5 advantages of cloud computing

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing refers to the on-demand availability of computing resources, e.g. computing power or data storage. When a company moves to the cloud, it shifts some or all of its data center capabilities from on-premise infrastructure to cloud-based infrastructure. This cloud infrastructure is typically provided by a public cloud service provider such as AWS, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure.

Sometimes, “moving to the cloud” also refers to adopting SaaS, IaaS, CaaS and PaaS technologies (Concur, Microsoft Office 365, managed databases, virtual machines, etc.). Let’s come to why so many companies decide to move to cloud computing.

5 game-changing advantages of cloud computing

In many companies, there’s significant reluctance and fear of moving to the cloud: challenges seem overwhelming, and efforts are hard to predict. And yes, switching to cloud computing does take a lot of time and work. However, the benefits do outweigh the efforts. In the following, we’ll discuss 5 important advantages of cloud computing:

1 - Flexibility and scalability: Easy up- and down-scaling | manage peak times without overpaying the rest of the year

2 - Cost-effectiveness: Pay as you go | faster time-to-use | less application downtime

3 - Access and collaboration: Access from anywhere | use any device | work on the same document in real-time

4 - Increased security: Encryption in the cloud | Safe storage

5 - Unburdening/Relieving the IT team: Remove tedious tasks from your IT team | No maintenance

1 - Flexibility and scalability

Highlights: Easy up- and down-scaling | manage peak times without overpaying the rest of the year

A significant benefit of cloud computing is its flexibility and scalability. What does that mean? It means that a company can increase or decrease its infrastructure resources as needed, depending on e.g. recent market developments.

With cloud services, companies can flexibly increase their infrastructure to cover peak times, without overpaying unused resources the rest of the year

This is especially relevant for companies that see a significant amplitude of the necessary computing power - e.g. because of big visitor peaks around holiday season on e-commerce sites. So instead of overprovisioning on-premise resources, companies can flexibly increase their available contingent for Christmas and reduce it again in January.

2 - Cost-effectiveness

Highlights: Pay as you go | faster time-to-use | less application downtime

Moving to the cloud can save a lot of money. How? When using on-premise solutions, companies buy and maintain their own infrastructure. Initially, this seems like a projectable one-off payment, but as requirements change, often new investments in newer and more powerful hardware become necessary. Also, the infrastructure needs to be able to handle users’ requests at peak times, which leads to oversized resources the rest of the time. Instead, cloud users “pay as they go”. That means, companies only have to pay for the computing power they really need and use. This allows for high degrees of flexibility.

At the same time, the time-to-use decreases. That means implementations are faster and the time between the decision to start using an application and the point where it can actually be used declines.

Also, when relying on cloud providers’ servers, the application downtime gets reduced. If you’re running an e-commerce store or offer critical services, this is a very important measure for your business's success.

3 - Access & Collaboration

Highlights: Access from anywhere | use any device | work on the same document in real-time

A major benefit of cloud computing, especially for business applications provided as SaaS, is the facilitated collaboration and accessibility. The most obvious advantage here is that cloud computing allows your employees to connect to services and platforms from anywhere without a VPN - from their homes or holidays as well as from remote working locations.

When using cloud computing, it’s easy to use different devices, such as a work laptop, a private laptop, and a private smartphone: you only need to sign in once and then have access to all relevant services and information sources.

The same applies when switching to a newer laptop - don’t waste hours and hours configuring all the programs you had installed previously. Instead, programs are web-based, and easily compatible with different devices and operating systems.

Real-time collaboration: Using cloud computing, multiple people can work on a resource at the same time - from anywhere, using any device

There’s more magic: version control. Doesn’t sound so magic? Cloud-based document management systems, such as Microsoft Office 365 or Google Workspace, made collaboration much easier by supporting the simultaneous editing of documents by several users. This made working in groups on documents much more efficient. Changes get saved and tracked automatically, in real-time. No more sending copies of sheets or documents back and forth.

4 - Increased security

Highlights: Encryption in the cloud | Safe storage | Disaster recovery

Storing critical data on the internet to keep it safe feels counterintuitive? It shouldn’t. Cloud providers have entire teams taking care of your data’s security. Data is encrypted, without requiring third-party add-on applications like many on-premise solutions.

Also, the cloud is a safe space for companies facing unforeseen disasters. Cloud storages are typically redundant in different zones or regions to ensure availability. This is especially important in times of climate change and increasing numbers of natural disasters, such as big floods or earthquakes. Also, fires or power outages can cause essential threats to on-premise data storage and servers. Using cloud services is also an easy way to archive data without having to invest in on-premise storage infrastructure.

The cloud keeps your data safe: out of reach of natural disasters such as floods or fires.

If data security is ensured by cloud specialists at the providers’ locations, this is something that the local IT department doesn’t have to worry about anymore. This leads us to benefit number five:

5 - Unburdening the IT team

Highlights: Remove tedious tasks from your IT team | No maintenance

Finding IT people is hard. Imagine you could eliminate many of the boring day-to-day tasks from your overloaded IT team. Wouldn’t that be great? Well, there’s an easy way to do that! When moving to the cloud:

• Updates are done automatically
• New applications and programs don’t need to be installed on each device
• No maintenance: you don't own your cloud services so you’re not responsible for maintenance.
• Less troubleshooting

This way, your IT experts can focus on what’s really important to your business.

Not in the cloud yet?

Moving to the cloud is not easy, but as you just learned, it does come with significant benefits. Sit back and watch our Partner Manager Lukas explaining to you how the Txture software helps you smoothen your transition to cloud computing:

If you want to learn more about how to migrate your IT from on-prem to the cloud, check out these videos about the different phases of a cloud transformation:

1 - Data Collection: understanding your IT landscape

2 - Application assessment: are you cloud-ready?

3 - Defining the right cloud target architecture

Seeing is believing!

Find out for yourself why Txture is a tried and tested software tool for cloud transformation