5 Uses of Cloud Computing to Boost Any Business

Cloud computing. It’s a term that strikes fear into the heart of every business owner or manager. People have a tendency to fear things that they don’t really understand, and a term like cloud computing makes a simple concept come across as extremely complicated. So we’ve decided to simplify things a bit by delving into what exactly cloud computing means, and 5 uses of cloud computing that could give your business a very real advantage.

What is Cloud Computing?

The phrase “cloud computing” may sound complicated, but it’s actually a very simple concept. Any services that operate in the cloud are cloud computing services.

It could be your storage, your servers, your apps or your network infrastructure. Any and all of these can be cloud-based, available to you and your teams wherever you are in the world. They usually cost less to operate, since there’s no need for exorbitant down-payments or licensing fees. Plus, maintenance usually falls to the cloud service provider, reducing costs to your business even further, while increasing your security.

How Can My Business Use Cloud Computing?

Now that you have a better sense of what cloud computing is, let’s look at a few ways that your business could be benefiting from it. These 5 uses of cloud computing will give any company a boost and can provide your teams with the access and services that they need, wherever they may be.

1. Storing Documents

The days of filing cabinets have long been over, but even the days of storing files on physical hard drives in your office are quickly coming to an end. Physical storage comes with too many risks and complications. It’s all too easy for a drive to become corrupted, and for essential files to be lost in the process.

With cloud storage, you can ensure that your documents and data are stored securely and easily accessible to those who need them (and only those who need them!) And the advantages of cloud storage don’t end with keeping and maintaining your files. Solutions like Microsoft SharePoint allow for easy collaboration as well.

2. Backing Up Systems

With the risk of ransomware on the rise, having a copy of your data, apps and infrastructure could mean the difference between success and failure.

Attackers holding your business’ confidential information hostage may sound far-fetched. But it’s a reality that thousands of businesses face every year. And the results can be devastating, with a single attack costing over R1m. Is that a financial risk that your business could take?

By storing a cloud backup of your data, you mitigate the risk of a ransomware attack. If an attacker gains access to your confidential information, they can’t hold it hostage. They can even delete your files and it won’t have the slightest impact on your operations. You can simply restore them and continue business as normal.

3. Preparing For Disaster

While threats like ransomware are very real, they aren’t the only dangers to your data out there. As South Africans, we deal with load shedding on a regular basis. What would happen to your business if your infrastructure simply didn’t come back online after a power outage. These kinds of IT disasters happen all the time!

We’ve just explained why cloud storage can be essential to business continuity. But cloud backups only make up part of disaster planning. By ensuring that your infrastructure and apps are not just accessible online, but are entirely cloud-based, your business can be well-prepared for any disaster that may come its way.

Take your infrastructure, for example. If your networks and servers are managed and maintained on-premises, they are vulnerable to disasters like power outages, fire, and even the physical wear-and-tear that all technologies are susceptible to. When you work with a cloud hosting provider to manage your infrastructure, you are gaining access to inverters, generators, humidity control and data-centre security. In essence, your data has far more protection from disaster than any one SME could reasonably afford to maintain in-house. Plus, all of the upkeep and maintenance that your networks and servers require is managed by your provider as well, removing the risk from your shoulders.

4. Analysing Data

Businesses generate huge amounts of data every single day. Data about their solutions and how their customers are using them. Information about potential clients. Who’s visiting their website and viewing their social media. Which apps their teams are using and how they are adding value to their company. But without analysis, this data is wasted.

Cloud computing allows for in-depth analysis of your systems, your apps, your customers, and your time. Tools like Microsoft Viva Insights can be put to use in ensuring that your teams are as productive and efficient as possible. Data mining tools, machine learning and artificial intelligence can generate stats and reports on all the information in your possession. And these can go a long way towards helping your business make informed decisions that will see you not just achieving, but exceeding your goals.

5. Testing & Building Apps

Implementing new technologies comes with a certain amount of risk. And implementing new apps is no different. Whether it’s an app that you’ve designed, or one that you’re just introducing to your business, having the opportunity to test apps and the impact that they can have on your existing systems is essential.

