Benefits of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has rev­o­lu­tion­ized how busi­ness­es use IT. Hardware is no longer purchased and operated in-house. Instead, XaaS (“X-as-a-service”) models are used. This means that IT services are rented on the basis of vir­tu­al­ized hardware and operating systems. Cloud computing includes the storage and pro­cess­ing of data as well as the hosting of ap­pli­ca­tions and in­ter­faces. All in all, cloud computing offers a variety of ad­van­tages, but also has a few dis­ad­van­tages.

For many or­ga­ni­za­tions, the biggest immediate benefits of cloud computing are economic ones. There are other benefits as well, which we will discuss below. However, these almost always require weighing up the pros and cons of using the cloud. When con­sid­er­ing the economic ad­van­tages, a dis­tinc­tion must be made between the use of a public cloud and your own private cloud. The former can be used im­me­di­ate­ly without high ac­qui­si­tion costs, but the latter involves costs for setting up your own struc­tures.

For most companies, tech­nol­o­gy is a means to an end. Many busi­ness­es sell products and services that are non-technical in nature so it's ideal when tech­nol­o­gy becomes invisible. The cloud makes that possible.

Using cloud computing means that a company can pay less attention to technical aspects. Instead, they are free to focus on the business’ core tasks. This leads to better products and services and higher ef­fi­cien­cy. After all, a greater share of the resources used con­tributes directly to success.

Let's imagine a large bakery chain. It may need computing capacity for logistics, sales, marketing, etc. Instead of running its own servers or data centers, it makes sense to use cloud resources. The exception is dedicated tech­nol­o­gy companies since it may be worth­while to set up and operate their own ca­pac­i­ties. Even then, private cloud solutions could be con­sid­ered.

The use of cloud computing leads to better flex­i­bil­i­ty. The IT in­fra­struc­ture required is available im­me­di­ate­ly and can be scaled as needed. This means that op­por­tu­ni­ties and risks can be responded to im­me­di­ate­ly. In the past when companies invested in IT in­fra­struc­ture, this new tech­nol­o­gy would be used for a long time since many companies didn’t want to invest more money not long after in order to take advantage of new tech­no­log­i­cal de­vel­op­ments.

Cloud computing makes it possible to react more quickly to changing con­di­tions. Companies can adapt to the market without having to plan, approve, and build in­fra­struc­ture. By forgoing these time-consuming and costly processes, the tech­nol­o­gy simply serves to implement the strategy.

Cloud computing often helps companies to lower costs. This is because they don't have to acquire and operate the IT in­fra­struc­ture them­selves. Only “thin clients” are required for employees. In most cases, any modern device with a web browser is suf­fi­cient. As well as saving money on buying its own hardware, the company also requires fewer IT staff. Fur­ther­more, the focus shifts away from main­te­nance and network tech­nol­o­gy to more direct support for employees.

Cloud services scale up or down depending on the actual load. Therefore, there is no need to keep excess capacity in-house. Whether renting ad­di­tion­al servers or scaling existing servers, this is done either au­to­mat­i­cal­ly or with a simple click. Cloud computing is par­tic­u­lar­ly at­trac­tive for startups since saving on their own hardware lowers the required startup capital. A startup initially rents in­fra­struc­ture and services on a small scale. As the company grows, the services purchased are scaled up.

When widely deployed, cloud computing leads to greater sus­tain­abil­i­ty. Sharing large, cen­tral­ized cloud data centers is more efficient than running in­di­vid­ual data centers in in­di­vid­ual companies.

Large data centers have better options for waste heat man­age­ment and on-site power gen­er­a­tion. For example, there are data centers in Iceland that use ge­ot­her­mal energy. They also find it easier to recycle old equipment when new hardware is purchased. Vir­tu­al­iza­tion also reduces the need for in­di­vid­ual devices.

