Top 3 significant business problems that you can solve using a cloud hosting solution

Over the past few decades, cloud computing has contributed to the improvement of the IT industry to a great extent. It not only provides immediate access to a lot of tools and resources, but also enables the users to pursue their goals that are extremely complicated in nature. Keeping a close eye on the rapid increase in the demand of cloud solutions, the service providers are refining their solutions based on the exact business needs. This, undoubtedly, is a great scenario for the entire industry and companies can capitalize on the advancements of cloud computing in this way.

All businesses, irrespective of their size, language, or industry, face certain problems that are similar in nature. For instance, it’s common for all those professionals who hold a managerial post, to ask questions like how to balance the budget. This is where a cloud solution helps well. Although it might seem initially that there is no direct connection between the ground level problems and a cloud solution, this helps you solve all these problems from a very basic level.

Here are some of the basic business problems that can be solved with the help of a cloud hosting solution–

• • Lack of security – Although many consider cloud hosting as not so safe an option for information storage, it’s a highly secure option for storing important data. There are certain advance features which help increase the privacy of the important business data. With proactive security engineering measures, all the sensitive business information remains absolutely secure. With a robust cloud hosting solution, the integrity and confidentiality of data remains intact. Once you invest in a hosting solution, you can rest assured of the security of data.
  • Deficiency of storage space – Cloud hosting is space saving and there is no doubt about that. While storing all the important documents in their physical format, you are surely going to run out of space after a certain point of time. Moreover, if you attempt to store all the documents in a single place, and in an organized way, you must appoint someone to keep a close eye on all the documents and maintain those properly. This will not only cost you a lot of money, but also a considerable amount of space and time. This is where relying on a cloud solution seems to be a wise decision as you can store unlimited amount of data in a cloud environment, without worrying about its security.
  • Problem in collaboration – There are times, when you need to collaborate with a group of team members who are working from a remote location. With the help of a cloud solution, you can easily share documents and files with employees, working from different locations, and thus, collaborate with them easily. This also enables all the employees to access the important information as and when needed.
  
  
  These are the most common and relevant business problems that can be solved with the help of a cloud hosting solution. So if your business is facing any of these troubles, this might be the high time to invest in a cloud hosting solution.

Differences between Iaas, SaaS and PaaS

There is a high chance that if you end up asking “What is Cloud Computing?” to ten different people, you will end up getting ten different answers. This might turn out to be quite confusing for beginners who are trying to learn more about the technology. But the entire blame cannot be pinned on the people but to flexible nature of the technology itself.

It is in the best interests of everyone to think of cloud computing in three different models – SaaS (Software as a service), IaaS (Infrastructure as a service) and PaaS (Platform as a service). Let us a have a high level idea about the three service models in this article.

Software as a Service (SaaS) – The use of softwares which are hosted on the internet is used by many organizations quite often to perform several internal procedures. In simple words, SaaS (Software as a Service) allows you to access softwares which are hosted in the cloud through the internet. Hence, for you to have access to the same you just require an internet connection without having to download any software or plugin to your local.

How does this help an organization?

For instance, an organization which does not have any internal IT team to develop or overlook softwares such as CRM or some project management tool, they can avail the service for a fixed monthly rental. Without having to be bothered about the maintenance and security of the business applications, the sales team can avail the CRM through the internet and the organization has to bear a fixed rental every month.

Platform as a Service (PaaS) – The definition of PaaS is often found to be different for various service providers.  In short, PaaS is a kind of cloud computing service wherein a computing platform is provided along with a solution stack. Hence, it offers the option to develop and test a software/application without having to spend on the underlying hardware and testing environment.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – It is widely considered to be the most flexible of all cloud computing services wherein all resources, be it RAM or storage, should be completely scalable on demand. This enables or encourages organizations to develop applications which can be scaled up on demand as per requirements. The responsibility of maintaining the availability of scaling options solely lies with the service provider and in case of any hardware or network failure, there should be a high availability solution in place for users to have scalability options even during such a situation.

These were some basic definitions on these terms and some examples of how they can be utilized. The common factor between all of them is that they are all scalable, on-demand, cost effective and secure. They are completely managed so that the end user can focus on their business rather than maintaining their software, applications or hardware.

Understanding the Risks of Cloud Computing

There has been a significant shift in paradigm as more and more organizations are transferring their valuable data and information to cloud. Cloud Server Hosting providers have emerged in the market and now the customer has plenty of options to consider before choosing the right provider.

The jury has been out already but the verdict has been a mixed one with some claiming this to be a landmark breakthrough in terms of computing technology while other arguing that there are far too many risks involved with the same.

Despite security concerns, storing and managing their servers becomes a pain for most organizations. Hence, the need to look for dedicated cloud service providers in the market whom they can outsource their IT infrastructure to, at the cost of a fixed monthly rental appears as a very attractive choice.

The risks that could pose as significant threats for any organization range from downtime to stopping of services altogether. There could be a physical breach of security as well at the data center location or leakage in the storage and the data or information could be lost in case either of this happens. The chances of any disaster happening in a data center is supposed to considerably reduced, tending to null, and hence the measures taken to ensure the same needs to be verified as well by the customer.

However, the reason behind this madrush among various companies to shift to cloud service providers rather than having their own infrastructure is because it allows concentrating on business specific functions rather than spending time managing their IT infrastructure. For example, for an educational institution or a hospital, it is pointless to hire a team to oversee their IT infrastructure and rest as the business functions are not remotely related to the same. However, they have to ensure that the risks are mitigated sufficiently before moving to the cloud.

Customers should thoroughly go through the service level agreement and the customer agreement form before releasing their purchase order. It is equally important that they visit the data center to have a first hand experience of the security measures in place; biometric access, metal detector, power backups, hardware etc.
After having been assured that the infrastructure is good and the technical team is adequately experienced to provide the best support, should one move to the data center.