Cloud computing is a phrase that various organizations and businesses have employed. It relates to uploading and managing data on the cloud online for real-time processing to develop computing results without storing the information on the cloud.
Businesses do not hesitate to share resources from the cloud to users, depending on demand. The nature of cloud services used by organizations varies based on private, public and hybrid clouds. This influences the computing power used by these organizations. It is duly noted that the way businesses grow also depends on the types of cloud services they employ.
So, how do businesses sustain their growth individually, even with marketing the appropriate hosted services?
This might seem difficult, especially in a large organization with lots of data to record and manage. However, the advancement of web 3.0 has changed the way businesses’ data are recorded and has also affected the interaction of companies and customers in society.
Generally, cloud computing gives businesses the advantage of providing multiple users access to a single server and performing their activities without involving different applications or databases. This means that users can get virtual entry to the cloud anywhere and anytime, even outside their computer or computing server.
For instance, when the amount of data that needs to be managed tends to be more than your computer’s capacity, cloud computing gives your business the leverage of using cloud services to ensure you only buy access to a certain data capacity that you need for your resources.
Similarly, cloud computing has provided different models for businesses to manage and share their data or resources according to their preferences. When businesses decide to use private, public, hybrid or community cloud services, it is appropriate that they use the one that is in alignment with the services they want to deliver. This is because each cloud service provides different functions.
The public cloud service is one of the most used cloud computing services. They are sometimes free but usually paid for at a flexible price through various schemes, granting access to users via the internet. The services it provides are run by an external service provider that uses a quality computing model and ensures that there are limited wasted resources.
Public cloud service providers, such as Google, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services and so on, deliver a measured service by offering services and infrastructure that allow users to manage the cloud applications.
In contrast, private cloud services are used mainly by single organizations to avoid sharing their resources with others. Many businesses also opt-in for a private cloud service because it has a secure network and is very efficient. Therefore, it is advisable for organizations dealing with sensitive data or workloads to use a private cloud service.
A hybrid cloud service is a combination of both public and private cloud services. This means that organizations can use either public or private cloud services based on their workload requirements.
For instance, organizations can decide to use a public cloud service for insensitive data while using a private one for sensitive data, especially if it is channeled to a single vendor.
The use of hybrid cloud services gives businesses the leverage of strategically optimizing every investment with low cost, alongside providing the security each cloud computation requires.
Undoubtedly, cloud computing provides an array of benefits that one could employ for their businesses while using the various cloud services, so it is quite surprising that some businesses still fail to mitigate the risk during the computation process of cloud infrastructure.
Based on research, it has been discovered that businesses have to address certain cloud computing problems if they want to sustain their business growth:
- Security: This is a major concern in cloud computing. The problem occurs when a security breach arises during the uploading and computation of data or workload into the cloud. This causes you to be unable to see exactly where your data or workload is kept or being computed, leading to another problem when managing the cloud. It is a huge setback for business growth when its cloud security system interface is hacked. To alleviate these problems, businesses should put in place optimum security measures, including knowing the privacy pattern-read-only access and protocol involved in making the cloud infrastructure secure.
- Unavailability of experts: What use is a mountain workload without an expert to manage it? Organizations that do not have enough expertise to work within the migration and implementation of the cloud interface would have continuous management issues as time passes. This is because the advancement of technology is unending, likewise the workload of business cloud infrastructure. Therefore, to curb this issue, organizations need to hire cloud experts knowledgeable of the computing field and are willing to diligently optimize, manage and improve cloud-based applications with reduced issues and maximum dependability.
- Implementation of multiple cloud interfaces: Some companies implement different cloud systems, which leads them to acquire the hybrid cloud service. This can lead to issues like being unaware of where certain data resides and even using an unapproved environment to run a cloud application. Though multi-cloud serves as a storage backup to avoid starting all over and risking data loss, it exposes the cloud to serious compliance and redundancy issues and might bring low ROI.
- Network reliance: Businesses that work with the cloud often deal with large amounts of data that is more effectively transferred through a high network level from one server to another. In a scenario where there is low delivery of a network, significant data or resources losses may occur. Therefore, businesses should ensure that their network bandwidth is high and sufficient for the computation and transfer process to avoid such a situation.
Conclusion
For successful businesses to sustain their growth, they must understand and tackle the above problems. This is especially the case for small businesses, as they are more prone to being exposed to such problems.
To achieve one’s business goals, the opportunity of the cloud should be utilized in terms of its storage, backup, security, mobility, cost factor, stability and reliability.