7 BENEFITS OF CLOUD-BASED SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

 Cloud computing is one of the main trends in the technology industry today. According to Gartner, the value of the global public cloud computing market will reach $ 331.2 billion by 2022.

Why are cloud-based solutions so popular? Should you start thinking about embracing the cloud for your business?

Read this article to find out everything you need to know about cloud computing, and understand why so many organizations around the world are choosing to host their applications in the cloud rather than opting for on-premises server infrastructure.

Cloud-based solutions allow businesses to access data from any location and from any device, but that's not the only reason for the growing popularity of cloud computing.

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing is the on-demand provision of computing resources over the Internet, typically on a pay-per-use basis. Instead of building, owning, and managing data centers and physical servers, businesses can access technology services like storage, databases, or computing power as needed from cloud providers.

Businesses of all sizes, types and industries are now using the cloud for many different use cases, such as:

email hosting,

data backups,

disaster recovery,

software development,

big data analysis,

create web applications for customers.

For example, financial services companies use cloud services to power applications that provide real-time fraud detection and prevention. Video game makers are using the cloud to bring online games to millions of gamers around the world.

What are the main reasons for the widespread adoption of the cloud?

According to SysGroup research, the main motivation for organizations to adopt cloud solutions is the ability to provide access to data from anywhere and from any device. Saving money is also a good incentive, but it's rather the current work culture that drives organizations to invest in the cloud.

Today we live in an age of workers bringing your own device (BYOD) and flexible work schedules. The ability to work outside of the office is what makes companies more innovative and more attractive as places to work. This is why access to data and applications anytime, anywhere is the primary driver of cloud adoption.

The other main drivers are: high disaster recovery capabilities, flexibility, and the relief of IT staff from many of the tasks required to maintain an on-premises infrastructure.

There are three basic cloud models (public, private, and hybrid) and three basic types of cloud services (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS). You can choose between managed and unmanaged cloud hosting services.

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Cloud computing models

Public cloud - in this model, services are delivered over the Internet.

Private cloud - in this model, the cloud infrastructure is designed for internal use by a single organization.

Hybrid Cloud - In this model, the company uses a mix of public and private cloud platforms to host applications and workloads.

The only difference between these three models is the ownership structure. In other words, the fundamentals remain the same: what changes is the owner of a given cloud infrastructure.

Types of cloud services

There are three basic types of cloud services:

·         Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

·         Platform as a Service (PaaS)

·         Software as a Service (SaaS)

·         Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

This type includes the main building blocks of cloud computing, providing access to network functionality, data storage states, and computers located on dedicated or virtual hardware. It provides a high level of management control and flexibility over the right resources and is very similar to existing IT resources that many departments are familiar with.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

This model works best for managing the underlying infrastructure, such as hardware or operating systems. This way, teams can focus on managing and deploying your applications. It does There is no reason to worry about resource provisioning, software maintenance, patches, capacity planning, or any other task essential to hosting an application. You can become more efficient and concentrate on your main mission.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

This type of cloud service provides a complete product that is managed and executed by the service provider. Most of the time, SaaS is an end user application (like a web-based email inbox, for example). With this product, you don't have to worry about how the service is maintained or how the underlying infrastructure is managed. The only thing you need to think about is how you are going to use this software to grow your business.

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Cloud hosting services - managed or unmanaged

When it comes to cloud hosting services, we can divide them into two categories:

managed,

not managed.

Managed Services provide technical expertise with the infrastructure, so you don't have to provide it yourself. Cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, or Microsoft Azure offer different levels of technical support.

Unmanaged services require technical expertise because, as the purchaser of the service, you will be responsible for its implementation and maintenance.

There are at least seven advantages to opting for cloud-based software development.

Benefits of cloud computing for software development

1. Scalability

There is no denying that applications hosted in the cloud can scale to an unprecedented degree compared to traditional server hosting.

In the traditional model, you first need to determine what hardware your system will run on, from application servers to database servers. When you host highly available applications, you will also need load balancing, database clustering, and other services. Ensuring all of this takes a lot of planning and comes with a significant risk: locking your team into your general setup for several years, depending on your setup costs.

When choosing a cloud-based infrastructure, it is now possible to scale any part of your application quickly and easily.

For example, an application server can be easily scaled by increasing hardware power or adding more servers. With proper configuration, you can be sure that more servers are dynamically added to your configuration based on our metrics, such as CPU or memory.

