This article will cover businesses that use cloud computing and the benefits, demand and supply of this form of cloud services to you.
- Uber – leverages the hybrid cloud approach with multiple cloud vendors around the globe managing cloud storage and database technology for its 10 million plus rides and cloud data analytics to aid its machine learning and artificial intelligence to help with navigation, location awareness and image recognition of licences, cars and faces.
- Dropbox – leverages vast cloud storage to keep the files we store synchronised and secure across our devices and across the cloud.
Cloud Computing Service Providers
The list of providers who can offer cloud computing services to businesses that use cloud computing in delivering their products or services.
- Amazon Web Services – A very secure, trusted and flexible cloud service provider with hosting, storage, email and many other services to help develop and meet your cloud computing needs.
- Microsoft Azure – another strong contender with great scalability and tools providing a solid platform for development and a number of cloud computing and cloud services to offer.
- Google Cloud Platform – completes the trio of the large well known tech brands delivering cloud computing and cloud services to business and consumers.
There are many more services available from companies like IBM, VMware, Oracle, Adobe and Rackspace. All of which offer varying cloud computing and storage services in a flexible manner.
Cloud Computing Consumers
Manufacturing
The manufacturing environment is by its nature a complex network of systems and hand-offs across the different business functions and stages product manufacture and delivery. The intricacies of product design, sourcing, tooling, prototype, build, test, production, packaging, inventory, delivery all have their own processes and systems in which their data and input is captured, processed, analysed, reported and stored.
Where cloud computing comes into its own for manufacturing is in simplifying the systems and processes used in a scalable single solution that has the performance, capability and accessibility to take the business from shop floor to top floor with unified, consistent, reliable, and robust data and reporting.
With this level of system and functionality the organisation may expect a vast cost but cloud enables a cost effective approach and unified implementation reducing the complexity in the business and building a platform for the future.
Benefits to Businesses that use Cloud Computing
The key benefits to the businesses that use cloud computing are clear and is a major driver of adoption and a bigger push to greater migration from on-premise with its own legacy support costs and resource needs to a cloud based SaaS or PaaS solution or system to support and deliver their core businesses.
- Data analytics / Business Intelligence – placing your data in the cloud and leveraging the cloud computing power and scale of the cloud storage model is a huge advantage for businesses that use cloud computing. Maturity of the cloud platforms for data analytics and business intelligence is a key benefit in functionality and cost terms.
- Disaster Recovery/High Availability – the cloud’s capability to deliver infrastructure that can cope with your business’ demands is proving to be a real un-blocker for organisations. They no longer have to expend resource and management effort on keeping the lights on, a cloud computing provider is able to focus on that while they focus on growing their core business.
- Accessibility / work from anywhere – cloud services are available through a browser so if you an get to the internet then you can get to your services. This is a big deal for many industries and organisations with large workforces giving them the ability to reduce reliance on office space and all the desk along with all the infrastructure that goes with it. A significant saving per head and a productivity boost to the workforce in being able to work flexibly.
- Scalability – a number of smaller businesses and startups have the cyclical problem of earning enough to invest in more resources that in turn enable them to grow and earn more to invest in even more resources to earn more. The cloud computing platforms of today enable startups and small businesses to leverage on-demand fractions of large infrastructure nad resources thereby paying for only what they need without the large investment up-front in infrastructure. A number of these organisations implement an ERP Transformation to provides even greater scalability.