The economic benefits achieved through cloud computing apply to an entire or­ga­ni­za­tion. But there are also numerous benefits within an or­ga­ni­za­tion. Digital tech­nol­o­gy is the backbone for com­mu­ni­ca­tion and data sharing within the business. Cloud computing allows de­part­ments and employees to col­lab­o­rate faster, more reliably, and more easily.

With cloud computing, or­ga­ni­za­tions strive for con­sis­tent data man­age­ment. Data has been the talking point in politics and business for years. It is often mis­tak­en­ly assumed that more data au­to­mat­i­cal­ly means more value. However, data is only useful if it is managed sensibly. Otherwise, you are left with a pile of data that you don’t know what to do with. Without sensible man­age­ment, data is more of a burden than a benefit.

Cloud computing helps to achieve company-wide uniform solutions for storing and eval­u­at­ing data. In contrast, using a company's “homemade” solutions can quickly lead to chaos. Different ap­proach­es to data man­age­ment put in place at the same time tend to ac­cu­mu­late large amounts of dark data. This data, which exists outside of the intended systems and processes, is a liability.

When managing data in the cloud, web-based formats, user in­ter­faces, and APIs are used for the most part. These are usually based on open in­ter­faces. This makes it clearer which data is located where and how it is accessed. For optimal data man­age­ment, it is nev­er­the­less essential to involve employees. No tech­nol­o­gy, no matter how so­phis­ti­cat­ed, can replace well-defined processes and good doc­u­men­ta­tion.

When data and services are hosted in the cloud, they are usually accessed through web in­ter­faces. This fa­cil­i­tates access for employees who can work from anywhere. Whether field service, home office, or digital nomadism as free­lancers, everyone uses the same web-based workflows and tools they are familiar with. If necessary, an in-house virtual private network (VPN) is used as an in­ter­me­di­ate level.

The basic tool for accessing cloud-based services is the web browser. You can run them on simple hardware such as tablets. Mobile devices are cheaper, easier to maintain, and more portable than tra­di­tion­al desktop computers. Most data is stored in the cloud rather than on the device itself. Cloud storage usually creates automatic backups and audits when data changes. This reduces the risk of employees in­ad­ver­tent­ly causing a data breach.

Security and data pro­tec­tion are important issues in dig­i­tal­ized society, which is why using the cloud is very ad­van­ta­geous. However, this very insight is difficult for many people to grasp because the cloud is “invisible”. Where exactly is the data kept? Ob­jec­tive­ly speaking, the cloud offers numerous ad­van­tages for security and data pro­tec­tion, but it needs to be used with expertise and care, es­pe­cial­ly when it comes to the topic of cloud security.

Data has become a hot property. Many criminals attempt to steal data in order to misuse or sell it. In addition to those directly affected, the companies involved also suffer. They could be met with severe fines and legal con­se­quences if cus­tomer­s' private in­for­ma­tion is leaked. Companies could even lose customers and have their image tarnished because of a data leak.

Large cloud providers use dedicated resources to protect them­selves from hackers and other attackers. They use their own de­part­ments with top-class spe­cial­ists and the latest tech­nol­o­gy - a level that cannot be achieved by any small company. Another advantage of using the cloud is the stan­dard­iza­tion and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of the systems used. If you build your own in­fra­struc­ture, it has to be certified, which costs time and money. This makes sub­se­quent ad­just­ments to the system more difficult, as the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion process may have to be repeated.

Because data is invisible, data pro­tec­tion is generally a difficult issue. The business is always re­spon­si­ble for pro­tect­ing data as it ac­cu­mu­lates. The best approach is to build data pro­tec­tion into struc­tures from the start. A com­mend­able goal, but a major un­der­tak­ing for a single company, which is why it is easier to rely on es­tab­lished cloud systems.

Cloud provider systems are certified according to official standards. The providers go to great lengths to ensure com­pli­ance and have their own legal de­part­ment and experts for tech­nol­o­gy and security. This ensures a high degree of re­li­a­bil­i­ty.

