Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is one aspect of a business that is critically important for those working in IT, whether as a manager or in any other capacity. This is because of the capabilities it gives those people working in such fields, but also because of the necessity of matching what competitors are doing. Here’s some information for forming a full picture of the critical nature of cloud computing going into our new world within the next year and beyond, specifically when it comes to IT and businesses in that field.

Cloud Computing Overview

Cloud computing is definitely here to stay, according to a recent study that says that infrastructure for cloud computing is going to grow at a 30% compound rate annually through the year 2018. That means that this isn’t the kind of thing that you can ignore. It’s a mega trend that will affect you one way or another, even if you try to avoid it or not go very far into it for whatever reason.

Cloud computing simply has too much effect on businesses throughout Asia and the world at large to not make use of with every opportunity that you can muster. It’s certainly the case that cloud computing has a wide number of applications, so finding one that benefits any particular business shouldn’t be hard. In fact, most likely there will be multiple.

Performance Optimization and Cloud Computing

A big advantage of cloud computing that makes it critical for the agenda of many businesses is the fact that it can make businesses adaptable and able to use extra computer power effectively exactly where it’s needed and let it go a bit when it’s not. Unlike when a computer is purchased outright, there are much fewer times where it’s just sitting there doing absolutely nothing.

This way you can amp up the computer production of resources when there is a need for it such as during peak hours. In general, this is a critical part of running a modern business considering that it means you can potentially compete with much larger companies than your own since you’re only using it when it’s absolutely required instead of having to dump a lot of money into it up front.

There’s also no doubt that you other companies are heavily investing in cloud computing considering that according to some studies, 86% of surveyed companies put some effort into using cloud computing at some point.

Risk Aversion

The problem with more traditional forms of computing is that all of your risks tend to be concentrated in just one place, namely your buildings with their server farms and other equipment. Therefore, if there’s any problem with that equipment specifically, you could end up with a death of computing power which could definitely end up leading to a drop in services to your clients or to your internal processes. Either way, your business could end up behind.

Plus, this problem could come in many forms. It could be that you just don’t have the expertise to properly maintain the equipment that you’re running constantly, for example. Or perhaps you can run the equipment now with people who have the ability to do this and also maintain it, but the necessary software upgrades that come constantly are eventually going to be too much for them and too much for you to train them on it. Or perhaps the requirement to eventually upgrade the hardware itself is going to be too difficult or costly.

Additionally, any kind of malfunction in your building that isn’t necessarily related directly to computing could still have a major effect on it anyway. For example, if you have power issues, this could affect computing machines that try to maintain in-house. Or, any kind of storm that leads to damage to the building or water leaking can have the same type of negative effect.

Or, perhaps there’s going to eventually be an issue of you needing to grow faster than you initially expected due to whatever number of factors. This growth would be potentially limited by the amount of space you have for new devices that may be larger, as well as what funds you have available for purchasing these items outright. This is the advantage of using cloud computing services instead. Namely, that you can scale them up as you need them consummate with the funds you have available for rental rather than having the need to purchase it all outright.

New Adaptive Security

Another aspect that makes cloud computing a critical part of modern business practice is the part it plays when it comes to keeping your operation secure. It’s a major trend these days that malware and viruses tend to spread very quickly across various different media, including computer systems in a purely digital sense, as well as Internet of Things systems. There are A.I. systems that are used to help these viruses adapt and get around current counter protocols.

Therefore, you really need cloud computing antivirus services to make sure that you have a response ready. Part of the reason for this is that the adaptation time for viruses and other computer maladies is often stupendously short. The old way of requiring you to just update definitions on a monthly basis is often going to be woefully inadequate. Instead, services making use of cloud computing can scan all definitions for viruses currently available online in order to give you the most up to date definitions for viruses possible, all the way to the second, which can mean that you’ll detect far more viruses than you would otherwise.

And obviously, this is just one component of security. Smart systems that can respond to other types of intrusion efforts in real-time in order to stop them on the time scale of computers, down to the microsecond, is becoming increasingly necessary if you want any chance of staying ahead of it all. A lot of what makes this possible is cloud computing systems that can draw on additional resources during monitoring but also when it’s necessary to stop threats.

Compliance, Continuity and Other Considerations

Considering the difficulty of keeping systems compliant with various regulations, cloud computing can play a role here as well. That way, you can get reminders from stores from the cloud based on what you do at any one point in time. It’s not just for this one instance, either, considering that automation is often highly dependent on cloud computing depending on the scale.

For example, some automated tasks, such as making sure that files are maintained consistently across systems with the most up to date version based on all other devices and mediums, need to be able to access the cloud both to have any chance of accomplishing the task in the first place, and also to draw on additional computer resources for completing it.

In general, you will often find that your competitiveness goes down whenever you don’t ask yourself the question whether using cloud computing services is possible or not in any given part of your company’s operation. It’s a worthy question to at least consider since some other company in your field most likely has.