storage space of Gmail.
Most common uses of cloud computing
1. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service
(PaaS)
When it comes to IaaS, using an existing infrastructure on a
pay-per-use scheme seems to be an obvious choice for companies
saving on the cost of investing to acquire, manage and maintain an
IT infrastructure. There are also instances where organizations
turn to PaaS for the same reasons while also seeking to increase
the speed of development on a ready-to-use platform to deploy
applications.2. Private cloud and hybrid cloud
3. Test and developmentProbably the best scenario for the use of
a cloud is a test and development environment. This entails
securing a budget, setting up your environment through physical
assets, significant manpower and time.
4. Big data analyticsOne of the aspects offered by leveraging
cloud computing is the ability to tap into vast quantities of both
structured and unstructured data to harness the benefit of
extracting business value.5. File storageCloud can offer you the
possibility of storing your files and accessing, storing and
retrieving them from any web-enabled interface.
6. Disaster recoveryThis is yet another benefit derived from
using cloud based on the cost effectiveness of a disaster recovery
(DR) solution that provides for a faster recovery from a mesh of
different physical locations at a much lower cost that the
traditional DR site with fixed assets, rigid procedures and a much
higher cost.7. Backup
