Cloud Computing – what does that mean? According to Gartner cloud computing is “a style of computing where massively scalable IT-related capabilities are provided ‘as a service’ across the Internet to multiple external customers.”
In English, that definition means the cloud should just deliver a service on a subscription basis, allow access from anywhere and provide economies of scale.
The nice thing about cloud computing is you don't need to invest in your own servers or employ staff to take care of them. Instead, you pay only for the capacity you need at a given time. And as demand rises, capacity increases without interruptions. Cloud computing makes use of the excess server capacity of specialized providers. Your work may be split among many machines, sometimes called virtual servers that also work on the tasks of other individuals or companies. (Software-as-a-service, often confused with cloud computing, is a subset of it.) Cloud computing can help small businesses ease capacity issues.
Using cloud computing, in some sense, means giving up control—perhaps of your intellectual property, customer lists, or proprietary applications, depending on which tasks get outsourced. And vendors' systems, like your own, can go down.
So what can be outsourced to the cloud? All of your business computing needs. Some businesses and consumers simply use the cloud to host productivity applications, such as e-mail, document creation and sharing, and calendars, relieving them of the time and expense needed to run and maintain the software on their own computers. But there are also entrepreneurs who use the cloud to sell services that would have been impossible to offer before, and those who capitalize on this model to build virtual companies.
The way technology changes, you can be the pioneer. The big guys are scratching their heads; the smaller, smarter players can potentially make inroads into markets where they could not go before. Why? It's just easier to scale and integrate on a global scale.
Cloud services leverage the massive server capacity available. It's elastic in nature, meaning it can scale up or down, based on demand for the service. A small business can expense the cost as opposed to purchasing an IT asset such as a server.
Small businesses may feel overwhelmed by cloud computing. But it's worth the effort in experimenting. Companies that can take advantage of it may be best positioned to compete against their larger counterparts.
To learn more about cloud computing or any other IT need, please contact The Network Pro at 877.263.8770.
714-333-9620