[oc_spacer height=”15″]Ever greater security standards and a growing range of services make cloud solutions increasingly attractive for businesses of all sizes. You can read here how to find the right cloud provider and what benefits the implementation of cloud strategies provide.
Cloud Technologies on the Road to Success
Lean processes, significant cost reductions due to resource savings, location and device independent working etc. The many benefits of the cloud are obvious.
But no matter how revolutionary new technology may be – they only spread if there is trust in them. When in the 1990s, the internet was becoming usable for commercial purposes, potential surfers first approached the internet quite cautiously as it had not been available beforehand. Today, nobody thinks about it twice, before checking their email or ordering a cool jacket online.
With regards to the cloud, it appears that it has definitely won the trust of users: according to a survey of Cloud Monitors around 65% of businesses in Germany now use the cloud, worldwide it is even 90%. Many companies even rely on the Cloud First principle, which means that internal services are only then implemented, if there is no cloud alternative.
The average number of used cloud services also decreased from 43 in the year 2015 to 29 in the following year. This streamlining shows that a consolidation of cloud providers and their services is taking place. This includes the standardisation and integration of systems, applications, data files or strategies – also in the form of cooperation with other providers to perfectly adapt services to user requirements. The trend is also moving away from a purely private cloud to hybrid infrastructures, which in turn signals increasing trust.
Seamless Cloud Security reinforces Trust
“Correctly implemented, there is no place where data worth protecting is better handled“, advises Dorothee Ritz, general manager of Microsoft Austria. More and more of those responsible within the organisation recognise the enormous security potential of the cloud, confirms a study of the Cloud Security Alliance. 65% of those responsible for IT are convinced that the cloud is as secure or even more secure than their own on-premises infrastructure. It even has to be, if one considers that two thirds of CIOs see the responsibility for cloud security with the cloud provider alone, as shown by a survey of Veritas Technologies.
One factor, which has considerably contributed to the increasing trust in security, is the expansion of data centres inside the European Union. This means that the cloud is automatically subject to the strict data protection of the EU, which in turn means that the agreements for data, access and legal security as well as certified quality standards have to be demonstrated and complied with. This puts even the most sceptical business person at ease about implementing cloud strategies. In particular for smaller businesses, it is often worthwhile to access such data centres rather than to maintain an own IT infrastructure. Also young entrepreneurs at the beginning of their business start-up are able to realise businesses quickly, with low fixed costs and scale services exactly as per their requirements.
Spoilt for Choice – Selecting a Cloud Provider
The continued rise in demand has also increased the number of cloud providers and many companies feel overwhelmed when searching for the right one. An essential indicator for a trustworthy cloud provider, such as oneclick™, is the Trusted Cloud Seal of Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economy & Technology. In order to receive this quality seal of trustworthiness, a cloud provider have to meet numerous requirements and is objectively scrutinised.
Other important factors when selecting the provider are performance and transparency. Performance describes the reliability of the cloud and its underlying structure. It should be fault-resistant and available around the clock. In this context, transparency stands for traceability and the understanding of the technical and organisational processes, which are behind the service. Dong-Hee Shin’s studies demonstrated that the perceived availability and reliability strongly influence the assessment of the usefulness, and hence willingness to use cloud services. It is easy to see, that a technology that often lets down the user, does not encourage its future use.
Those who are looking for the right cloud partner, will find in oneclick™ a universally applicable complete solution for the provision and distribution of software applications and data. oneclick™ solves a number of common IT problems through its deployment via a central platform in a workspace via streaming. It also increases mobility, productivity and security. All this is done 100% web-based. To use oneclick™, all you need is a browser. The Cloud Resource Manager allows virtual machines to be provided and set up directly from the oneclick™ platform in data centres of well-known IaaS providers. The data centres of Microsoft Azure are already available via the platform, while other IaaS providers will follow soon. This enables existing IT infrastructures to be complemented with virtual resources quickly and at a low cost and hybrid cloud concepts can be realised.
There’s no end in sight for the success story of cloud technologies and researchers are certain, that in the near future, the cloud will be the standard of information processing. This realisation is mirrored in industry: 92% of decision makers in businesses indicated that in the next two years, their organisation is planning to outsource even more services into the cloud.
Sources:
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- http://cloudblick.de/111/virtualisierung-und-konsolidierung-%E2%80%93-unerlasslich-fur-die-cloud/
- https://www.mcafee.com/de/resources/reports/rp-building-trust-cloudy-sky-summary.pdf
- https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/people-didnt-trust-the-internet-before-there-even-was-o-1480380952
- http://blog.wiwo.de/look-at-it/2017/11/06/zwei-drittel-der-cios-sehen-verantwortung-fuer-it-sicherheit-allein-beim-cloud-provider/
- Shin, D.H.: User experience in social commerce: in friends we trust. Behaviour & Information Technology 32 (2013) 52–67.
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- https://www.acontech.de/mit-vollem-vertrauen-voraus-acontech-im-trusted-cloud-directory-des-bmwi/
