If the cloud hadn’t proved itself before COVID19 then nobody’s going to doubt it now. It might not be the answer to everything in IT. It is, however, a robust and reliable solution to many of the issues businesses face both now and going forward. Here are some key points to note:
The cloud scales to any size.
Freelancers and micropreneurs love the cloud as much as global corporations. The cloud allows young businesses to go from seed to sprout to seedling at their own pace and with minimum capital outlay. It allows mature businesses to build flexibility into their operations. For example, the cloud makes it easier to support remote/hybrid working.
COVID19 clearly demonstrated that the ability to support dispersed working doesn’t just allow for much-appreciated employee perks. It also provides businesses with a means to keep operating without access to their usual base (if they have one). On a more optimistic note, it makes it easier to hire on talent rather than location.
You can still have your own IT team.
For many smaller companies, one of the major selling points of the cloud is that you don’t need your own IT team. As companies get bigger, however, one of the major selling points of the cloud is that you can deploy your own IT team. This basically means that you can have the benefits of customized solutions in an economical and flexible way.
In fact, a lot of companies find that the cloud plus managed IT services is the perfect match for IT that just works. You do still have to put the effort into finding the right cloud vendor and the right IT services in Orange County. That, however, is more about exercising management skills than about having great technology skills.
The cloud offers massive responsiveness.
The cloud doesn’t just scale, it scales quickly. In fact, if you’re using a public cloud, you can scale it literally at the press of a button. That goes for up and down. Alternatively, you can opt for committed contracts to benefit from cost savings.
Many companies are likely to use a mixture of both. You can use a committed contract for your core needs and add on services as your needs, wants and budget allow. Whatever your size (or business model), if you can predict your core needs, you can almost certainly find a committed contract to fit them.
You only pay for what you use.
This is one aspect of the cloud which might come more naturally to younger businesses than to enterprises used to traditional IT infrastructure. Once you get the hang of it, however, the possibilities become very exciting.
For example, with traditional infrastructure, your use of storage is often determined by a lot of factors. Speed of access is just one of them. Others might include up-front costs, availability of replacements, and general robustness.
In the cloud, however, you just work out how quickly you need access to your data. You then buy an appropriate amount of storage at each speed. There is no need for upfront capital spending and there is never any waste.