Cloud computing is one of the most disruptive technologies brought by the digital revolution. The technology started gaining traction in the early 2000s, with companies like Amazon moving their data from physical to cloud-based servers, but it has become crucial during the pandemic.
Here’s how it works and why the business world will never be the same again.
Up to the Clouds
Today, cloud computing is so related to ultra-fast internet and advanced digital technologies that it’s hard to believe that the concept was created in the 1960s, at the dawn of the internet. It took about 40 years for it to become a practical reality, but now, it’s impossible to imagine the world without it.
At first, only big tech companies like Microsoft and Google invested in it. Soon, it was adopted by other industries. For instance, L’Oreal has invested in cloud-based solutions using QMS Software. Since the pandemic, businesses of all sizes had to jump into cloud computing, as remote work is nearly impossible without it.
When companies used to store data on land-based servers, workers had to be on the premises to access it. Meanwhile, cloud-based databases are accessible from anywhere, allowing for seamless collaboration between workers from different locations and even different countries. Handling task management can be challenging when employees are scattered around the map, but not with cloud computing.
Key Advantages and Their Impact
Cloud space isn’t cheap, but for companies, it’s still cheaper than buying and maintaining their own servers. Additionally, companies can rely on IT services from cloud providers, which means they don’t need to spend money on large IT teams. Data security is also up to providers now, and they handle it superbly with features like heavy encryption and granular access.
Besides, physical servers have limited storage capacity; cloud-based servers don’t. So, when businesses want to increase their storage capacity, they don’t need to buy new servers; they just need to upgrade their plans with providers. Scalability has never been so easy.
Since it allows for seamless remote collaboration, businesses are no longer restricted to the local workforce and hire the best professionals from all over the world. So, it has also become a competitive advantage over companies that still do business the old-fashioned way.
How It Works
Despite the name, cloud computing happens above the clouds, where satellites share information from multiple physical data centers and servers. So, the key change here isn’t getting rid of physical servers but connecting them efficiently, allowing for remote access.
During feudalism, people used to say there was no land without a landlord and no landlord without lands; the same goes for cloud-based servers. Every cloud space is owned by a host company responsible for storing information in huge data centres and keeping them safe.
Creating such structures takes a lot of money and quite complex technology, which means very few companies can “create” their own cloud space. So, they buy it from providers like Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and others.