What are Cloud Services? Five reasons why more businesses are choosing the Cloud

The fact that you are reading this means you are already experiencing one small part of cloud services. From hosting content to delivering the most compute-intensive processes like genome sequencing, cloud services are the unseen digital forces that make our modern world informed, connected, entertained and a whole lot more.

What are Cloud Services?

At its bare essence, cloud services, or cloud computing, is the term used to describe  remote services (infrastructure, platforms, or software) hosted on the web for storing, managing and processing data. These enable businesses to deliver services across a wide range of requirements by allowing data access from almost any digital device or hardware, including servers, tablets, desktops, laptops, etc. All it takes is a digital device with an OS and internet connectivity. This, enabled with cheaper costs, freedom of scalability and the ability for anytime, anywhere access means enterprises can accelerate their digital transformation journey and focus more on innovation and growth.

Today, the cloud can help deliver many services, including data storage, management and analytics, content distribution, digital tools and applications, IoT, ML, AI and others.

Five Reasons Why Business choose Cloud Services

Having your skin in the game requires one to go digital. But even then, it takes a bit more strategic planning and execution to succeed. With business dynamics changing almost every second, it is imperative to not just keep up, but stay a step ahead. This is where cloud services when chosen with precise judgment and executed with finesse, and make all the difference. So, what makes businesses opt for cloud services? The top 5 reasons are:

Data Insights: It is no rocket science that data is the new oil. By simply being operational, most businesses generate tremendous volumes of data daily (structured and unstructured). This Big Data is a treasure trove of information, which, when sifted, can generate huge business potential almost on a continual basis. For many enterprises, on-premise data solutions may simply not be able to cope with the value or derive complex analytical insights to unlock the potential of Big Data. The cloud is simply a far better option with limitless storage and applications that deliver analytical capabilities that help make data-driven decisions.

Flexibility and Scalability: Different enterprises are on different phases of growth. From backyard start-ups to the world’s biggest corporations and everything in between, the cloud offers unmatched scalability – enabling them to scale up or down on the fly. By avoiding heavy investments in hardware, software, licensing, etc., businesses can be more agile and operate from anywhere with almost any modern digital device. This exceptional flexibility is a huge competitive advantage.

Efficient Collaboration: When it comes to collaboration, you can consider the cloud as a god-given gift for enterprises. Sharing and accessing information across teams, functions and geographies is now possible in real-time, thus driving efficiency and collaborative efforts at a never-before scale. Errors get reduced, decision-making is sped up and productivity gets a big boost.

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery: Perhaps never before in the history of human civilization did the world continue to function to a great extent in the midst of a disastrous global pandemic. And it was all thanks to the cloud. But even in the new normal, businesses continually face grave cybersecurity risks. Either way, cloud platforms with backups help in quick recovery, with almost zero or minimal downtime.

Simple and Cost-effective: Irrespective of the type of cloud services deployed, there are always significant CapEx and OpEx savings while reducing complexity. As the previous benefits already mentioned, there is no better option than the cloud. There is no boardroom in the world that can deny adopting cloud services over traditional systems or infrastructure.

What types of Cloud Services are Available?

Cloud services have evolved greatly in the last few years, making them ubiquitous. Perhaps there is no part of our life that is not touched by the power of cloud services. Watching a movie, hailing a cab, booking a ticket, ordering dinner – our everyday ordinary activities exist only because they have exploited the potential of cloud services. However, for enterprises to choose the cloud, it all depends on a few more technical categories that help narrow down the decision. The success of business objectives greatly depends on differentiating these categories vis-à-vis the requirements. These are:

• Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Platform as a Service (PaaS)
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
• Anything/Everything as a Service (XaaS)
• Function as a Service (FaaS)

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is industry jargon for delivering services and applications via the web without the hassle of installing and maintaining expensive software and hardware. With SaaS, you do not even have to install or run the apps since it is a full-suite software solution with the benefits of pay-per-use, faster deployment and on-demand scalability. Browser-based SaaS applications used in everyday operations are highly popular and preferred by most enterprises across all verticals.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

For enterprises with a need to build their own applications and services, PaaS is a great way for developers to harness the power of cloud computing. Since PaaS comes with hosted hardware and software on the cloud, just like SaaS, users can simply use a browser for application development. Plus, there is no need to purchase and manage the network, OS, servers and storage. A PaaS platform removes the burden of building and governing the infrastructure resources. Think of it like traveling – would you purchase the entire aircraft or just rent a seat to your destination? You can do either, but the journey is the same.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

The IaaS model is one that lets enterprises outsource computing infrastructure like networking hardware, devices, storage, OS with security and servers. You go for IaaS when you require granular control and your IT teams manage and provision required hardware and resources.  Sometimes also referred to as Hardware as a Service (HaaS), it can be paid for the time of its use, which could range from a few hours to years. It can even be charged on the basis of the amount of virtual machine space. This is another way to function cost-effectively in matters of hosting, security and maintenance.

Anything as a Service (XaaS)

Need a bit of this and a bit of that? Then ‘Everything as a Service’ is what you are looking for. Many cloud providers offer a bouquet of services that are more bespoke and may even feature other additions with custom payment modes.

Function as a Service (FaaS)

FaaS helps enterprises develop, compute, run and deploy the code or entire application as functions without worrying about maintenance. Unlike PaaS, FaaS is an event-driven execution model, meaning it exists in a serverless container and differs in costs and scalability. You look at FaaS as an option when the business requires a highly scalable solution based on demand. A typical FaaS model requires paying only for the number of execution times, while in Paas, it is usually a pay-as-you-go approach irrespective of how much or less it was used. In addition to cost advantage, the benefits of FaaS include high scalability, code simplification, less system control, and freedom to choose a programming language.

How to choose the Right Cloud Service Model

With multiple XaaS models, organizations need to get their cloud strategy right. Hexaware patented cloud transformation IP, the amaze^® platform, has been a game changer on this front. Amaze^® can perform a 100% automated assessment of your application portfolio and help you identify the most suitable model. Post the assessment, amaze^® enables a virtual pay-as-you-go IaaS model that transforms the application portfolio landscape from closed enterprise architectures to any open standard cloud “as-a-Service” platform.

To learn how to make the right choices on the suitable cloud service model with amaze^® and fast-track your cloud transformation journey check out the blog here.

For more information on Hexaware’s cloud services and solutions, please visit:

Need to broaden your horizons regarding enterprise cloud transformation? Our e-book is a great read to get ahead:

• https://hexaware.com/resource/amaze-enterprise-cloud-transformation/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiMhpqMx51c

Conclusion

The cloud is no longer a matter of if, but when. As blunt as it may sound, it is perhaps this observation by Joe Weinman, the author of Cloudonomics, that can sound even more so.

“Ultimately, the cloud is the latest example of Schumpeterian creative destruction: creating wealth for those who exploit it; and leading to the demise of those that don’t.”