Top Ten Benefits of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing refers to the on-demand availability of computing resources that, in turn, help store, manage, and access data over the network. The anywhere, anytime availability of these resources is the cloud’s USP. Primarily, there are three cloud service models, i.e., SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service).

The three cloud deployment models include the public, private, and hybrid cloud. Businesses of all sizes are implementing a multi-cloud strategy, i.e., implementing multiple cloud service models like SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS. On the other hand, it also refers to choosing multiple cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

The pace of cloud adoption has increased since the onset of COVID-19 and the widespread remote work adoption. According to Gartner, the global cloud revenue will reach $474 billion in 2022.

Cloud is the transformation that every business needs to maintain a competitive edge. This write-up discusses some of the significant cloud computing benefits for your business.

Top 10 Benefits of Cloud Computing

The significant benefits of cloud computing include:

1. Cost Savings

Cloud services are charged on a pay-as-you-go basis, which implies that you only pay for services in use. This is true for all cloud-based components, such as storage space and computing power.

The TCO (Total cost of ownership) of owning a cloud environment is way lower than deploying hardware and facilities to manage operations. Even businesses owning legacy infrastructure have moved to the cloud. Because it reduces the cost to manage the physical data centers and the IT staff to manage the infrastructure.

Another benefit is that the cloud reduces downtime and data recovery cost. Because everything is on the cloud, the provider will ensure low downtime rates and that recovery strategy is in place without you having to pay extra.

2. Speed

Cloud enables on-demand delivery of computing resources. With scaling operations, you need access to extra resources, and cloud service providers ensure you get that access within minutes. Simply put, the capacity planning which would have taken months to execute can happen only within minutes when you choose a reliable cloud service provider.

3. Improved Focus on Core Business Operations

The IT department can manage and look after the core business operations with cloud services. The IT department will not have to look into the computer or data storage issues as the cloud provider will automatically manage that for you.

Businesses can strategize better and improve their bottom line to focus better on core business operations.

4. Reliability

With COVID-19 affecting businesses globally, the need for a business continuity plan has come to the forefront. Cloud computing services help a business weather a crisis by managing data recovery through maintaining data backups.

Cloud service providers help duplicate data across data centers, which, in turn, reduces data loss risk.

5. Better Collaboration

With any time and anywhere access comes improved collaboration. With employees spread across locations, cloud access makes it easy to collaborate. In other words, the cloud eliminates the silos between teams spread across departments and organizations.

For instance, you have a sales team in the EMEA, and they want to collaborate with the APAC sales team. They can easily share strategies and brainstorm together from their remote location.

6. Competitive Edge

Traditional organizations that still rely on legacy infrastructures are likely to lose to competitors adopting the cloud. One of the significant advantages of the cloud is that it enables faster time to market when introducing newer technologies.

Whether developing scalable applications on PaaS, gaining access to infrastructure needs using IaaS, or launching new SaaS applications — cloud services play a dominant role.

7. Sustainability

Cloud services have made everything available virtually. This exponentially improves businesses’ carbon footprint. There is no need to maintain a stack of hardware equipment and contribute to paper pileups.

Moreover, organizations adopting the remote-first approach do not have to commute to their workplace. This greatly reduces carbon emissions and electricity consumption and helps organizations realize their sustainability goals.

8. Automatic Updates

Cloud automatically updates applications without any manual interruptions. The cloud service providers help deploy changes to the live environment that automatically reflect the end-user application.

This reduces the IT department’s time upgrading systems and the subsequent time to fix errors. Cloud also improves the development speed by enabling automation in the software development process. For instance, DevOps enables the implementation of CI/CD pipelines that help automate integration, delivery, and deployment of software changes.

9. Lead Digital Disruptions

Cloud is the driving force behind most of the latest digital disruption today. The newer cloud models such as hybrid, multi-cloud, and edge environments gradually increase the pace. Also, the cloud is the pillar behind the Metaverse concept, popularized by Facebook.

Businesses are already adopting cloud on a scale. According to Gartner, public cloud spending is likely to exceed 45% wrt all IT spending. This makes cloud computing an underpinning technology that will contribute to technology advancements now and in the future.

10. Security Benefits

Cloud technology provides organizations with numerous security benefits. All the leading cloud service providers follow robust security protocols and monitor their environments closely. The essential pillars of cloud security include:

• Visibility and control
• Compliance controls
• Compute-based security
• Network operations
• Identity security

Cloud service providers automate security tasks and all the four mentioned areas to prevent data loss and downtimes.

Conclusion

Cloud computing is leading the world towards a digital-first era. Cloud was introduced as a metaphor for the internet, but today it defines strategies that lead to a businesses’ success.

In this write-up, we talked about the top 10 benefits of cloud computing. Those included cost savings, speed, reliability, sustainability, digital disruption catalyst, enhanced security, increased focus on core operations, collaboration, competitive edge, and automatic updates.

For any business to benefit from the cloud, the first step starts with strategizing around a cloud strategy that suits your requirements. When your needs align with the opted cloud services, the mentioned benefits automatically appear.