Cloud-based networks help a business grow and expand. However, before deciding on the type of cloud computing you want to use in your business to cut costs, improve operating efficiencies and increase collaboration, you first need to understand how cloud computing itself works so that you can recognize what a vendor is offering.

What Is A Cloud Computing?

PC magazine has an excellent definition of a cloud:

“In the simplest terms, cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet instead of your computer’s hard drive. The cloud is just a metaphor for the Internet. It goes back to the days of flowcharts and presentations that would represent the gigantic server-farm infrastructure of the Internet as nothing but a puffy, white cumulonimbus cloud, accepting connections and doling out information as it floats.”

One way of simplifying the complexity of a cloud from a user’s perspective is to think of it as a combination of service and deployment models.

Services and Deployment Models

Every cloud is unique in its combination of services and deployment models.

Service Models

Services can be LaaS, PaaS, or SaaS.

LaaS, or Logging as a Service, gives users control of their software environment without having to invest in hardware. You won’t need to buy a server or invest in a climate-controlled room because you’ll be using the provider’s virtual machine.

PaaS, or Platform as a Service, gives users the tools they need to build their own applications. Users are free to develop games, websites, or social or mobile applications to suit their business needs. The provider gives the APIs and the environment to run them.

Saas, or Software as a Service, gives end-users everything they need when it comes to applications, including highly-sophisticated, industry-specific apps that would be prohibitively expensive to buy. All users have to do to use top of the line software is connect to the Internet with their favorite device and point their browser in the right direction. The provider not only takes care of the software, including performing upgrades, but also the technology on which it runs.

Deployment Models

Deployment models could be private clouds, public clouds, hybrid clouds, or community clouds.

Private clouds are run for an organization which either manages itself or managed by a third party, and these private clouds can exist on or off premise.

Public clouds are open to everyone and these are managed by an independent cloud service provider.

Hybrid clouds consist of two or more clouds, and these can be either private or public clouds.

Community clouds consist of two or more clouds, but rather than serving a private group or being open to the public, they serve organizations within a community.

Networks

While a cloud can be a combination of any assortment of services and deployment models, every cloud must have a network. In fact, without a network, there is no cloud. Networks provide clouds with the infrastructure needed for users to access applications and make use of data.

However clouds are now beginning to redefine legacy networks. The entire concept of networking will change with innovations in the infrastructure, applications, accessibility, and traffic. Overtime, clouds will make network architecture less rigid, network services less location dependent, and network resources more virtual.

Selecting Your Cloud

When choosing a cloud computing provider, you need to figure out what services and deployment models work best for your organization. You also have to decide whether or not you need accelerated cloud access, network security for your virtual machines, or virtual data centers for different customer bases. In addition, you’ll also need to decide whether or not you want to operate in a large single-tier network for a large number of virtual machines.

The alternative is to find a cloud where users are free to jump form one cloud to another seamlessly without the necessity of reentering all their credentials.

The Bottom Line

Cloud computing will help you meet the future challenges and opportunities of your business. It will improve your business by reducing costs, improving flexibility and scalability, and enhancing mobility and agility. When shifting your business from the legacy model it may be using now to the cloud, you will find upgrades and business continuity easier.

On the cloud, providers take care of business concerns like upgrades, business continuity, and IT security. Subscribers don’t have to worry about staying current on their software, employees can work from anywhere, and businesses don’t have to worry about disaster-proofing their IT.

Essentially, all the costs associated with maintaining and securing a network, applications, resources, and machines are handled by cloud computing providers whose reputations and business rely on providing excellent services to subscribers. They spend significant amounts investing in top-grade data centers, secure servers, and reliable connections. Subscribers benefit enormously from the economies of scale.

Twenty years ago, IT was an afterthought for most businesses. Technology had only been in the workplace for a few years. If a company had to hire an “IT guy”, it was rarely seen as an investment. It was a necessary evil to keep other parts of the business running.

The attitude today is completely the opposite. Computerworld reports that 43% of companies expect their IT budget to be larger in 2015 that it was the prior year. Companies now see IT spending as an investment in the future of their company. IT is no longer about making sure the server is up and the printer is plugged in. It’s about developing technology that makes the company better at what it does.

How Can Technology Help Your Business

Consider a small business with sales people or other employees in the field. How are they connecting with the home-office? Most small businesses with field employees operate through e-mail and text messages. What if you had a custom system that allowed sales people to enter orders while they were at the client’s office or allowed maintenance workers to update work tickets in real time? Would that be valuable?

