Cloud Computing (What is it, Why its good)

With the emergence of Cloud Computing many companies are missing the true benefits of Cloud Computing and what Cloud Computing can offer companies of all sizes.  In order to realize what Cloud Computing is and what it can do for your company, you need to understand its characteristics and the benefits Cloud Computing offers.

Cloud Computing, what is it?  In a more technical term, Cloud Computing is a specialized form of distributed computing that provides utilization models for remotely provisioning scalable and measured IT resources.  WHAT?

Exactly!  Cloud Computing is essentially the ability for companies to have access to IT Resources, i.e. virtual servers, storage, network devices, etc, as needed, when needed, be able to expand or decrease those IT resources as needed, while only paying for the IT resources used.

To further explain, we will review some of the basic characteristic of Cloud Computing which demonstrate the benefits your company gains by leveraging Cloud Computing.

Cloud Computing emerged from business drivers and advancements in technology.  Business drivers were driven by costs associated with the need to reduce money spent on capacity planning, operating overhead, and need for business agility.  Virtualization led the way for technology advancements, along with the ability to pool, or group together IT resources, to provide more stable and reliable IT environments.

The first characteristic we will look at is On-Demand.  On-Demand, in Cloud Computing, means setting up IT resources, (i.e. virtual servers, storage devices, network devices, etc.) in such a way the systems can scale as needed, based on the demand required.  

A simple example:   Lets say Beacon Cloud Solutions has setup and configured a Web-Server to host your Company’s website.  Currently you average about 1000 visits a day but because of a recent promotion, you expect visits to jump to about 1,000,000 for the next two months.

Prior to the Cloud you would need to buy additional servers to handle the increase in visits.  So now you have more servers.  That requires hardware purchases, software purchases, labor to configure the new servers, maintenance for the new servers, and it all run on electricity all day everyday, right?  Plus, once the promotion is over, you now have idle servers!!

With the Cloud characteristic of On-Demand, you configure a single virtual server that scales.    You know that during normal business hours websites visits will increase and during off hours visits will decrease.  This means, a single virtual server is running your website, as visits increase, additional virtual server turns on and so on. Supporting your website's performance and reliability.  As visits decrease the virtual servers turn off back down to the original virtual server.  The Cloud has been configured to detect the increases and decreases in site visits and only runs the necessary IT resources to support your website.  Why pay for something you don’t need, right? 
 
The benefits gained are reliability, performance,  and reduced costs!  Your website is always up and able to handle any increase in site visits.  Reduced cost, because you only pay for when the systems are turned on and running.  There is no more need to pay for new hardware equipment or software licenses, you just pay for the setup and for the time it was used.  Truly a cost saver!


Stay tuned for additional benefits regarding Cloud Computing and if you or you company has any questions, contact Beacon Cloud Solutions, Inc. at info@beaconcloudsolutions.com