Cloud computing is being embraced by many organizations and individuals, as it makes the running of IT projects/tasks easy. While it seems to be a term that appears in a lot of articles, journals, it is not just a buzzword. Cloud computing yields positive results for those who use it, and you’ll see in this article, the advantages of embracing it.
Before diving into the advantages of going to the cloud, how about a brief look at the traditional method of computing? Understanding why cloud computing is different, makes it easier to comprehend why it comes with so many benefits.
Traditional and Cloud Computing
The traditional method of computing involves the use of physical computers to store data and perform tasks. For example, there is a physical server in a room with hard disks in it to store and retrieve data. With this setup, it’s costly to access computing resources. Initial setup costs to have a working computing infrastructure are usually on the high side. After setting up, it doesn’t matter if a user is utilizing the server properly or not, money has been spent. Data on the servers can also not be accessed at long distances from the server.
With cloud computing, things are a bit different. A service provider is setting up the infrastructure, so you do not have to pay for the initial costs. You are only paying for the computing power you require from their servers. You can also access data on the servers from anywhere in the world, provided there is internet access.
Advantages of Going to the Cloud
After knowing the basics behind cloud computing, it is easier to understand why it comes with so many benefits like:
- Helps Save Costs
- Makes it Easier to Collaborate
- Improves IT Security
- Gives Room to Scale
Helps Save Costs
Saving costs is one of the major advantages of cloud computing. The user doesn’t need physical servers, and this ensures that computing infrastructure doesn’t have to be purchased such that it becomes underutilized. Services are available at a Pay-as-You-Go pricing system, so you get computing services and pay only for what you use.
Makes it Easier to Collaborate
When hosting data in the cloud, it can be accessed from anywhere in the world and by an unlimited amount of people, provided they have access rights. This makes it easy for many people to work on projects and collaborate without having to be at the same location. Cloud computing ensures that physical presence is not required to use the servers.
Improves IT Security
All computing systems are vulnerable. The ones that look secure, have vulnerabilities that haven’t been found yet. The best way to make computing systems secure, is to keep looking for vulnerabilities, and installing patches to eliminate them. Cloud service providers are dedicated to keeping their systems secure at all times, because vulnerabilities will severely hurt their business. Hence, users do not have to worry about security as the service providers will do it effectively.
Gives Room to Scale
The needs of computing infrastructure changes with time. There will be times of high and low traffic caused by different factors. By going to the cloud, it is easy to purchase more servers to scale up when required, and scale down thereafter. Doing this for physical computing infrastructure is difficult and uneconomical as it will be grossly underutilized.
RPA in The Cloud
The cloud makes it possible to access computing infrastructure from anywhere in the world. But this means users have to be involved in every activity. While cloud provides many advantages, automation will bring about greater benefits. By automating tasks, users can spend time on more complicated activities and still get the desired results from repetitive tasks.
RPA known as Robotic Process Automation is a means of automating operations using the same model as robots, except that there are no physical robots involved. RPA in the cloud involves the use of software that can perform routine tasks.
The software is created to work like robots and automates tasks that do not require human intervention. You can use RPA to automate IT operations tasks like log monitoring, human relations tasks like the onboarding of new employees and accounting tasks like the compilation of financial reports; all from the cloud.
Summary
Cloud computing is not another tech bubble that will burst, it is here to stay. Many organizations and individuals who recognize this are moving their IT infrastructure to the cloud. Almost everything will be hosted on the cloud, web applications, media files, private documents, etc. The cloud comes with so many advantages, such that it is not very beneficial to have physical servers, except in rare and unique cases.