What about if you had a system that monitored key metrics for your business and generated alerts when something was out of a normal range? How much time and money would that save?

Technology is about far more than technical support. A real technology expert can build systems and software that make your business more productive and profitable.

The Value in Real Experts

Hiring someone for an IT role isn’t just about finding someone that is tech savvy. For example, if you hire someone to build a piece of software to make your field-employees more productive, are you confident that this person can write secure code that won’t leak customer’s sensitive data?

The work that individuals within IT perform necessarily requires them to handle sensitive systems and data. You need to be confident that this person is a real expert in their field. The problem is, most business owners don’t have the technical expertise to identify the true experts from those that just use a lot of technical jargon. Herein lies the value of IT staffing services that pay attention to significant industry vertical trends and emerging technologies.

Working with a Small Budget

By definition, small businesses don’t have a lot of resources at their disposal. This is especially true for small businesses that are just getting started. It’s likely that there isn’t a budget to hire an experienced IT professional. Herein lies the beauty of using a staffing company.

A staffing company can usually provide temp and part-time labor. You are able to utilize an expert to complete your project without worrying about how you can justify a full-time salary. Likewise, once your business grows to the point where it makes sense to have a full-time position, the same staffing company can use their expertise to connect you with a highly skilled IT professional that will bring tremendous value to your organization.

Don’t let a limited budget keep you from the expertise that will make your business soar.

In a world of changing customer demand for financial services, delivering a product on time with increased governance and transparency ensures faster time-to-market and improved customer experience. Increased complexity and regulatory burden make managing the development of these products challenging. Trying to keep centralized control, real-time visibility, and projects on track amidst a change of scope, resource constraints, and unanticipated delays are no easy tasks. As a project manager, you spend so much time collecting and reporting on status and managing documentation. You have little time to properly manage the schedule, align resources, and identify and mitigate risks. That’s where professional software development services come in. Smart products, embedded software, and other solutions are now actively introduced to modern businesses to help them digitize their product management process and boost innovation. Not only do these solutions help with the digitization, but also automate essential processes. They provide repeatable and auditable product development and integrated project and document management.

• If you’re also looking to give your business a boost and make use of innovative project management tools, it’s about time you started looking for a reliable company that can develop project management software specifically tailored to your business needs. There are also other industrial automation solutions you might avail yourself of to take your business to the next level.

Digital Common Platforms

State-of-the-art technologies and IoT-powered tools can help you quickly streamline your business processes and boost the success of your projects. Through dedicated common platforms, the updated status of any project deliverable is immediately reflected in a project plan. This can be called ‘invisible governance,’ because you can execute your project and improve collaboration without encumbering those doing the work. With real-time project information collected automatically, you no longer need to collect the status from each team member. Thus, you can focus on true project management activities, evaluate progress, identify and reduce operational risks, align and assign resources to maintain or accelerate schedules whether you’re following an agile or waterfall methodology.

Dynamic Dashboards

Another innovative solution that can help you speed up product development and other processes is dynamic dashboards. With the help of these tools, you can view accurate project data, keep track of your progress, spot problems and detect potential issues on a timely manner, and drill down to view and verify your deliverables. When you consider product changes, you can see the potential impact on scope, schedule, or resources before deciding to implement. As a project team member, you can spend less time reporting on status and attending meetings and more time driving more customer-centric innovation.

With personalized real-time dashboards, track all the assigned tasks and issues, stay on top of your workload, view priorities and due dates, and provide a deliverable status to eliminate search time. With dynamic solutions, you can access your work directly from the dashboard and have everything you need before your eyes. You can track your own tasks, including key dates, dependencies, as well as the tasks and responsibilities of other people you’re collaborating with. The solution also provides comprehensive document management and document generation. In addition, directly work with documents from within your familiar applications.

Takeaways

If you find a reliable partner that possesses enough skills and experience in digitizing product development and management processes, the odds are good you will be able to considerably improve your business operations, boost profits, and expand your markets. Companies that specialize in developing and implementing digital product management solutions offer a holistic approach to product, project, and document management, thus enabling you to deliver enterprise-wide transformational values. With real-time visibility across your entire project and improved efficiency, you can reduce your time-to-market and free up time for client-oriented innovation.