Almost every business nowadays uses or at least plans to use cloud computing technology. With the ability to customize Cloud infrastructure arrangements to suit specific business needs, a lot of smart companies are taking to cloud computing to handle their IT-related tasks.
Today, cloud computing services have taken over nearly all aspects of technology, including software, security, and storage. And considering the impact of the pandemic on businesses, it’s safe to say that Cloud infrastructure has come to stay and needs to be considered. Although there are concerns regarding cloud computing security, many organizations believe that the advantages, such as disaster recovery, cost savings, etc., far outweigh the possible drawbacks.
In this article, we’re going to look at what Cloud infrastructure means and why every business should consider it.
What is a Cloud?
The word “Cloud” refers to a complex network of servers, each performing a particular purpose. These servers are connected via the Internet and designed to work together as one ecosystem. They execute programs, manage and store data, or offer services like social networks, streaming media, online mail, and office productivity tools. Cloud infrastructure allows you to access data and files online from any device connected to the internet instead of doing so from a personal or local computer. The data can be accessed from any location and when you require it.
Why should you consider cloud computing?
Cloud infrastructure offers a lot of benefits. If you use any small business cloud services, the chances are that you already know some of the advantages.
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Low possible cost
Whether you are a small or medium-sized business, you can leverage cloud storage at a very low cost. Cloud infrastructure is a simple and inexpensive way for organizations to store their important data. Using a cloud-based service offers huge benefits regarding reliability, scalability, and flexibility. It may also eliminate the need to buy costly software or equipment while allowing you to store essential data safely.
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Disaster Recovery
What would occur if you lose data, power, or important client information? Cloud vendors usually have several backups to make sure you have a record of the crucial things and can recover them quickly in case of a mishap. Although you can also have your backup data stored, cloud services provide additional security and can help you remain compliant in your organization.
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Flexibility
One more advantage of using cloud computing technology is that it enables companies to be more efficient and react more quickly to changing business needs. And this increase in the performance of a company’s services will surely make your business operations smoother and more efficient. Plus, it could also offer your business an advantage over its rivals.
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Security
Data loss can be devastating for businesses. Modern companies face many risks, from accidental deletions to unfriendly actions by strangers who gain access to important data or seize it to extort money. Since small businesses rely heavily on data and its security, it is best to outsource their data and operations to a safer place than a local server.
Of course, there are various concerns regarding the storage of valuable and confidential data in the cloud. Before going cloud-native, it’s important to know that you are handing a 3rd cloud vendor crucial data that can put your company at significant risk. Hence, you need to thoroughly understand the terms provided in the contract and be sure that your cloud service provider has stringent measures in place to ensure that your information is always secure.
Another possible risk of using Cloud infrastructure is denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, which aim to stop a network or system, making it inaccessible to the end-users. It achieves this by sending too much data or harmful information to the target server, causing it to crash. Unfortunately, cloud-native businesses have no influence on DoS attacks. This is why it’s crucial for them to have a personal data backup.
Although keeping important data elsewhere and accessing it via the Internet may appear riskier, cloud vendors have more security elements in place, including identification, authorization, and encrypted end-to-end communications. You’ll have control over who can access the data, and the cloud provider can help you manage and keep it secured.
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Scalability
What if you want to expand your business in the coming week or the next day to onboard a new client? Many business cloud providers are able to upgrade your data and resource needs instantly if necessary.
They already know the resources and costs you will require and can help you create an effective plan to keep things running smoothly during your expansion. If your growth is only for the short term or seasonal, you will also be able to downgrade quickly when necessary.
Note that cloud services are not created the same. Although there are several cloud vendors to select from, multi-cloud is an excellent option to consider when thinking of adopting Cloud infrastructure for your business. This will prevent you from being stuck with a particular vendor and make you more flexible for your clients.
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Infrastructure as Code
As we’ve mentioned above, Cloud infrastructure can be beneficial. It enables you to scale in and out your compute resources instantly. Save you costs by eliminating the need to pay for expensive hardware. Put massive security processes on the shoulder of the cloud service provider you are using.
For both big and small businesses, Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is a game-changer, but there, however, Cloud infrastructure has its own drawbacks. The one that has to do with Infrastructure as Code is complexity. It’s not easy to operate production-quality workloads in the cloud. Of course, running just one website application on an EC2 instance is no problem. Still, the same cannot be said for when you’re operating a database, web application, and some functions required by your application to work properly.
The issue becomes even more complicated when you have to run different environments, such as your development, staging, and production environments. And you need to provision and manage all that resource infrastructure. Doing so manually will not only be a big burden, but it will also require a lot of time.
It is this complexity that makes IaC important. You can have all that infrastructures described as a single module in code, depending on the tool you are using. So, if you need to run a different environment, you can just add another instance of that code module with the name of your new environment. That way, you will never need to repeat the process of creating the module for your infrastructure ever again.
Another reason why Infrastructure as Code is crucial in this case is visibility.
When your infrastructure is represented in code, everybody will be able to see what the present configuration is. This is because it’s described as code and committed to a single source code repository. So, anybody who has this code can see the present configuration. And since a pull request review will be needed to make changes to the infrastructure configuration, everybody will be able to see what is being modified and why.
There are many more reasons why Infrastructure as Code (IaC) works so well with the Cloud infrastructure. But those mentioned above – increased visibility into infrastructure configuration and better complexity management – are the ones that make the most significant differences right from the first day.
Final words
Although Cloud infrastructure has its own risks and may not be suitable for all kinds of businesses, we strongly believe that the benefits are more significant than any possible risks. It’s clear that the cloud is going to be around for a very long time, and many companies need to consider adopting it.
Whether you go for a hybrid or full cloud solution, it is important to consider how these benefits will help your company get a high ROI (return on investment). Surely, Cloud infrastructure can do more for your business at a reduced cost compared to creating and storing everything on your local servers.
