researchHQ’s Key Takeaways:
- Some companies use the cloud in order to meet unique hardware specifications, comply with regulatory demands, or derive more value from cloud investments.
- Hybrid cloud environments can be specifically used to test new cloud applications in a cost-effective manner.
- Other benefits of the cloud include the promotion of high availability and disaster recovery, the provision of self-service IT and the automation of cloud infrastructure.
Did you know that 77% of companies rely on the cloud for at least an application or a section of their cloud computing infrastructure? Did you also know that companies are increasingly putting money in the cloud? This is according to a Forbes article citing insights from the 2018 IDG Cloud Computing Study.
What is the cloud?
The cloud is a ubiquitous term and technology that comprises a network of servers, each with its specific function. Some of these are designed to provide services to clients. For example, you used to purchase office productivity applications as individual installers in CDs or box sets. This is rarely the case today since services have mostly moved to the cloud.
In other cases, servers exist solely for data storage. If you are interacting with social media platforms on a regular basis, such as posting photos, you can bet that your photos are stored in their cloud environments other than in your phone’s internal storage.
The different types of cloud
The cloud is not limited to those things though. You may have heard of public, private, and hybrid clouds, which are the different classifications of the cloud.
A public cloud is provided by companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and IBM. You would have encountered the services they offer in this regard: AWS, Azure, Cloud Management Platform, and Cloud, respectively. They have service tiers that you can pay on a subscription basis or on a pay-as-you-go model. Numerous companies use these services.
A private cloud, on the other hand, is for the use of a single company only. It is designed for the unique infrastructure of an organization and for its use case. Unlike a public cloud, it can be deployed on-premises or in data centers that offer colocation services.
Lastly, the hybrid cloud is a combination of at least one public and one private cloud services. They are unique entities but are connected with different technologies.
Abiquo Hybrid Cloud Management Platform helps companies in their move to the cloud, making it easier to manage private and public cloud resources.
Who uses the cloud?
Even an ordinary individual uses the cloud, especially when they manage photos, files, and documents on websites and apps. Business-wise, though, 77% of businesses are using cloud apps, platforms, and services, as mentioned above.
Organizations have varying use cases but there are those who go beyond the ordinary use cases. These innovative companies conduct cloud management to drive growth and to adapt to an ever-changing technological landscape.
Below, we discuss the different methods that advanced organizations utilize cloud management.
1.To meet unique hardware specifications
Early in January 2018, a Forbes article shared the forecast of LogicMonitor’s Cloud Vision 2020: Future of the Cloud Study that 83% of workloads would be in the cloud when 2020 rolls in. This is a brave prediction based on the high cloud adoption rate among companies (63%) and the fact that IT professionals are turning towards cloud services for more stringent security (66%).
This is not surprising considering the many benefits brought by cloud computing and cloud implementation. One of those is the fact that it enables organizations to meet special hardware requirements or configurations.
For example, a company with resource-heavy workloads require virtual machines with powerful computing capabilities would go for robust cloud management software. This allows them to build their own virtual machine setup cost-effectively. This way, they can manage the provision of immense computing capacities to users who require them without breaking the bank.
2. To comply with government or regulatory demands
Different governments and territories have variable cloud governance requirements. There are those that allow the use of public cloud services while there is some that push for the use of private cloud providers. Some examples of international, local, and regional cloud regulations outlined by TechTarget are:
- Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX)
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)
- Can Spam Act of 2003
- Dodd-Frank Act
- Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)
- Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)
Navigating these regulations can be challenging, especially if you have operations in diverse geographic locations. It can be difficult to know which ones you need to pay attention to. However, if you have a globalized cloud managed service providers, you can leave the heavy lifting of governance compliance with them. That is because such entities have already gone through the process of ticking off the compliance boxes before they were able to build their cloud businesses.