This is where Platform as a Service, or PaaS, solutions come in. They provide a virtual environment for you to try out new apps and digital solutions without risking your existing solutions. You can use them to build or test new apps to make sure that there are no glaring errors or incompatibilities before you introduce them to your ongoing operations. This reduces the risk of anything going wrong, and provides you with the opportunity to play around with new solutions and ensure that they’re the right fit for your business.

Key Benefits of Migrating to Cloud Include

1. Agility and flexibility

As your company grows, it’s important to have the flexibility and agility to respond to changes immediately. In a competitive business environment, having the ability to quickly respond to new demands can make a significant difference to your bottom line. One of the key benefits of migrating to the cloud is that this flexibility will always be at your disposal.

2. Security

Perhaps the most important advantage of cloud migration is security. By storing your company’s data and assets in a central location on the cloud, you can achieve a lot more security than if you were to only use on-premises hardware for your storage needs. When your data is being stored on-premises, it’s prone to issues like theft, hacking, intrusions, unauthorized access, and identity theft. When you store your assets on the cloud, it becomes far easier to protect yourself against these risks.

3. Disaster recovery

When you have your data and solutions backed up to the cloud, they are easy to recover in the case of data disasters. These could include hacking, data corruption, natural disasters, or even just human error. There are a number of natural and man-made disasters that can shut off power, damage equipment, and disable important IT functions, leading to your company losing critical data. This is what makes migrating to the cloud such an important measure to keep your operations running smoothly. Regardless of the size of your company, having data backed up to the cloud will help save a lot of time and money, which you would have otherwise had to spend on recovery operations.

4. Reduces cost

Another very important advantage of cloud migration is how cost-effective it is. When you maintain a local server to store your data, the ongoing support and maintenance costs can account for a substantial part of your annual budget — expenses that are completely mitigated when you migrate to the cloud. Plus, with cloud migration, you won’t have to pay on-site professionals to manage your local servers, again saving you unnecessary fees. For small companies, this factor alone can make cloud migration a no-brainer. But even larger companies can benefit from the cost savings of migrating to the cloud.

5. Faster deployment

When you upgrade, downgrade, or choose to use new cloud services, there’s no waiting for them to be deployed. Traditionally, it would involve buying a server, installing an operating system, arranging for it to be placed in a data center. But with cloud services, this is all already taken care of! Your services become available immediately and you’ll be able to access them a lot faster.

6. Accessibility

Apps and data that are migrated to the cloud are accessible from anywhere in the world, and on any device as long as it has internet connectivity. This is a huge advantage for teams that are spread out around the world, or for businesses that want to embrace remote working.

7. Scalability

As your company grows, the analytics, databases, and workload will also increase. If you’re making use of on-premises hardware, you’ll quickly find yourself needing to upgrade your systems. If your systems are on the cloud, on the other hand, your company can expand as needed and have the upgraded facilities available immediately. Existing apps have room to grow (without their performance getting affected) and new apps and solutions may be deployed at any time.

8. Increased mobility

It’s not just your company’s IT department that benefits from moving to the cloud. Cloud migration also helps boost the productivity of all your employees by ensuring that they can access data and apps that they need, wherever they are in the world. For many employees, this means being able to work from the office, at home, or even on-the-go. It also means that, when a laptop fails or load shedding hits, your teams can always get work done through their smartphones or tablets. This increased mobility, which is a key benefit of migrating to the cloud, helps both individual employees and the company in general.

What is Cloud Infrastructure?

When people think of IT infrastructure, they often think of things like servers, networks switches, and all the parts involved in maintaining them like hard drives and RAM. And you may notice that these are all physical objects that you might find in a data centre or onsite server room. But they don’t have to be physical.

Cloud computing has opened the pathway for businesses to manage all of their IT infrastructure without needing to physically manage (or even own) it. Cloud solutions like Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) allow businesses to rent components like data storage and servers at a fixed monthly rate without requiring substantial outlays in terms of both cost and space to house the facilities. While your company can manage how the infrastructure is configured, any upkeep and maintenance are covered by your cloud provider.

