Advantages of Cloud Computing
for Businesses

 

The main benefits are as follows:

  • Companies avoid costly upfront investments in hardware dimensioned on estimated forecast of a presumed need for future use, whereas the costs incurred are solely those of the real use.
  • The barrier of entry for the use of technologically advanced software and hardware solutions, ensuring business continuity and high availability, is eliminated.
  • The service provider uses the hardware with maximum efficiency, resulting in a significant economy of scale for the benefit of end users.
  • Users are completely isolated from the problems of malfunction and hardware maintenance of the server side.
  • Business applications are securely accessible anywhere you have an Internet connection, and there is no need to install any software in computer terminals for users.
  • Completely dynamic scalability of the resources committed immediately make available a larger amount as soon as necessities arise for users, businesses can then deal with sudden and unexpected peak demand.

 

Cloud Computing Technology Defined

 

The term "Cloud Computing" defines a set of technologies and methods of use thereof, here are the key concepts:

  • A hardware infrastructure (computers, storage devices and network equipment) with a redundant design for high availability (ie in which the failure of a single component does not interrupt the delivery of services), which is operated by a supplier of technologically advanced hosting services, and supported by highly skilled technicians.
  • A virtual level of resource utilization, so that it is made an abstraction of the allocated capacity compared to the underlying physical layer. For example, you configure a virtual server by assigning a specific number of virtual processors and a certain amount of storage virtualized. That virtual server uses certain portions of physical resources at any given time but may use more or less, or commit other than those initially allocated.
  • Sharing at the same time virtual resources by different users, who do not buy hardware, but are buying a service, based on a request to use those resources that fluctuate with variations up or down, with the possibility that each individual user can be individually accounted for only the actual amount of physical resources committed by him, so that it is counted only the actual consumption of resources.
  • A category of applications software that has all the logic function implemented on the server side, while from the user side there are only client computers that access the application via a web interface through a standard browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, etc.).
  • Access by users to resources, services and applications in the Cloud using the Internet as a channel of communication, with extremely effective and fast connections on the side of the service provider.
  • The contractual guarantee of service quality linked to clearly specified parameters, following the model SLA (Service Level Agreement).