[oc_spacer height=”15″]More and more companies make use of cloud solutions. Only a few years ago, a large proportion of businesses still had concerns regarding cloud security. However, these dwindle continuously, not least due to ever more developed services. At the same time, the market has not yet been fully exploited. Up to now every second business owner still needs to be properly deal with the cloud topic.
What does the term ‘cloud solution‘ mean?
Data, applications or IT infrastructure is made accessible via the cloud using the internet. Dependent on the sensitivity of the data and the type of provision (private cloud, public cloud or hybrid cloud), IT solutions are either hosted in-house or with an external provider. Without going into the various provisioning types, which often have different advantages and disadvantages, cloud solutions are popular as they are quickly ready-to-use and scalable. Hardware resources for computing power or storage as well as the application software are provided and maintained by the external provider. With many cloud services, such as oneclick™, there is also an advantage regarding cross-device access to one’s own data and applications. Well-known and often used cloud solutions include online back-up, hosted exchange or Office 365. If you would like to find out more about the advantages and disadvantages of different provisioning types, you can discover more in this article:
Which applications are covered by cloud solutions?
Nowadays there are many variants of cloud solutions available. The diverse offering in its size is almost too much for interested businesses. In general, the entire area of cloud computing can be divided into three different service models:
- Cloud platforms or Platform-as-a-Service – flexible programming and runtime environments, which are also dynamically adaptable in their computing and data capacity
- Cloud software or Software-as-a-Service – application programmes in any size, from small Office applications to complex ERP
- Cloud infrastructure or Infrastructure-as-a-Service – virtual computer-hardware-resources
For small and medium-sized businesses in particular, cloud solutions are associated with financial benefits. When using cloud services, they no longer have the high investment to procure their own IT components, while at the same time enjoying a high security standard and up-to-date flexibility. Besides conventional applications, cloud solutions are increasingly used by marketing and customer services.
Cloud solutions reduce IT costs within the company, they simplify complex structures and increase productivity as well as competitiveness. Here is a short selection of cloud solutions according to their application:
E-Commerce
This can range from an entire shop system to ERP, to simple provisioning of server capacities or computing power.
Internet of Things (IoT)
The connection of more and more micro devices to database architecture and communication channels also increases the requirements with regard to administration and processing of servers required for the connection. This expensive factor can be bypassed with cloud services as the required hardware in the company is reduced to a minimum, while still permitting the management of many device connections.
Backup and Recovery
Good scalability and availability of required storage and management resources has ensured that – for non-critical data – databases in the cloud have become a quasi-standard of small and medium-sized business. In particular backup and recovery are quick and cost efficiently connected into a business.
Data Analysis
Cloud use and its hardware capacities also offer smaller companies an opportunity to capture and analyse large data volumes. This makes big data and the processing of large data volumes possible for a wider range of companies.
Business Applications
The requirements on IT increase constantly and, dependent on the sector or company size, are difficult to implement efficiently. Especially smaller companies benefit from cloud concepts such as “Software-as-a-Service“, in particular through lower investment costs and risks, which are associated with these concepts.
Cryptography
The modern handling of sensitive data and their transmission results in increasing demands on encryption and hence the used hardware. With the emergence of concepts such as e-commerce, online banking, social media or block chain, the volume of cryptography in everyday life is increasing rapidly. Cloud solutions are ideally suited for the provision of the required services and efficient connection.
Machine Learning
Modern analysis methods in IT allow servers to independently find solutions for complex problems through recursive and parallel processing of big data volumes. In particular in the analysis of big data volumes, tasks can be managed, which was previously not possible.
Development Tools
Especially in application and platform development, a reliable and high performance development environment is mandatory. When working with external staff or when shared resources are accessed, the cloud allows for efficient, scalable and cost-efficient solutions to be found.
Hosting
The hosting of web services or websites can be appropriately implemented through scalability and the decentral server position of the cloud, as in particular connection and access times through additional resources can be requested with the click of a mouse. This allows companies to efficiently bridge periods with a high workload – cost efficiently.
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