7 signs you need to move to the Cloud
March 17 , 2011I decided to compile this list of 10 signs you need to move to the Cloud after searching online for a good checklist and not finding any good ones. I believe that these things are the best indicators that your company should be considering a cloud infrastructure.
1. Your server workloads vary wildly over time, and you need to provision additional resources to accommodate peak workloads that go largely unused the majority of time.
This is a classic sign and the most noticeable benefit of cloud servers. Since they are naturally elastic and can be adjusted quickly and even automatically, cloud servers allow companies to avoid investing in infrastructure dimensioned to handle peak loads.
2. There are bottlenecks in application development because of the lead time necessary to prepare development, testing and staging environments.
Cloud server provisioning is extremely quick compared to physical server setup. Additionally, the ready availability of server images makes setting up most environments a matter of selecting an option from a menu and clicking on a button.
3. Your company will have to invest in additional data center resources to expand.
Avoiding capital expenditures is a sound idea in most cases. Buying servers, racks, network equipment and related assets puts a strain on the company’s finances which isn’t easily reversible. On the other hand, cloud computing services are operating expenses and can therefore be interrupted at any time.
4. Your business can’t afford to have any downtime for server upgrades
In businesses such as e-commerce and SaaS applications, downtime translates directly into losses. When a regular server needs to be upgraded, it has to be taken offline and physically shut down for maintenance. This causes varying but inevitably significant amounts of downtime. In the Cloud, servers can be removed individually from the Cloud for maintenance without the customers feeling their absence. In parallel, Cloud Servers can be upgraded and downgraded via software whenever needed, usually with a simple server restart as the only associated downtime.
5. IT staff costs need to be reduced
Maintaining all the necessary IT skills to manage an internal server farm can be taxing on a company. By using servers in a public cloud, companies draw upon the economies of scale that cloud providers have and can significantly reduce the need for infrastructure and operations personnel.
6. Your application ecosystem is becoming too complex to handle
As companies grow, so does the complexity and quantity of systems they maintain in-house. Having applications such as e-mail and CRM systems inside the company structure may make sense when looked at individually, but each added business app adds a layer of necessary administration and may require different expertise to setup and run. By using pre-made server images available from cloud vendors, companies can host these applications in a much more robust environment without the effort of setting up or maintaining them.
7. Your workforce is becoming more mobile and they need access to your business applications and data.
The explosion of mobile platform availability, traffic in major cities and the need to reduce office costs have been driving the adoption of home office solutions and empowering the sales force. To enable this, applications need to be accessible from anywhere with an internet connection, and user data has to be synchronized at all times. Cloud computing is what allows this remote access.
Tags: Cloud Computing, signs, strategy, top 10