What is cloud computing?

At Cloud People we like to think of cloud computing as a technology set that delivers a broad range of IT services over the internet. Instead of having to purchase, install and manage your own IT infrastructure locally, these services are provided over the internet. Cloud computing utilises remote servers housed in secure data centres. By not locating servers on-premise, businesses can leverage cloud computing to obtain equivalent services via the internet from cloud hosting providers.

Why move?

What benefits should my business expect?

The benefits of moving part or all of your IT infrastructure to the cloud can be broadly categorised into three areas. While cost saving is a primary driver for a large number of our customers, the benefits you can expect in terms of the flexibility offered by cloud services often outweigh financial benefits. These days, the environments that most businesses operate in change rapidly. A key measure of business success is the ability to react to these changes. Cloud computing also facilitates this.

Save on costs

Investment in IT infrastructure can be expensive

Reduce capital expenditure

The benefits of moving part or all of your IT infrastructure to the cloud can be broadly categorised into three areas. While cost saving is a primary driver for a large number of our customers, the benefits you can expect in terms of the flexibility offered by cloud services often outweigh financial benefits. These days, the environments that most businesses operate in change rapidly. A key measure of business success is the ability to react to these changes. Cloud computing also facilitates this.

Reduce administration costs

By moving IT infrastructure components to the cloud, businesses can virtually eliminate in-house IT administration costs. Round-the-clock support is provided, and all maintenance, patching and upgrading is automatically taken care of for you. Cloud computing simplifies IT management so that you can spend time focusing on your core business.

Get There Faster

Significantly reduce your time to market.

Speed of Deployment

Without the need to purchase expensive hardware, software or consultancy services to implement a new IT infrastructure, cloud computing customers can be operational in minutes. All good cloud computing providers should provide a web-based self-provisioning control panel to quickly deploy new services.

Level the Playing Field

Cloud computing has made it possible for smaller companies to compete on an even playing field. By implementing a cloud based infrastructure model, small to medium-sized businesses can take advantage of technologies previously only available to their larger competitors.

Flexibility

Don’t be held back by fixed computing capabilities.

Scalability

IT departments are created to service the peak usage needs of a business, however for most businesses, their IT needs are dynamic and change over time. For example, seasonal demand for a service or business growth can greatly affect a company’s IT requirements. Cloud computing allows the fluid scaling of resources to your current business needs. Self-service capabilities allow business administrators to instantly scale up or down rapidly, so that you never have to over provision again.

No long-term contracts

Most cloud computing providers do not required customers to sign long-term contracts. Customers simply pay month by month for exactly what they use.

Cloud Hosting Characteristics

Scalability & Elasticity

Cloud services can scale up or down to meet the changing needs of businesses

Self Service

Customers have the ability to easily add IT services themselves through web-based portals

Self-healing

Individual infrastructure components are duplicated and failover between each other to maintain service

Utility Style Billing

Customers are charged by the hour, day or month for exactly what they use.

Shared Infrastructure

The underlying computing infrastructure serves the needs of multiple customers

Web-based Access

Cloud services are delivered over the internet.

Cloud Building Blocks

Software as a Service

SaaS delivers software applications through a web browser using multi-tenant architecture. This means that applications share a common infrastructure that is accessed via the internet. For users, it means that there is no upfront investment in servers or software licensing. Key players in the SaaS market are Salesforce.com and Google Apps. Online email services such as Gmail and Yahoo mail are considered SaaS.

Platform as a Service

PaaS provides a platform for developers to create and upload code that is presented on the web. The backend systems are generally supported and maintained by the cloud provider. Good examples of this include third party applications on Facebook, Google App Engine and Force.com.

Platform as a Service

PaaS provides a platform for developers to create and upload code that is presented on the web. The backend systems are generally supported and maintained by the cloud provider. Good examples of this include third party applications on Facebook, Google App Engine and Force.com.