Cloud computing is one of the most popular technological innovations for enabling organizations to operate in a more efficient and cost effective manner. This is attributed to cloud’s ability to centralize data and IT resources, leading to better control and reliability of IT functions. When any organization adopts cloud, it significantly reduces the workload on its IT team, which can be utilized for implementing other key IT functions. In addition, Cloud provides unmatched flexibility and resource sociability to meet needs of any growing organization.
This article takes a look at various ways in which the cloud can empower an organization’s IT functions and how they can avail services of Technology consulting companies to assess and implement cloud to best suit their business requirements.
Cloud’s role in supporting organization’s IT functions
Flexibility
The cloud provides IT resources, such as network servers, that are highly flexible, allowing for greater accessibility and availability to meet fluctuating demands. This is because cloud infrastructure is provided as a third party service and as long as there is reliable internet access, organizational data can be accessed from any geographical location whenever needed. In addition, this data can be accessed across multiple devices ranging from desktop computers to mobile devices.
Scalability
When it comes to software scalability, cloud computing gives an organization the ability to react promptly to sudden demand surges. Whenever an organization needs an unusually high amount of bandwidth, cloud computing can efficiently meet the desired bandwidth capacity. This is because there is a very large capacity of remote infrastructure on the cloud. For example, an organization can demand an increase in the number of servers to help process spikes of hefty workloads and later dismiss these servers once workloads decrease and they are no longer needed.
Cloud computing applications are built to accommodate millions of simultaneous in-house users. Given this, at full scale capacity (which is typically marked as roughly 80%), cloud computing systems have the ability to sufficiently handle an immense number of end users without crashing. This frees and organization from needing to acquire any extra cloud related infrastructure to meet an increasing user base.
Reduced Hardware Infrastructure Cost
The migration of an organization’s operations to the cloud can appear to be an expensive undertaking at the offset. However, the total cost for overall migration is considerably less compared to constructing and maintaining an organization’s computer network infrastructure from the ground up. Additionally, as a business establishment, you have the ability to tone down on the capital investment expenditures as the assets of the IT department (i.e. infrastructure and software) are converted into the utility costs and they are paid for only when used. This significantly contributes to overall reduced costs.
Reduced Support and Maintenance Needs
Cloud computing makes use of significantly lower amounts of physical resources since it uses more software than hardware. Given this, an organization’s regular hardware maintenance is greatly reduced. Reducing support and maintenance needs is fundamental key reason why deployment of cloud services in an organization empowers the overall functionality of the IT department. The task of maintenance now becomes the responsibility of the cloud service provider.
The deployment of cloud computing in an organization also leads to a positive effect on ROI. This is because cloud services have a constructive influence on the basic driving forces of any business, such as technological innovation, improved service delivery and overall business efficiency. A business will also experience increased productivity. The IT crew will have more time to handle tasks that are more critical to the business, such as focusing on improving technology efficiency for core business operations.
How to Get Started
To achieve the greatest returns from cloud investment, many organizations turn to external technology consulting companies to help them properly identify their cloud needs. The technology consulting firm may also aid in providing advice on the best deployment models that will suit the company for maximum efficiency and optimized operation. It is important to create a cloud strategy and use the strategy to guide your cloud deployment and future cloud operations and policies.
Cloud deployment not only increases the overall IT efficiency of an organization, but also simplifies core IT functions. The cloud also facilitates sharing of information and enhances a better relationship and collaboration with business partners as well as customers. Given this and other advantages of adopting to cloud, organizations should evaluate and make cloud a key component of its IT strategy.
