In this decade the way computing and storage work has drastically changed. This change has revolutionized the entire Information Technology business. Those times have passed when you needed your laptop or computer to access the information. Now, that cloud computing has become a popular way of storing the data, it is extremely easy to get access to all the data in any part of the world as long as you have the internet.
In this article, we are going to learn about some of the benefits of cloud computing and a few limitations that would give you more insights. Before we jump into the benefits, let’s understand the definition of cloud computing and what it means in layman’s world.
“Cloud computing is the mechanism to get access to readily available data from any computer system using the internet”.
In other words, you can read, write, modify or delete your data without sitting at the physical location of the computer. This can be directly performed using technology protocols with an internet connection. The word ‘cloud’ simply means a server on the internet which can be directly accessed or used to access information on a cloud-connected computer.
Benefits of Cloud Computing
Anytime anywhere access-
The best example of this would be your emails, google spreadsheets or better yet your cloud hosted phone system. As the data sits on servers which are always running and can be accessed using an internet connection, it allows users to access the data anytime from any part of the world.
Economical-
Typically, it is not economical for an individual to host their own cloud servers because of less use and high maintenance. However, if your data is hosted on third-party servers that provide your SaaS (Storage as a service).. It will be a lot cheaper and cost-effective. It is not effective for end-users but also the cloud hosting businesses.
Disaster recovery-
This is one of the most important benefits of cloud computing. Think of a situation if your laptop has drowned in water or was burnt in a fire. All your data will be vanished and almost impossible to recover. Some of the coastal regions in the USA are prone to cyclones and tornadoes at least once a year. Disaster recovery servers allow users to access their data even if physical servers are destroyed due to any natural disaster or catastrophic failure as it will always have a backup server which may be sitting at a different location.
Secure-
Security doesn’t always mean privacy but also refers to damage protection. Cloud computing being operational directly from servers, it has multiple layers of security and encryption protocols that make it a private and full proof system. Other benefits of cloud computing include spam and virus protection using different software on the server.
Sharing information-
One of the greatest benefits of cloud computing is that you can share the data or information with anyone in any part of the world. That too with full security. Some of the examples of sharing info on the cloud that you already know are google drives, box, git, etc.
Scalability-
When it comes to changing motherboards, processors, RAM or SSDs in your laptop or computer, you have to purchase the resources based on what you already have. For example, if your laptop supports DDR3 RAM and not DDR4, you cannot upgrade it. However, in the case of cloud computing, it allows you to scale all the resources easily in comparison to traditional computers.
Flexible storage-
As cloud computing refers to big servers that can store terabytes of data on a single unit. It is very flexible to increase or decrease storage volume based on user needs. It allows the end-users to add more space or reduce space if in abundance.
Redundancy-
It may sound like a technical term but it simply means that if one server goes down due to any unforeseen circumstances, there are other servers connected within the network which will provide you the data. This method allows the user to access the data without any problem even if the resources fails as it automatically switches the thread from non-operational data request to operational data request.
Less maintenance-
There is multiple software that works on top of this expensive hardware. Therefore, it reduces the maintenance cost because the system will automatically update itself to the latest version of security or antivirus. Plus, when the hardware is brought to host data on the cloud in the first place, the server hosting companies make sure that it comes with the latest tech that can be easily scalable and requires less maintenance.
In the end, we can say that the benefits of cloud computing have revolutionized the entire IT industry. The cloud-based solutions in today’s world are very crucial in our daily lives. Cloud computing is the only way to expand businesses as it allows caring and sharing the data at the same time.
Stephanie
Stephanie is the Marketing Director at Talkroute and has been featured in Forbes, Inc, and Entrepreneur as a leading authority on business and telecommunications.
Stephanie is also the chief editor and contributing author for the Talkroute blog helping more than 100k entrepreneurs to start, run, and grow their businesses.