Cloud helps optimise costs, make IT infrastructure more flexible and scalable, and boost competitiveness by introducing new digital tools. Here you can find scenarios that can give your business access to all these benefits.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) is a way to consume rented cloud computing, network and storage resources. When you start working in the cloud, you need to decide how many resources you need and then you regularly pay a monthly fee to the provider for these services. If the number of times a business application is used sharply increases or, conversely, decreases, you can request the provider to give you a different number of resources; you will almost instantly receive a new configuration requested. It most often takes one hour or several hours tops. Accordingly, your company will pay for the resources the service provider actually allocated to it.
IaaS as a whole does not imply capital costs; moreover, it enables optimising operating costs due to greater elasticity and the fact that more control can be exercised over it, reducing indirect costs and engaging less IT staff as their tasks can be fully delegated to the same provider. Therefore, IaaS is the best possible solution for small and medium-sized businesses, startups and companies having many branches (offices, retail outlets, service centers, cinemas, etc.).
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Compared to IaaS, PaaS (Platform as a Service) is not so often used to provide cloud services as it addresses a rather peculiar business request. It enables renting a cloud platform that has all the necessary hardware and software for developing, testing, delivering and managing applications. Platform as a service can significantly speed up applications development; moreover, one can at any time get all the necessary resources for high-quality testing in production-like environment.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
SaaS (Software as a Service) gives access to fully operational software by subscription. Instead of buying hardware, deploying OS and applications and maintaining all the IT infrastructure, your company can use the cloud tools required anywhere in the world. Thanks to Software as a Service, you can start using the software right away, without wasting time on installing, configuring and supporting it. With minor adjustments, the online service can be used to its full potential.
SaaS services enable quick access to the tools required for your business needs; they are perfect for real-time collaboration of remote teams. Moreover, this cloud service model gives the company access to advanced tools to automate key business processes at minimum price.
Hybrid Cloud
Hybrid cloud is a computing environment that combines on-premise and cloud systems into a single centrally managed IT infrastructure. With such configuration, it can be used to run any application, including mission-critical ones and/or the ones having high performance and security requirements. The hybrid model will be the best possible solution for companies that, for a number of reasons, cannot transfer all their data to the cloud.
Multicloud
This cloud service consumption model enables using two or more clouds by different providers. At the same time, the cloud itself can be deployed via IaaS, PaaS or SaaS and their combinations. Multicloud solutions enable workloads distribution across multiple environments according to their own performance and security needs. With Multicloud, your company will be able to diversify risks since the IT infrastructure will no longer depend on one service provider. Moreover, multicloud helps you find the most profitable offers thanks to promotions and discounts offered by different providers.
Testing and Development
Cloud is a perfect platform to develop new software. DevOps teams can quickly deploy customised test, development, and production-like environments for new cloud applications. For businesses, this is a cost-effective solution compared to on-premise development and testing. Thanks to the cloud, you will not have to allocate budget, purchase and configure extra hardware to deploy a development and testing platform. Not only is it financially beneficial, but you will get access to tools simplifying these processes: DevOps methodologies, CI/CD (continuous integration/continuous delivery), microservices, containerisation, serverless and other solutions. All of that contributes to accelerating innovations development and deployment, but at the same time they require a self-sustaining cloud infrastructure.
Big Data analytics
Using cloud is very prospective for big data analytics via artificial intelligence and machine learning. Together, these tools give you a chance to get valuable information to optimise business processes and collect and process arrays of structured and unstructured data. Currently, Dig Data is continuously generated primarily by online service users themselves. Thanks to big data, many companies have already improved customer experience by analysing user behaviour patterns on websites, in mobile applications and social networks pertinent to the brand and have also been able to make their marketing activities more effective.
Cloud Storage
Cloud storage systems enable one to automate saving data copies to cloud platforms and also make this data available from anywhere in the world and from any device having Internet access. You do not have to build and maintain your own data centre to store and process large amounts of data that accumulate daily. Instead, you only pay for the amount of cloud storage you need at a given stage. At the same time, you will move from capital expenditures to operating expenses; you will also make storage and data access speed more reliable. If given security reasons or regulatory restrictions it is not possible to transfer all data to the cloud, the most critical data can still be stored on-premise or you can build a private cloud where your services will be completely isolated from other customers’ services; this way, they will even enjoy greater security.
Data backup and IT infrastructure disaster recovery BaaS & DRaaS
Сloud enables implementing disaster recovery in respect of IT infrastructure as per the plan drafted beforehand. It is a powerful, reliable and cost-effective tool guaranteeing that your business services will operate in a stable and continuous manner under any circumstances. If there is data loss on the main site, the data will be automatically recovered in the shortest time possible from the storage located on the provider’s site. It will be very time consuming and costly to implement such a strategy on-premise even for big business. Small and medium businesses can use Backup as a Service (BaaS). This will enable access to enterprise-level backup management tools at an affordable price for the SME segment.
Colobridge will offer you the best possible model and adjust one of the cloud computing uses listed to your business, budget and security requirements.
