We are past the days when project managers saved files locally on their office computers and information was shared through emails or burned discs within the organization.
The sharing of information is done digitally today, with files stored on the cloud that can be accessed by authorized users any time and from anywhere – thanks to cloud computing.
For a layman, cloud computing can simply be a mechanism of managing, storing, and accessing data over the web instead of local computers. Starting from documents to tools to applications to the processing power to storage and even intelligence, everything can be rented from the cloud solutions company.
There exists no requirement for a complex infrastructure or to own a data center for storing confidential information about your business or clientele.
While a lot of companies have adopted modern ways of dealing with this paradigm shift by availing cloud computing services from verified and reputed cloud solutions service providers, countless others still use the decade-old methods.
Why aren’t companies swiftly moving towards cloud computing and still saving vital company information, files, documents, project details, and related milestones on local office desktops?
Possibly due to three main reasons:
- Reluctant to learn and adapt new software
- It is time-consuming to migrate
- Lack of awareness
The reports from Gartner, however, are more in favor of companies wanting to avail cloud computing services. According to Gartner’s VP Analyst, Ed Anderson, enterprises are willing to spend more on cloud computing services than traditional non-cloud alternatives.
It is expected that by 2024, an enterprise’s 45% of IT spend will be on cloud solutions services including application, system, and infrastructure software.
Post Covid-19, the total IT spend of an enterprise is likely to further increase. The forecast shows that by 2022, total spending on data center systems will reach up to $81 billion.
The future looks promising so why not know more about cloud computing?
Types of Cloud Computing
Broadly, there are three types of cloud computing.
- Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) – Usually used by big corporations and industry giants, in this type of cloud computing you hire a cloud computing company to host infrastructure components like data centers, networking hardware, etc traditionally on-premises.
- Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) – For streamlining business operations, PaaS is used. It includes a specific platform integrated with custom apps that are used by employees of a company to carry out their daily jobs.
- Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) – You can buy software from cloud service providers like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google for specialized use.
Cloud Computing Benefits
The technological landscape is evolving at a brisk pace. Organizations need to adapt to modern ways of working not only to gain a business advantage but also to stay competitive. In the following section let’s look at the benefits of cloud computing and why you should power your startup with the same from the very beginning.
1. Cloud solutions are cost-effective
For startups, opting for cloud computing services is a beneficial option, simply because they reduce operational costs. With cloud computing, you do not require local data centers or backup software, or physical security of the premises. A lot of physical hardware gets eliminated that results in saving huge chunks of money.
2. They provide work flexibility
The pandemic has taught businesses to work remotely. Businesses that didn’t have a clue about remote work culture are now upgrading to live up to the standards.
Aside from being cost-effective and zero physical dependency, cloud computing provides work flexibility as you can work from anywhere in the world without having to worry about data access. Moreover, there are no time boundaries.
3. They work in tandem with futuristic technologies
While the data is stored over the web, powering the system with futuristic technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) can reward businesses in terms of analysis and smartness.
Products powered by AI and cloud computing would learn over time to resolve real-world problems and automate procedures.
This would allow you to deploy manpower to more important tasks like strategic planning, business expansion, marketing, and others. The efficiency of the task force can be improved significantly.
4. They are highly secure
As a startup, you would not have adequate resources to safeguard your data and other company vitals. With cloud solutions, you can be sure of getting avant-garde data security. It is the responsibility of a cloud solutions company to provide security features and have required security protocols in place, like two-factor authentication, high-end encryption, and automated backup.
5. They are easy to scale
Since there is no physical hardware involved, you can scale your business data infrastructure as and when required. Obviously, the need to scale won’t be there in the initial years of business, but once your business starts to propel, you’d require more data storage space, new features, and so on to keep up with the changing user’s demands as well as business requirements. This is where cloud computing services will come in handy.
Cloud Computing Tools with Robust Capabilities
Now that you are aware of the benefits of cloud computing, let’s explore the tools that can help you take your startup to the next level.
1. Salesforce
Salesforce is one of the leading customer relationship management tools in the market today. It is completely cloud-based. It provides a clean and clear picture of complex customer data through a user-focused interface and design.
It helps devise inferences from critical data that can be amended, categorized, and filtered according to your requirements. Based on which future planning and decisions can be made for business growth.
It also offers an organization-only tool that allows employees to communicate in a better way, track progress, share updates, and get a holistic view of leads and sales.
2. Cloudability
Cloudability is a popular finance management cloud computing tool that helps you in budget tracking, lowering expenses, alerting, etc. It analyzes the cloud expenses of an organization, prepares reports, and represents insights in an understandable format.
It also aids in compliance management for assessing and mitigating risks at the right times. Real-time data synchronization is possible that helps team members to be on the same page. Third-party API integration, multi-cloud tracking are some of its other important features that add value.
3. AtomSphere
In the ever-changing technology landscape, the integration of services is so demanding that companies need to have it. A platform that serves different purposes from a single dashboard is something we need today.
AtomSphere is a go-to application for companies looking for cloud integration services – an application with advanced features, drag-and-drop functionality, high performance, and scalable characteristics.
4. CloudHub
Another useful cloud computing application is CloudHub, which is an integration platform as a service (iPaaS). It allows you to create and add custom APIs and integrate third-party apps. It comes with some vital features like a connector development tool kit, drag-and-drop functionality, in-built connector options, firewall option for data security, visual data representation, and lots more.
5. Cloudyn
Cloudyn acts as a savior for startups investing in cloud computing services. It helps the IT department in analyzing the costs of cloud computing solutions and also provides useful suggestions for optimum utilization of resources.
A detailed view of cloud computing expenses can be viewed in a simplified manner that includes costs for databases, servers, and other cloud infrastructure that you have invested in.
Some of its primary features include usage breakdown, resource cost analysis, the overall cost of cloud infrastructure, usage trend analysis, financial projections, unused resources, reallocation of resources, and downscaling.
Serverless Cloud Architecture is the way forward
Moving forward companies will be focussing on making the most out of the next-gen cloud, which is the serverless architecture that grants you benefits of both, cloud as well as application functionality.
In serverless architecture, you just need to run the API (application programming interface) and there is no need to remotely login into the server like in the case of a classic cloud.
Aside from the types mentioned above in this article, two new cloud computing services have come to light that would further make lives easier and operations simpler.
These are Backend as a Service (BaaS) and Function as a Service (FaaS).
While the BaaS provides ready-made APIs like location services, authentication, push notifications, etc to the developers to integrate and utilize as required in a project, FaaS, on the other hand, is similar to PaaS built for custom development of event-driven functions. One of the major differences between FaaS and PaaS is in the way of deployment, composition, and scalability of apps.
Final words
As a startup, you’d want to get the most out of the deployed funds and resources. Cloud computing is the best option you can choose considering the costs, resources, and infrastructure as a whole required to grow a business with changing market trends and technological advancements.
Companies embracing cloud computing services are primed for increased competitiveness. Join hands with a trusted software development company to get started on the right note. Startups become enterprises over time if they research and analyze well, plan a workable strategy, and most importantly execute.
Anticipating the market trend is also important to gain a competitive advantage, especially in today’s rapidly changing business environment. So have the right minds at work to take your startup to the next level.
