In our last post we covered the basics of the cloud. Now it’s time to look at some of the key potential benefits of cloud services.
One of the most important advantages to cloud computing, from a business standpoint, is the cost savings that can result from using cloud-based services. Rather than making huge investments in costly servers and other data center infrastructure, companies can leverage the existing environment operated by a cloud hosting provider.
This can lead to significant reductions in capital and operating expenditures for organizations. Additional efficiencies come from only having to pay for services when you actually use them.
The cloud can also offer greater flexibility and scalability. Companies can provision IT capacity whenever they need it, and easily scale up or down as necessary. This is especially true for businesses that have seasonal sales cycles.
Another possible advantage of the cloud is high availability and strong security. Cloud service providers have built their businesses around making services available at all times. If one facility is not operating, they can switch to backup systems to keep services running.
And because hosting providers typically make information security a high priority, a client’s data might actually be better protected in the service providers environment than in its own data centers.