Top 10 Benefits of Cloud Computing

It is well-known that cloud technology is one of the most actively developing markets in the IT sphere. In fact, studies predict that in the next five years, public clouds may comprise about 50% of all enterprise IT spending. That number currently sits at 20%. 

So what are the benefits of using the cloud, and what makes this technology so popular?

Table of Contents:

• What is the Cloud?
• What is Cloud Computing?
• What Are the Top 10 Benefits of Cloud Computing?
• What is the Business Impact of Cloud Computing?
• What is the Value of the Cloud?

What is the Cloud?

The cloud is comprised of many servers united by a variety of functions and technologies. 

Cloud technology provides users with a convenient virtual environment to store and process information, combining hardware, software, communication channels, and technical support services. In addition, cloud data storage makes it possible to access said information from almost anywhere. 

Every day, millions of people use cloud services without even realizing it. For example, your phone periodically makes a backup copy of a notebook stored in the cloud or uses popular services, like Google Docs, which allows several people to work simultaneously on the same document and view changes in real time. 

What is Cloud Computing? 

Cloud computing provides an opportunity to work with physical servers using cloud-based infrastructure. Imagine physical servers the size of small refrigerators, each performing millions of operations per second. The cloud makes it possible to operate these remotely by sending instructions over the Internet and receiving calculation results.

Cloud computing can be a simple Google search, complex scientific calculations, or online gaming amongst hundreds of thousands of players. Imagine how much data is generated and how many calculations per second must be processed in these scenarios.

What Are the Top 10 Benefits of Cloud Computing?

1. Security and Legal Compliance

Many companies collect sensitive data, such as copies of passports, driver's licenses, etc. Per legal requirements, these companies store and process that material in the cloud.

Companies that use a provider's certified cloud can feel confident that their data will remain as safe as possible. Large providers build their cloud security so that they can reliably protect data while reducing costs. Companies that handle personal data can be sure their information is secure without investing in infrastructure, protection, or certification because the provider has already taken these measures.

2. Hassle-Free Setup and Flexibility

Another cloud computing benefit is that cloud or cloud technologies essentially mean renting resources for a specific period of time.

In the past, many businesses accumulated expertise to launch novel digital services. Now they can offload this work by utilizing a cloud provider, ultimately improving time to market and business competitiveness.

It is worth paying attention to a new computing approach quickly gaining popularity: serverless computing. With this strategy, the client can immediately implement tasks without performing infrastructure configuration tasks. Plus, an infrastructure-as-code model means that the process used to configure server environments is almost entirely automated.

3. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity

One of the most underestimated aspects of servers is the level of protection provided when things like natural disasters occur. While it's difficult to imagine your working server suffering damage or destruction from a hurricane or earthquake, what happens if the electricity is cut off or a fire breaks out?

One of the great benefits of cloud technology is its ability to work even when servers are out of order. This is because many feature virtualization platforms called hypervisors. Thus, when a failure occurs, the virtual machines continue running on the neighboring server—and the user may not even notice!

Cloud computing servers feature specific security protocols created for disaster recovery in the event of unforeseen circumstances. As a rule, this means creating frequent backups to restore damaged data or transfer it to new servers if necessary.

4. Efficiency

In the past, people bought servers when launching digital projects. However, in addition to the hassle of installation and maintenance, the greatest difficulty they faced was correctly calculating the required equipment capacity—meaning that businesses often wasted money on expensive, energy-consuming servers running (sometimes far) below capacity.

Thankfully, data center cloud computing provides the following:

• High levels of flexibility, thanks to a wide selection of server configurations for your varied project requirements.

• Cost savings and scalability, since you pay only for the resources you use. As your business grows, you can scale your resources to match your needs.

5. Mobility

Over the past few years, the world has moved to remote work, and landline phones eventually gave way to mobile smartphones. Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies struggled with returning to the office as employees preferred working from home and had no desire to return. 

While some simply forced employees back to the office, other employers have been happy with the new trend as it’s allowed them to reconsider their views and optimize strategies used to manage a business and team. 

This makes businesses incredibly mobile, which is one of the best benefits of cloud computing. With cloud computing, the modern office needs only the right equipment (e.g., a laptop or tablet) and a stable Internet connection.

In some industries, such as IT, it has become the norm to manage a business remotely with teams of specialists scattered across the world. This has positively impacted company employees and business performance overall.

6. Cost Avoidance, Savings, and Reduction

In addition to the high cost of equipment purchases, an irksome side effect is the fact that this equipment will become obsolete and, thus, no longer useful/powerful in just a few years. Hardware requirements are growing right alongside technology, already prompting questions about equipment updates.

Most startups never become profitable, but every startup makes investments — including the need to buy equipment and build IT infrastructure. Cloud computing paves the way for a quick start and the possibility of rolling back to change the business model or leave the market altogether.

The volume of information services people use is constantly growing, requiring help from many specialists. For example, suppose a business wants to launch new digital services and develop its IT infrastructure. In this case, it is necessary to retain a staff of system administrators for configuration and maintenance. This cost is several times higher than the cost of cloud services.

