cloud consulting

Introduction

In Internet-based computing, cloud storage is a trend that utilizes a shared computing system involving numerous computers that work on a specific network to accomplish a particular task on demand. 

Moreover, cloud storage is used to store end-users’ data within the cloud without using a local system; through network connectivity, this data can be accessed anywhere and client services can be provided. Cloud computing is one of today’s most exciting technologies because of its capacity to lessen costs associated with computing while increasing flexibility and scalability for computer processes. 

During the past few years, cloud computing has grown from being a promising business idea to one of the fastest-growing sectors of the IT industry. But on the other hand, IT organizations have expressed concerns about critical issues such as security that accompany the widespread implementation of cloud computing.

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Pros and Cons of Using Cloud

Pros 

There are a number of key advantages of utilizing cloud storage and uses that take the preferred standpoint of capacity in the cloud.

  • Simplicity of administration: The support of the programming, general infrastructure, and hardware used to buttress stockpiling is definitely improved by an application in the cloud. Applications that take the favorable cloud-based form are generally far less demanding to set up and maintain than a proportionate level of administration installed on the premises. Frequently, on the client’s side, all that is required to deal with your capacity execution is a straightforward web browser, leaving the complexities of management to the service provider.

 

  • Cost-effectiveness: Cloud storage is useful for mitigating ownership fees. Removing costly systems and the requirement for the client to maintain them normally gives organizations noteworthy cost reserves that more than counterbalance the charges for cloud storage. The fees associated with having the capacity to obtain elevated amounts of accessibility and the adaptability an organization requires are moreover unmatched in terms of savings. In essence, the economies of scale accomplished by server farms basically cannot be coordinated by anything except the largest of organizations.

 

  • Lower impact failures and upgrades: Cloud computing typically delivers cost-effective storage hardware redundancies. This results in uninterrupted service during a scheduled or unplanned breakdown. This also applies to hardware upgrades, which will no longer be visible to the client;

 

  • Simplified layout: Cloud storage solutions free up the capacity for the IT director of Detailed Planning. Flexible cloud-based storage solutions are provided as required, eliminating the need for more storage that can be required to accommodate them.

 

  • Center competency: By utilizing public clouds, the client is basically redistributing its centers of data and administration of infrastructure to organizations whose central competency is administrating infrastructure. Consequently, the client invests less time administrating infrastructure, freeing up additional time to concentrate on its own core competencies;

 

Cons 

  • Leaks and data access without permission between virtual devices operating on the same server;

 

  • Errors on the part of a cloud supplier in handling the correct management and saving of sensitive data;

 

  • Sometimes the cloud service may be unavailable for extended periods of time due to errors and system crashes; Of course, this also can occur when you own servers and your team has to fix it.

 

  • Hackers may break and enter into a client’s applications hosted on the cloud, and thus access and distribute sensitive data

 

  • Reliability issues.

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Top Reasons for Cloud Migration

 

Control and reduce costs

Virtualization in the cloud allows business owners to control costs on installation, hardware and devices, and frequent upgrades. It is also invaluable for small businesses to save money on frequent IT repairs. Without large IT budgets SMBs are often forced to rely on pay-to-fix (break-fix) repair services and patches that don’t resolve the real challenges.

Improve employee morale and collaboration

Smart business owners know the critical role that employee morale and interactions play in a company’s success. Implementing the cloud encourages users to get out of the office to network, to join meetings, and to work remotely. In the cloud, employees have secure access to all the resources, tools and systems necessary for their job without the risk of failure, loss or intrusion.

The cloud also helps attract the best talent for the company, regardless of geographic location. The same access, tools and communication features that benefit existing employees are equally important to bring the right talent onboard without exorbitant relocation costs or losing the talent completely.

Time and ease of migration

An IT analyst can get a company situated in the cloud with almost no downtime. This is because most of the work is done online, and large scale overhaul isn’t necessary to migrate. From the time a company decides to migrate to the cloud to the moment they go live, the switch can take as little as four weeks. As a company grows, scalability of the cloud service becomes a strategic advantage as you configure your cloud setup to meet ever-changing demands, priorities, and resources.

 

Best Cloud Service Companies

Amazon Web Services is a market leader in cloud services. As one of the first providers to not only spearhead cloud computing itself but also really transform it into much more than just virtual machines and data storage. They have also developed the concept of serverless models. AWS is clearly ahead of its competitors in this category. AWS Lambda, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon S3, and Amazon Redshift are just a few of the core products AWS offers.

Azure is also one of the relevant and leading Providers that enables a serverless operating concept through its Azure Functions Platform service. Alongside a number of other services such as CosmosDB, Azure has created a serverless portfolio that provides companies and developers with a particularly agile and cost-transparent architecture. 

Google, which had early offers in which infrastructure management took a back seat, is also positioned as an Accelerator and market leader. The BETA version of its Cloud Functions offering provides a true serverless feature for development and operation of, for example, mobile backends, APIs and microservices.

Alibaba also offers a platform for event-based execution of functions in a serverless model under the name Function Compute, but so far it is only available in China. As is the case with many of its competitors, the offer is complemented with less management intensive databases and Object Stores. 

Still missing for Alibaba in what was previously a niche market, is the presence and strength to position itself more positively. Databricks and PubNub. are two other Providers in this environment. These are essentially very focused Vendors and niche players who still have little traction in the market. 

Databricks has a strong analytics focus and provides its services according to the serverless model. PubNub sees itself more as an integrative element for connecting various APIs, and relies heavily on collaboration with partners to simplify these connections. As the name suggests, Serverless also offers a platform on which developers and companies can build an open-platform infrastructure with the eponymous Serverless Framework. The platform itself is still in the BETA stage, yet some large companies, especially in the US, are already using its services.

The IBM BlueMix platform also includes a serverless service called OpenWhisk (based on Apache Open Source OpenWhisk), which can be integrated with Platform Services such as Cloudant and Alchemy, or even with Watson. So far there are still no public references with German customers available but nonetheless, OpenWhisk is an important and strategic addition to the BlueMix PaaS offering. 

Red Hat’s serverless offer, that the open source Vendor uses for its OpenShift platform, is also based on Apache OpenWhisk. This ensures Red Hat can keep up with the other Providers from a technological perspective. However, fewer standard services and the low status of their own OpenShift online platform mean they fall behind IBM in a direct comparison. 

Oracles Functions allows individual applications to be made available on Oracle’s PaaS infrastructure according to a serverless model. The offer is an option for many companies and decision makers, but is still largely under the radar and has few proof points in production usage.

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