Cloud databases can also be scaled to increase the power of your servers. You can create a flexible database service that can share its processing power with any number of other databases. This way, your database can scale up when it needs to within the limits of your elastic pool.

2. Profitability

Another key benefit of using cloud services is the cost savings you can achieve, as well as the ability to start your project small and increase your usage as needed. For example, the cloud requires no initial investment, unlike on-premises infrastructure or remote data centers, which require a large initial investment.

Most cloud services work as paid services, which means you're only charged for the resources you actually use. Thanks to features like autoscaling, you will only be charged for the additional service while it is running, and no cost will be added if you decide to scale down your operations. Also, many services are billed per transaction, so if you don't use them before a certain level, they can be completely free.

3. Disaster recovery and redundancy

Cloud services provide a higher level of redundancy, which plays a critical role in disaster recovery. Without the cloud, businesses that want excellent disaster recovery must provision a separate data center that requires additional investment. But that's not all. They should also configure the tools to replicate data or provide the backups needed to restore systems.

Cloud services can handle it all out of the box, without having to ir need to invest in some kind of infrastructure in advance. And the best thing is that you only pay for the material when you actually use it. This means that it is possible to pre-prepare and configure a disaster recovery environment that will work perfectly when needed.

4. Quick availability of resources

Development teams often need access to various types of resources such as development and testing environments, or new types of technology. In an IT company, a technical services team is responsible for provisioning these resources. However, it may take days or even weeks for the team to complete a certain task, depending on how many tasks the team members are working on at the same time.

When migrating to the cloud, development teams are empowered to quickly create new environments, ranging from databases to virtual machines and websites.

In addition, cloud providers offer additional services which are constantly updated and extended. This way, development teams can stay on top of the ever-changing technology landscape. Once they're done with a given resource, they can quickly return it to avoid paying more than they need.

Finally, when using the cloud, it is possible to fully automate the process of provisioning resources. This way, companies can quickly create a new database or decommission test resources.

5. Multiple models and offers

Another benefit of the cloud is that it allows businesses to choose from many different models and offerings. You will never be forced to choose a one-size-fits-all solution that includes so many options that you will probably never use.

Cloud providers typically offer many different options for configuring the environment to meet the unique needs of your business. Different models of cloud infrastructure have different shortcomings, and companies can combine two when they need to. Whether you choose managed or unmanaged services, all the power remains with your team.

6. Wide geographic reach

Another advantage of the cloud is its geographic reach. Instead of depending on a geographic location to host your software, cloud services make it possible to host an application's data centers around the world.

With traffic management and the overall application of master data, you can ensure that customers are getting the best possible performance from your application, no matter where they are currently.

Businesses are also using content delivery networks to increase their geographic reach, even if the app is hosted in one location. A content delivery network is a set of highly distributed services that directly respond to user requests, providing access to applications, initiatives, audio, video or other files. This reduces the demands placed directly on your application and contributes to better scaling.

7. Easy deployment

Cloud services offer unique features that allow teams to manage deployment like never before. For example, by integrating a source control system into your business, you can automate parts of the deployment process (for example, automated provisioning of servers or testing of your application).

In addition, deployment locations provide the ability to perform downtime deployments in your production environment. Once you've made sure everything is running smoothly, you can easily swap your production staging slots to bring them online.

Plus, your team can use the cloud to route a small percentage of production traffic to staging locations to test new features in production and make sure everything is working properly before opening it to the public.

Implementing cloud-based solutions has its challenges. If you need expert help, please do not hesitate to contact us.

The challenges of cloud adoption

Naturally, the process of migrating to the cloud is fraught with different challenges:

Today, privacy and security are seen as the biggest barriers to cloud adoption.

For many organizations ions, security is a key issue, as are privacy and regulatory issues, as well as cloud service governance and compliance.

Another challenge that many organizations face is the lack of staff with cloud expertise, often preventing them from adopting the cloud.

Still, the cloud has the potential to grow and businesses will need to find ways to address these challenges in order to get the most out of innovative technologies in the future.

Conclusion

Migrating to the cloud or building applications using cloud services are two popular trends in the market today. Only cloud services can provide your business with the scalability, availability, and access to the resources you need to grow. And offer an excellent cost / performance balance at the same time.

If you want to migrate an application to the cloud or want to learn about other opportunities that the cloud offers for your business, contact us. Our consultants have extensive experience in providing organizations with advice on cloud infrastructure and its successful implementation.