7. High Speed

Speed is the most crucial cloud computing benefit in terms of why the whole world is moving to the cloud. 

Imagine bringing some new product or service to market, and your client says, "I like it. I want more." Before you know it, you don’t have 100,000 customers—you have a million!

With just a few clicks, you can change the power of your server, improve various portions, or create a unique order. These steps are performed incredibly quickly, as the processes are often automated. 

Of course, everything depends on whether your machine is a dedicated or virtual private server (VPS)  And, of course, you will enjoy fast Internet solutions since this represents the heart of communication between powerful servers and customers.

8. Scalability

Solving problems related to machine learning and extensive data analysis depends on the volume of computing resources. Thankfully, the cloud allows you to increase the number of resources simultaneously. 

Ten years ago, more and more power was needed to train a machine learning model. The needs grew quickly, but the response rate was very low, so the speed of the whole project suffered. Many companies solved this problem by buying more resources than they needed. Unfortunately, the downside to this is the huge cost and inefficient use of resources because it is difficult to make correct predictions.

Thanks to the benefits of cloud technology, it’s now possible to save money without losing speed. You can rent huge capacities for model training and then switch off the extra resources and associated payments as soon as you no longer need them. Now artificial intelligence (AI) can be trained not only by large corporations that have historically invested in data centers but also by companies of any size and from any industry!

9. More Storage

Amazon sells millions of products daily, dictating a need to track the status of parcels, their position, and user reviews. In the absence of cloud utilization, storing, organizing, and transferring large amounts of information would be extremely challenging. This is exactly why Amazon has relied on the cloud for data storage and processing since its inception.

The cloud adds flexibility to business and allows you to increase IT capacity to tackle heightened workloads more quickly. For example, specific factors (such as sales and holidays) cause a significant boost in retail operations, and the cloud model allows Amazon to work reliably and sustainably under these conditions.

Some companies are engaged in digital practices such as AI, big data, the Internet of Things, etc. These are all built using cloud technologies with ready-made IT infrastructure and applications in a rental format. Hence, you enjoy all the benefits associated with the most modern solutions and need not think about how to choose, configure, or maintain equipment.

10. Data Loss Protection

Responsible cloud companies build a security circuit around their clusters that meets international standards regarding payment systems, data access, and connectivity. In addition to fundamental security, cloud provider solutions prevent illegal actions that span both internal and external concerns (such as distributed denial of service or DDoS attacks). The cloud is designed so that user data is hosted on a virtual pool of resources that can be distributed across multiple servers and is, thus, better protected.

Many cloud technologies aid security personnel in tracking activities. For example, if an employee loses access to a laptop, an attacker will be unable to break into the company system, thanks to two-factor authentication technology. Artificial intelligence is particularly useful here, as it assesses the presence of user action deviations and blocks access to data if necessary.

Data is always copied and rechecked for threats. If something happens to a data center in the standard protocol, the backup is embedded in a decentralized system to minimize the chance of data loss.

What is the Business Impact of Cloud Computing?

While it’s impossible to know just how much money cloud computing saves businesses, one thing is for sure. This technology has resulted in significant improvements for every business as far as the Internet is concerned.

Clouds help rebuild business processes, change product lines, and reduce costs for the latter.

For example, cloud computing has helped sprout new business models such as software-as-a-service (SaaS), squashing the need for immediate installations or purchases due to subscription benefits. You need only log in to a web browser page to begin working (perhaps you are familiar with services such as Slack, Grammarly, Google Docs, etc.).

Moreover, with the proliferation of the cloud technology trend, people began to wonder how to use cloud solutions benefits in their business, which generates completely new ideas: 

• Larger market. Most businesses have the ability to take sales online, where there are no borders, and you can look for customers all over the world or generate new ideas that never existed offline.
• Price. In the last few years, cloud technology has become much more affordable for even the smallest of businesses. 
• 24/7 availability and better customer support. With the right business setup, you can serve customers at any time, and cloud centers can help you with the technical part.

What is the Value of the Cloud?

Cloud technology is an entirely new infrastructure that revolutionizes how information is delivered.

The cloud represents enormous value to businesses, and the benefits of cloud computing are gaining the trust of people and businesses. Experts say that over the next three years, 70% of technological infrastructure will be based on cloud technology. 

The main value of the cloud is that it allows organizations to access computing resources on demand without having to build and maintain physical infrastructure. This saves time, money, and resources and makes it easier to scale operations. In addition, cloud computing can provide improved access to data and applications as well as increased security and reliability.

The benefits of using the cloud help not only traditional businesses but also important public scientific projects. In a study appearing in Springer describing the fight against COVID-19, the authors stated that employees working from home frequently use cloud computing solutions to assist them in completing their tasks swiftly. Additionally, home hospitalization is one of the finest feasible methods for reducing the spread of the virus and maintaining the health of people who require hospitalization.

At the start of the pandemic, the biggest tech companies provided support for technology startups and research groups that worked to develop COVID-19 vaccines. 

Amazon, Google, Alibaba, and other global cloud service providers worldwide have joined the fight against COVID-19. And Canada's largest provider helped Victoria University specialists analyze the coronavirus protein structure. 

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