Cloud computing has completely dominated the enterprise IT industry. According to IDG’s 2020 Cloud Computing Survey, 81 percent of organizations use the cloud or run cloud-hosted applications. Cloud solutions help businesses grow their IT infrastructures, in turn streamlining digital processes, improving collaborations, promoting innovations, and, ultimately, boosting productivity.
Let’s look at how the cloud drives business growth and makes e-commerce easier.
The role of cloud computing in business
What can cloud computing do for your business? Well, the cloud generally enables you to access and utilize powerful, low-cost computing resources on-demand, so the cloud’s purpose depends on whatever you want to achieve. Cloud solutions fall into four main categories based on the computing architecture and services offered:
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
- Functions as a Service (FaaS)
Every type of cloud computing service has specific functions that serve various needs. The cloud has virtually limitless business IT applications, including access to:
- Secure, centralized data storage
- Dependable cloud data backup and recovery
- Hosting and sharing platforms for websites, applications, phone systems, virtual machines, etc.
- Robust enterprise software applications such as subscription-based ERPs through the SaaS model
- DevOps sandboxes for developing, testing, and deploying custom business apps and services
- Computing-intensive functions such as AI, big data, and analytics through FaaS
Benefits of using the cloud
A market study on cloud migration shows that cloud’s scalability, high-performance, portability, and security are the main drivers for the ever-growing cloud adoption. Your business stands to benefit in many profound ways by adopting cloud solutions, such as:
- Minimized IT investments and lowered IT costs
- Flexible and extremely efficient IT infrastructure
- Sharpened competitive edge on the digital playground
- Guaranteed business continuity through reliable data backup and disaster recovery
- Increased opportunities for flexible workplace systems
- Enhanced mobility and collaborations
- Measurable and sustainable IT processes and digital throughput
- Access to high-end computing power
Cloud migration
Cloud migration is the process of porting IT services and data from on-prem hardware or legacy systems to the cloud. Switching over to cloud solutions is an involving process that requires careful considerations in order to fully realize the cloud’s benefits.
First, you have to select the processes to move to the cloud. Second, determine the cloud adoption strategy that best suits your business, whether a single-cloud, multi-cloud, or hybrid cloud system. After that, you have to devise a cloud migration plan that’s well within your budget, timeframe, and work scope. Focus on minimizing downtime, compatibility issues, and data security risks during the migration process.
Most businesses take an incremental, step-by-step cloud migration approach instead of making a single abrupt change. Doing so allows the business enough time to quickly adapt to the small sequential changes and also reduces downtime.
Get a professional helping hand
Migrating to the cloud is a lot more complicated than it sounds – you don’t just copy-paste data and shift applications to cloud servers and leave it at that. It takes a bit of finesse and some level of tech-savvy to determine the best cloud solutions for a business and implement them without compromising cybersecurity and IT performance.
Improper cloud migration can lead to all sorts of issues, including noncompliance, unmet requirements, incompatibility with legacy systems, and poor cloud economics and ROI. We can help you navigate the complex cloud migration maze stress-free. KME Systems is a professional managed IT service provider keen on assisting entrepreneurs to achieve their IT and business goals. Get in touch with us to learn how you can make the best out of our cloud services and expertise.
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