The Advantages of Cloud Computing

1st February 2012

The advantages of cloud computing include reduced costs, easy maintenance and re-provisioning of resources, and thereby increased profits.

The advantages of cloud computing include reduced costs, easy maintenance and re-provisioning of resources, and thereby increased profits. Cloud also helps save the environment. This article from Aquarium Software covers cloud computing advantages while discussing how cloud computing contributes to green computing.

An Introduction to Cloud Computing

Before talking about the advantages of cloud computing, let's look at what cloud computing is and its various types. Cloud computing offers several advantages by allowing you to use services that include infrastructure, applications, and/or storage space for a nominal fee. As these services are created and offered by the cloud service provider (Aquarium), you need not purchase additional infrastructure for use at your own premises (servers, application programs, operating systems, etc.).for enabling on-demand access to reliable and configurable resources that can be quickly provisioned and released - with minimal consumer involvement in terms of management. You pay only for the resources you use. You need not set up the infrastructure or buy the software. This is just an abstraction of the many advantages of cloud computing.

Any cloud should have the following characteristics irrespective of whether it is private or public and irrespective of the type of service it offers:

1. It should be able to quickly allot and relieve resources whenever required by clients

2. It should have real-time backup to offer maximum up time to clients

3. It should be able to cater to the needs of clients without having to involve clients into management of the service

The next section takes a look at advantages of cloud computing by studying the different types of clouds based on the service they offer.

Types of Cloud Services

SaaS (Software as a Service): This is the most popular form of cloud services. The service provider offers a software to support the service on offer. The software is built by the service provider while the end users can configure it to suit their needs. The clients (end users) however, cannot change or modify the software. Thus, you can use the service without actually having to buy the software.

PaaS (Platform as a Service): Offers a platform to clients for different purposes. The end users may or may not know that the application is hosted on the cloud. As mentioned earlier, the storage space for user data may be increased or decreased per the requirement of the applications. As with the SaaS, you do not need to build the platform.

IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service): Offers infrastructure on demand. The infrastructure can be anything from storage servers to applications to operating systems. Buying infrastructure or renting it out in traditional models can be very expensive. When you opt for IaaS, you save a lot on expenses, space, and personnel required to set up and maintain the infrastructure – Aquarium takes care of it all.

As you can see, there are numerous advantages of cloud computing, the most basic ones being remote accessibility, lower costs, and quick re-provisions.

Green Computing

This section talks about advantages of cloud computing under green computing. Green computing can be defined as energy efficient usage of computing resources. Most of the computers today are Energy Star certified. They are designed to reduce the consumption of electricity while also reducing emissions that damage the environment. Taking the advantages of cloud computing further contributes to green computing.

As cloud computing can always be used to re-provisioning of resources, when you need to expand, you need not buy the infrastructure to increase the carbon emissions by way of using more electricity to cool off the computer resources. You can just expand to the cloud to use the pre-built resources to stop the increase in electricity usage at your end. You also need not add cooling components thereby reducing the hazardous emissions. Thus, you save the environment while also saving on the expenses incurred due to a demand for expansion.

Cloud computing also allows you to let your employees telecommute. This means large savings while contributing heavily to environmentally friendly green computing. Your employees can access the cloud - public or private - from any corner of the world and can work from their homes. This means they need not drive to the business premises. This saves them fuel and reduces carbon emissions, which in turn, saves the environment.

You can also cut down the number of electronic devices when your employees are telecommuting. You use less computers and other machinery, which means reduced usage of electricity. If you use less computers and servers, you also cut down on cooling resources, which reduce both electricity usage and carbon emissions.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are several advantages of cloud computing. Here's a summary:

Remote Accessibility: With cloud computing, your business is not restricted to a particular location. This applies to individuals also. You can access the services from anywhere. All you need is your ID and password. In some cases, there may be extra security requirements but as they too are mobile, you can easily access your cloud services from any part of the world.

Easy Expansion: As of the characteristics of cloud computing is its flexibility, you can quickly access more resources if you need to expand your business. You need not buy extra infrastructure. You just need to inform Aquarium about your requirements and we will allocate resources to you. In most cases, the entire process is automated so the expansion takes just a few minutes. The same is applicable if you wish to use fewer resources. One of the best advantages of cloud computing is easy re-allocation of resources.

Security: Though people doubt cloud computing, clouds tend to be more secure than the traditional business models. Clouds offer real-time backup which results in less data loss. In case of outage, your customers can use the backup servers that sync with the main ones as soon as they are up. Your business gets maximum uptime without any loss of data during the transitions. Other than this, clouds are less prone to hacks and DDoS attacks as people don’t know the whereabouts of your data.

Environmentally Friendly: Usage of ready-made resources tailored to your needs helps you reduce the electricity expenses. While you save on electricity, you also save on resources required to cool off computers and other components. This reduces the emissions dangerous to environment.

Software companies like Aquarium offer clients a strategic advantage thanks to their technical expertise and experience of the industry. Aquarium Software, a leading provider in the legal, insurance and finance sector – with a claims management specialism - was founded in 2006 and is dedicated to providing innovative web-based business solutions using the latest technologies to provide flexible SAAS software tools - designed to have an immediate impact on customer working practices, allowing them to concentrate on their business and grow their bottom line.

Aquarium software makes use of the latest “cloud computing” web technologies to provide a claims solution that is highly flexible and simple to deploy. Aquarium’s powerful business process automation enables claims to be efficiently validated and processed; whilst claims managers have a business support tool that ensures the effective management of claims.

Aquarium Sales and Marketing Director, Mark Colonnese, commented: "Our insurance industry solutions have been developed to be user intuitive and with business process cost savings and efficiencies as the primary drivers. Being web based means Aquarium can be accessed anywhere and couples maximum convenience with maximum usability, in a compelling and powerful package."

For further information contact Aquarium Software, free of charge, on 0800 781 7570 or visit www.aquarium-software.com

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