What is the Cloud (No really, what is it?) - Part 2

Last week, I shared with you a bit about the history of cloud computing and its many names and forms. Now let’s chat about the potential benefits of migrating your IT operations off your local premises and into the cloud, including flexible pricing models and rapid scalability.

First, let’s chat about what is music to my ears: flexible pricing based on need. When an organization needs additional computing power, they would normally be required to purchase additional physical servers. These require a significant upfront cost in purchasing the hardware as well as internal or third-party IT personnel to connect and maintain those servers. Fortunately, many cloud pricing models only charge based on the actual amount of capacity or computing power utilized, which can help an organization maximize its IT resources while staying cost-efficient.

Speaking of IT personnel (also known as your best friends and allies in cloud transitions), when an organization keeps its IT structure internal, it must also address all of the IT-related risks for any information within that structure. They are required to institute business interruption or disaster recovery mitigation plans for any disruption to their servers. Often, these plans require additional and expensive backup servers. As viruses and hackers become more sophisticated, an IT organization is also required to devote significant time and effort to maintain a solid cybersecurity policy and purchase cybersecurity insurance policies.

But here comes the perk: when transitioning to a cloud-based infrastructure, a significant portion of these risks are shifted from an organization to the cloud provider. These are large tech-focused organizations that have invested in risk management and boast high-grade cybersecurity and server availability of 99.5% to 99.9% for its cloud customers, as this is taken very seriously in order for products like AWS and Microsoft Azure to maintain confidence in its offerings.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t discuss the difficulty with IT infrastructure in an organization in handling the future needs of the company. If a company experiences unexpected rapid growth or high amounts of traffic, an on-premises IT team will scramble to find a solution to meet the need, resulting in higher costs and likely downtime of systems from potential overload. On the other hand, if a company experiences periods of low activity, it must still maintain its existing equipment that that may be sitting idle. With a cloud-based solution, businesses can seamlessly adjust their required computing capacity to fit their needs on a real-time basis, allowing them to scale up to match their company’s rapid growth or scale down to minimize costs for a period of lower transaction volume.

A few years ago, the ability to transition to a cloud-based model could only be possible for the largest companies with significant IT budgets. However, as cloud computing becomes available to businesses of all sizes, and customized services and scenarios multiply, there is no longer a significant barrier to cloud access. Now may be the time for your organization to consider a cost/benefit analysis for a shift of at least some of your IT infrastructure to the cloud.

Has your organization shifted from physical servers to a cloud-based infrastructure? If not, would you be interested in exploring such an option?