Cloud Computing, Its Need and Benefits

Cloud Computing, Its Need and Benefits

Cloud computing is a system for distribution of resources and technological advancements. It works with defined set of connections, software solution and services through the use of a secured network. This is a major achievement in information technology.

Cloud computing is used where the client has to sort through massive amount of data in a very short time. So when we talk about cloud computing, we must understand the circumstances that led to this diverse yet very successful system. These factors included:

1) Ever expanding labor costs and charges.

2) High energy consumption charges.

3) Ever increasing demands from employees.

4) Alarmingly large data warehouses.

5) Complexity of data storage and management.

All above mentioned factors made the information technology professionals get back to their drawing boards and come up with a smart solution. Cloud computing system was the solution. This system was their breakthrough. Cloud computing is a much better and optimum solution to all previous problems.

Its major benefits have been categorized by professionals in three main classes;

1- Economic Benefits

Cloud computing presented a clean and simple solution for the consumers pocket. With cloud computing, the consumer was charged the amount of resources that he actually used in real time. It strictly followed the utility based consumer pricing and charging system. It followed the OPEX (operating expenses) approach as compared to the obsolete CAPEX (capital expenditure) approach. So the consumer was only charged for the resources that he used.

2- Design and architectural Benefits

Cloud computing has design and architectural simplicity edge over the older system too. Over all the structure was crystal clear, all the resources and service providers were pooled together. So the consumers can engage and bring about any combination of services and resources they require. Clean environment was unambiguous and provided a perfect platform for professional development of better products and services.

3- Strategic Benefits

Based on a multi tier strategy, the first prong of idea included “to pay less and get more utilities”. Second was to focus on the core issues of business rather than other connected matters. The consumer would not worry about arranging huge sums of money for an independent infrastructure, but he will focus exclusively on the core issues that need to be resolved immediately. Cloud computing provided exactly that with its advanced strategic elements, that promoted focus on the core business issues. These core issues were the decisive elements in the running business.

Cloud computing also provided another positive concept of “flexible resource capacity”. This idea is in contradiction from traditional form of distributed computing. With this idea it was possible to increase or decrease the resource capacity instantaneously, and at the end you only get to pay for the resources that you have actually used.

Cloud computing also introduced the idea of Management Automation. Cloud computing was based on a dynamic platform which was fundamentally different from the traditional computing. Traditional systems have all versions of software including almost all databases, application or tools. Contrary to that, cloud computing used a single kind of CPU in the beginning x86, single hypervisor (i.e. VMware, Xen), single OS (Linux), and single database (MySQL). So through an aggressive management automation procedure, the operating costs of the office were monitored carefully and expenses were successfully brought down significantly. This standardization is the key to success in this dynamic concept.

Cloud computing also introduced and enhanced the idea of mobility. With the cloud computing mobility became very easy to achieve. The employees of a corporation were able to travel great distances and still able to access their information.

Hard drives containing information were running somewhere else. The sharing network was running on some other server, the whole system was connected through WAN or Broadband. It was now possible to get information in any part of the world from a particular server. Storage restrictions were also removed with the cloud computing. Unlimited resources provided unlimited storage spaces to corporations for use. Idea of regular office system backup was also promoted and was a success too. Crashed systems and servers were revived from these data backups with just a click of the button.

Third party resource ownership idea was also successfully promoted by cloud computing. Technology evolved rapidly and manufacturers and service providers rolled out better versions of data storage facilities and servers. Purchasing and acquiring these were not feasible. Therefore the ownership was transferred to a third party for the use of these resources that specialized in their deployment. Why purchase the physical product when you get the ownership of right to use.

Cloud computing was developed around the idea that how to allocate human resources to better, more focused tasks that impact the business, contrary to managing the infrastructure. Cloud system has promoted the idea that Information Technology infrastructure is owned and maintained by a third party; however the company has the right to use these resources. In cloud computing the data backups, software updates, troubleshooting storage upgrades all became the primary responsibilities of the third party. Third party is always bounded by the Service Level Agreements. So in the end, the employees of the company only have to focus on the critical business decisions and issues that need attention the most.