Benefits You Can Expect in Migrating to Cloud Computing Platform

Cloud computing provides a virtual space for your software and hardware requirements. It is being used by many organizations as they have realized that they need to focus on the services and products they are offering instead of running IT Departments. Cloud computing provides you with almost every service, i.e., PaaS (Platform as a Service), SaaS (Software as a Service), and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). These service models are designed according to the requirements. The best part of a cloud platform is its cost-effectiveness, which means you pay only for what you use. If your business needs are fulfilled by just one module out of big software suite, pay for just that one module. From servers to software and infrastructure, cloud computing covers it all.

Benefits of using the cloud for your business

Businesses are often focused on what they are offering instead of maintaining their IT Departments. Buying cloud services as a single service, like salesforce.com, or buying an entire data center is cost-effective, easy to maintain, and more reliable. It provides flexibility, and upgrading software/hardware is no longer a headache as the cloud handles it for the business.

Problems that can often be solved by migrating to the cloud platform

• Businesses can grow overnight, or a website can experience high traffic in just a few minutes. Unlike the website, the storage capabilities cannot be upgraded in just a few seconds. This is where cloud services come into play as they can provide you with the needed storage space over the cloud.
• Every business thinks of expanding globally at some point. Starting from scratch can be quite expensive and challenging. Cloud computing can solve this problem as well.
• It’s possible you have more audience than you planned for, and it’s difficult to manage storage space as the needs are increasing day by day. Cloud services allow you to expand the storage space whenever needed.

Every coin has two sides, along with benefits there are some risks of cloud migration

Considering these will help you to make the right decision for your business:

• Security is the main priority. If the business has an application that is storing and retrieving sensitive data, it might not be a good idea to store that information on the cloud.
• Latency delay is the last thing you want. If your business is time oriented and you cannot afford a bit of latency, then the cloud might not work for you. Since the services are online and there may be a bit of latency issue occasionally.
• Trying out different platforms is not what the cloud can offer. You will be on a platform, or vendor locked, which would make it difficult to move to other platforms.

Read: Common Performance Issues You Might Face with Cloud Computing

Cloud computing service models offer different facilities according to the model chosen

There are three main categories of the service model, and you must decide whether you will be using public, private, or a hybrid cloud platform. This description will help provide you with a clear idea about which platform may work for your business:

• IaaS:Infrastructure as a Service (Example - AWS, Azure, Google Compute Engine, Alibaba Cloud). It takes care of storage, virtualization, CDN, networking, and computing.
• PaaS:Platform as a Service (Example - AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Heroku, Google App Engine, Engine Yard). It takes care of application platforms, database, development, and integration.
• SaaS:Software as a Service (Example - Google Apps, Office 365, Salesforce, NetSuite). It takes care of CRM, business management, security, and tools.

Cloud services are provided by different companies, and they have their own pricing methodologies. You must decide which cloud computing service provider best suits your needs and budget. The chart below shows the current type of discount, length of commitment, the range of discount levels, and other documented programs of the four different cloud service providers, i.e., AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and IBM Cloud.

	AWS	Microsoft Azure	Google Cloud	IBM Cloud
Type of discount	Reserved Instances (RIs)	Reserved Instances (RIs)	Sustain Use Discount (SUD) Committed Use Discount (CUD)	Monthly pricing
Length of commitment	1 or 3 years	1 or 3 years	(SUD): No commitment (CUD)1 or 3 years	Commit by month
Range of discount levels	Up to 75 %	Up to 72 %	(SUD): Up to 30 % (CUD): 37 % (1Y) or 55 % (3Y)	About 10 %
Other documented programs	RI volume discounts Spot instances	Hybrid Use Discount Enterprise Agreement	Pre-emptible VMs	Negotiated

Businesses are evolving day by day by utilizing the latest technologies available. However, this does not mean that every technology is going to benefit your business. Keeping every aspect in mind, choose whether you want to migrate to a cloud platform or not. If you need assistance figuring out if your business should move to the cloud, talk to the experts.