Which Components Are Needed When Building Cloud Infrastructure?

There are four components that form part of any provider’s cloud infrastructure solutions:

Servers

Your cloud provider will have server space available for you to rent. This can be configured according to your needs as a web server, file server or mail server. What you do with the space is entirely up to you. The important thing to know is that the servers are maintained by your provider, mitigating the risk and responsibility involved in maintaining the hardware yourself.

Storage

Whether you’re looking for somewhere to store your data while it’s being processed, a central facility for accessing and managing your files, or a backup solution, cloud storage gives you the space that you need. And as much of it as you might need. One of the big benefits of keeping your infrastructure in the cloud is that you can adjust your components on the fly. This helps you to make better use of your budget while at the same time meeting your business’ evolving data requirements.

Networks

Not only do cloud providers ensure the maintenance of your facilities, but they also ensure that your servers and storage are available at all times. This means that wherever you are in the world, and whichever device you’re using, you can rest assured that you’ll have access to your cloud computing services. And this can apply to anyone who may need access to your infrastructure, allowing you to easily manage your server and network security.

Virtualisation

With all of your server, networking and storage capacity being in the cloud, you may be wondering about how easy it would be to manage and configure the hardware itself. And this is another area where cloud computing infrastructure shines. Virtualization software provides a graphical interface that makes it easy to monitor the facilities and make adjustments as needed, all without needing physical access to the hardware itself.

What Are The Advantages of Using Cloud-Based Infrastructure?

We’ve already mentioned a few of the benefits to making use of cloud computing when it comes to managing your infrastructure, but there are plenty more advantages where those came from:

Cost

IT infrastructure has a tendency to be pricy, particularly in the foundational phase when you’re having to dole out down-payments and huge outlay costs. Cloud services, on the other hand, are charged on a fixed month-to-month basis and the fee includes maintenance and server updates.

Scalability

Finding yourself short on memory or storage space? With on-premises infrastructure, you’d need to buy extra RAM or hard drives, and they’d be yours for good. So what happens when that spike in processing power dies down? Suddenly you’re left with more than you need. Which is far from ideal. You want to be able to upgrade and downgrade your components as and when you need them. And with cloud computing, it’s easy to do just that.

Reliability

When you partner with a cloud provider, downtime becomes rare. They have access to secure data centres with facilities to ensure that issues like load shedding and overheating are never a concern. Plus they make use of top-of-the-line monitoring software to ensure that no hardware failures catch them off guard.

Security

Not only will your infrastructure be housed in a secure data centre, but you’ll also be able to intricately control who is able to access your servers, network and storage, and what permissions each user has. You’ll also be instantly notified of any unauthorised access attempts, allowing you to put a stop to attempted attacks before they can happen.

Risk Mitigation

When you manage your infrastructure in-house, you are solely responsible for its maintenance. Your teams will need to keep themselves constantly updated on the latest advancements and patches, and ensure that they’re implemented as soon as they become available, or risk threats like zero-day attacks. By outsourcing your infrastructure, the responsibility for upgrades, updates and general maintenance is placed with your cloud provider, mitigating the risk to your business.

Accessibility

Cloud solutions make it easy to give the right people the access that they need, all without risking your security. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, or where your network admin or IT pros are – they’ll still be able to access your servers and networks with ease thanks to virtualisation software.

So Much More to Cloud Solutions

These are just 5 uses of cloud computing that could give any business an advantage in an ever-changing digital world. But the benefits of using cloud solutions goes far behind just these 5 implementations. Cloud computing has the potential to advance your business and see you stepping into the future with confidence. All you need is the right Managed Services Provider by your side to help you navigate the technologies that are available.

Solid Systems is just that provider. We make sure that our clients are investing in the right technologies for their business, maximising their advantages, and ultimately making more money while minimising the risks of the modern workplace. Oh, and we offer world-class, human IT support.

Ready to make the shift to the cloud? Get in touch with us today.

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