In IT, the term “disaster recovery” refers to a recovery process. If something goes cat­a­stroph­i­cal­ly wrong, how do you get things back to their original state? With the cloud, disaster recovery is often easier, faster, and more cost-effective. What was once only possible for large companies is now available to the general public.

Cloud providers rely on globally dis­trib­uted systems. Data and services are available in multiple copies. This means that there is no “single point of failure”, i.e. no Achilles' heel that would bring the entire system to its knees. Therefore, even if a server or data center fails, there is usually no permanent loss of data or capacity.

The intrinsic scal­a­bil­i­ty of cloud services means that failures can be responded to rapidly. Backups built into the in­fra­struc­ture allow data to be restored.

In addition to the economic-or­ga­ni­za­tion­al and reg­u­la­to­ry aspects already mentioned, there are also tech­no­log­i­cal ad­van­tages. At the end of the day, the cloud is based on tech­no­log­i­cal progress. Therefore, the tech­nolo­gies used can determine the op­por­tu­ni­ties that arise.

Big data man­age­ment poses serious chal­lenges to or­ga­ni­za­tions. When we talk about big data, we are referring to very large amounts of data. It can quickly reach a petabyte (thousands of terabytes) or more. Cloud computing offers several ad­van­tages in these cases.

Capturing, storing, pro­cess­ing, and re­triev­ing large amounts of data requires a specially adapted in­fra­struc­ture. It is very costly for a company to build this itself. In many cases, it makes more sense to use existing XaaS solutions from large providers. One char­ac­ter­is­tic of big data is that large amounts of data are often added in a short period of time. It is then par­tic­u­lar­ly important to be able to scale storage and computing ca­pac­i­ties easily. This is usually only possible with cloud solutions.

Modern de­vel­op­ment projects involve another class of spe­cial­ists besides pro­gram­mers and project managers - the so-called DevOps engineers. The main focus of DevOps is to provide the struc­tures for de­vel­op­ing and operating software and to keep these struc­tures running. The use of cloud tech­nolo­gies is in­stru­men­tal in this.

The de­vel­op­ment of cloud computing was ac­com­pa­nied by local de­vel­op­ment and de­ploy­ment ap­proach­es merging together. Container vir­tu­al­iza­tion in par­tic­u­lar was expedient. The software is developed in a local en­vi­ron­ment and later runs in a dis­trib­uted cloud system. The basic tech­nolo­gies are similar in both cases. With the cloud, however, the ap­proach­es are more powerful and, above all, scalable.

Pas­sion­ate de­vel­op­ers often want to use the latest tech­nolo­gies for their projects. Tra­di­tion­al­ly, however, the hurdle was that the required struc­tures had to be built up within the company first. This isn’t the case when using the cloud, which makes it easier for companies to stay up to date. This is an at­trac­tive advantage that helps to ac­cel­er­ate de­vel­op­ment projects and attract ambitious talent.

Like every tech­no­log­i­cal in­no­va­tion, cloud computing also has its dis­ad­van­tages. If services and in­fra­struc­ture are rented and not operated by the company itself, the company is strongly dependent on the providers. For companies focused on technical products, the as­so­ci­at­ed loss of control may be un­ac­cept­able.

To a certain extent, “In­fra­struc­ture as Code” concepts can protect against the dreaded vendor lock-in. This means that it is still possible to switch between providers or to use your own private cloud. In so-called multi-clouds and hybrid clouds, systems and data are dis­trib­uted across several private and public clouds. This helps to reduce de­pen­den­cies on in­di­vid­ual providers and to maintain sov­er­eign­ty over your own data.

Cloud computing provides companies with an un­par­al­leled level of flex­i­bil­i­ty. However, keeping up with tech­no­log­i­cal de­vel­op­ment also puts companies under great pressure. New methods and ap­proach­es are con­stant­ly being added and tech­nol­o­gy is con­sid­ered out-of-date after only a few years.