Despite plenty of obvious benefits of cloud computing, we see that there are countless myths and misconceptions surrounding the cloud platform. Sometimes, it becomes difficult to understand why cloud remains a ubiquitous phenomenon to date, even though it is extensively used by smartphone apps, tech firms, top business organizations, research outfits, gaming labs, SMBs/SMEs, and even search engine giants.
Origin of Cloud
Of course, I’ve covered dozens of posts about benefits of cloud computing, but perhaps I never delved deeper into its roots, especially how the term “cloud” was actually coined. Well, there is no unanimous option about origin of the term ‘cloud’.
Big guns like Google, Amazon, and IBM are often considered to be the pioneers and inventors of cloud computing, but the term “cloud” is perceived to be brainchild of Sean O’Sullivan, and George Favalaro.
Sullivan had actually filed a trademark for the concept in the year 1997, while Favalaro had mentioned the term “cloud” in a Compaq business plan during the preceding year. As none of them are actually sure who coined it first, let’s leave the discussion at this point, and move on to its real benefits to users, and businesses.
So, here are three very obvious business benefits of cloud computing that should mostly clear the air.
Low Cost is not the Only Benefit: One of the biggest misconceptions is that low cost is only value proposition when it comes to cloud computing. This myth is directly connected to yet another myth that cloud is only used for hosting purposes. The fact of the matter is that cloud is actually about astute accessibility of available resources, risk mitigation and smart scalability of different operations. Definitely it is very cost effective, but more importantly it is driven towards making a business more flexible, inventive and agile. This in turn almost assures improved and increased business engineering along with dramatic innovations related to market.
With cloud by your side, you can easily switch in between lull periods and peak loads. In a time when there is cut-throat competition, it is very obvious that one should go with a seasoned player instead of a novice.
Sound and Reliable Integration: Despite having so many benefits, cloud doesn’t negate the fact that in-house IT department of any enterprise is extremely critical. It makes the responsibilities of any CIO or CTO more strategic and less operational; he/she must obviously come up with a feasible cloud migration strategy and should not impulsively go into mindless adoption and for the same the person in charge must devote sufficient energy and time. This is exactly where smart configuration right before the cloud phase comes into the picture and helps make most of the cloud needed and it must also be duly backed up by a very smart plan for cloud monitoring and it also must have commensurate visibility throughout the organization.
Choice of Cloud Computing Options for All Kinds of Businesses: Cloud can be public, private or a mixed bag could be a virtual private cloud that deploys public cloud wherewithal for running the private cloud.
The chief idea behind cloud and its success is resource sharing, and by virtue of its ubiquitous nature, cloud enables all sectors ranging from retail space, defence, research establishments, down to small to mid-size businesses to reap benefits of high-performance computing through a shared IT platform, which can otherwise be extremely expensive for the small organizations.
Any business can now easily define its IT requirements and make use of cloud platform to pay for only its exact utility, just the way people pay for Internet, electricity or telephone usage.