Managed Cloud

Cloud computing solutions are incredibly valuable for businesses of every size. Most organisations have already moved to the cloud to digitally transform their business. It enables communications and collaboration with remote workers much easier while providing ease of access to business applications. Companies who will not take advantage of this technology will be left behind.

Essential Tech managed cloud services can help your business move from on-premises infrastructure to the cloud using different cloud deployment options such as public cloud, private cloud or hybrid cloud setup.

Cloud computing allows end users to run essential business applications through their web browser and scale up their resources e.g., number of servers, CPU, bandwidth, storage, etc. whenever they want to support their business requirements. Billing for cloud services is simple. You only pay for the resources that you use.

Benefits of Cloud Computing

Now that you have general understanding about cloud services and how it works. Here’s a list of key benefits an organisation can expect to achieve when moving to the cloud.

Reduced IT Costs

Moving to the cloud lets you save substantial capital cost as you don’t have to purchase expensive IT hardware and networking devices for your business. This also means you no longer have to pay facilities, building, wages for IT staff who will manage the system and expect to see a huge reduction from electric consumption costs when you shift to cloud IT infrastructure.

Scalability

Every business has it own IT requirements and if ever their demand increase, resources can be easily scaled up or down to handle business demands. This is more efficient compared to upgrading on-premises IT infrastructure which would take a few days to be deployed. With cloud computing, this can be done with just a few clicks.

Mobility

Cloud computing lets everyone in your organisation access business applications and manage files in the cloud using any devices of their choice e.g., smartphone, laptop, desktop, tablet wherever they are 24/7, as long as they are connected to the internet.

Competitive Edge

Not all businesses have huge IT budget to support their needs. Cloud computing allows small businesses access an enterprise grade technology without the need of large upfront costs, as they only need to pay for the resources that they use.

Data Security And Compliance

Cloud providers offers advanced cloud security features to ensure their clients’ data are stored and protected from online threats. In addition, cloud providers also need to comply to a ton of strict security regulations before they can offer their services to clients.

Disaster Recovery And Business Continuity

Cloud services provider ensures you data is always accessible and can be recovered during emergency situations such as natural disaster, malware attacks, power outages, network failure or computer malfunction. Cloud infrastructure is much more reliable and can aid business continuity, minimising downtime and reducing the risk of financial loss.

Effective Team Collaboration

Cloud based applications such as Google Docs, Office 365 and Dropbox makes team collaboration a breeze. Users can easily access and manage files on a cloud storage remotely and use business applications simultaneously which greatly improves productivity.

Access Control And User Permissions

Business owners have full control when it comes to managing data and applications in a cloud environment. You can grant user access to certain files and applications and apply user permission such as restricting access to billing, adding or deleting users, exporting data, etc.

Third Party Software Integration

Most cloud-based applications offers integration with third party applications via API or webhooks which greatly improve the efficiency of processing data as the usual manual work can be automated.

Cloud Computing Service Models

Cloud computing has three main categories: IaaS, PaaS and SaaS. Each service model is built on top of one another and can work individually or as a group, depending on the needs of the end user. Understanding these cloud service models will make it easier for you to decide which one you’ll need to attain your business goals.

Infrastructure As A Service (IaaS)

IaaS is the most basic category among the 3 cloud service models. It serves as your data centre on the cloud and it is available to end users for rental, usually pay as you go plans. Users can manage and access this IT infrastructure to run servers, virtual machines, applications, firewalls, data storage, backups, operating systems, networks, load balancer, etc. Most popular examples of IaaS are Google Compute Engine, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. IaaS eliminates the need for a company to purchase or lease IT hardware and networking equipments for provisioning or deploying its own data center.

Platform As A Service (PaaS)

PaaS is a complete cloud development and deployment environment designed for app developers who want to build, test, deploy and manage cloud applications. Developers anywhere in the world can work and collaborate on an application as the development environment is hosted on the cloud. PaaS is on top of IaaS in the cloud computing service model, which means everything in IaaS is also included in PaaS, but with added core features such as development tools, middleware, operating systems and database management.

Software As A Service (SaaS)

SaaS is the most widely recognised type of cloud service model. The cloud service provider host and manage the cloud application and makes them available to customers over the internet instead of downloading and installing the software to their computer. These applications are mostly business apps from document processing apps, cloud backup solutions, analytics, unified communications, graphics design, marketing and automation tools. Software as a service application has lower pricing compared to locally installed desktop application which means it is more accessible to businesses of every size. Most popular software as a service examples include Google Apps, Dropbox and Office 365.

Business owners have recognised the enormous set of benefits cloud computing can bring to their organisation. Cloud services is proven to be more cost effective, reliable and scalable to support business development and growth. As a managed cloud service provider, we can help your business identify the necessary cloud computing power required to run your infrastructure and applications more efficiently. Click here to get a free consultation from one of our experts who will help you achieve digital transformation with cloud solutions.