The enterprise market for cloud computing services has grown tremendously over the past decade. Not only are these services more powerful and competitive than ever, but they are also incredibly accessible thanks to the popularization of IT outsourcing. If you feel like your company is not making the most out of your cloud solutions (or you don’t have any at all), now is the time to make it a vital element of your infrastructure.
However, the difficult choices come when it’s time to implement cloud-based solutions. Every business wants to use the cloud—most just don’t know how to do it. And while the digital transformation journey of every company is vastly different, there are a few things you can always look for in enterprise cloud computing services.
What are Enterprise Cloud Computing Services?
Let’s start at the beginning. The term “enterprise cloud computing” dates back to 2006, with the launch of Amazon Web Services (AWS). Although it started as a storage-only service, AWS really kicked off the market for custom cloud solutions that could satisfy the complex and growing needs of large enterprises.
Today, we define Enterprise Cloud Computing Services as a computing model that allows businesses to access IT resources from a public or private provider. These resources include servers, data storage, processing power, and network infrastructure. Enterprises opt for cloud computing for a variety of reasons, such as cost-efficiency, enterprise resilience, and cybersecurity.
Based on their architecture, there are four different types of enterprise cloud computing services:
- Private Cloud: As you can imagine, private cloud architecture is built upon the resources owned and used by an enterprise. This is the most expensive option to access cloud computing services, as it requires organizations to develop and maintain their own cloud infrastructure in-house.
- Public Cloud: Public cloud providers are all over the internet and offer their services to anyone who wishes to subscribe to them. The public cloud leverages a distributed infrastructure where common operations (computing, storage, and networking) are deployed separately.
- Hybrid Cloud: Some enterprises choose the hybrid cloud to meet their computing needs. This way, they can combine the low-cost infrastructure of the public cloud while using private cloud infrastructure to secure sensitive data. Industries that manage massive amounts of personal data, like the healthcare sector, tend to prefer the hybrid cloud.
- Multi-Cloud: The multi-cloud combines a private cloud architecture with public cloud services from different vendors. Although it’s very similar to the hybrid cloud, the multi-cloud offers another level of flexibility by distributing risk across many cloud computing services.
What to Look for in Cloud Computing
Cloud computing services are built upon flexibility, so you can be sure there is a service out there that matches your needs. If you are considering implementing, customizing, or scaling your current cloud-based technologies, these are the things you need to keep an eye out for.
Storage Space
Any enterprise-level company deals with massive amounts of data on a daily basis. At first, building your own physical server station may seem like the easiest option. You would have complete control over it and could access it anytime. However, the costs of building and maintaining all the software and hardware necessary to run such a complex infrastructure can quickly get out of hand.
Most of the time, enterprises use virtual servers stored off-premises. This prevents them from using local resources (like space and employee time) to manage their storage. With the speed of internet connections these days, the difference between local-access and internet-access data is minimal.
Computing Resources
Some cloud providers focus more on computing resources than storage space itself. In fact, cloud computing has become a heavily demanded service for enterprises to run operations and manage projects from anywhere at any time. This is especially useful for development teams that need to access resource libraries and components at the same time.
More often than not, cloud services will provide independent infrastructures for each project, making it easier for your enterprise to synergize workflows. So, if your main goal is to facilitate collaboration between teams that perform complex cloud operations, looking for a service that offers powerful computing resources is a priority.
Scalability & Flexibility
If you are using enterprise cloud computing, then flexibility and scalability are a must. The right cloud environment should allow your company to solve problems as needed, whether that means scaling services up or down. Because of this, services offered under a flat rate or fixed amounts are often not the best way to go. Today, the majority of enterprises choose a pay-as-you-use model, so the organization doesn’t have to pay for anything they don’t use or don’t need.
However, what’s most important is customization. Your cloud computing services partner should be able to create a detailed technology roadmap of your solutions and create a customized approach through which your company can achieve its goals.
Getting Started with Cloud Computing
Years ago, enterprises had to find and hire several specialists just to get a basic cloud infrastructure running. That’s no longer the case. Getting access to custom cloud computing solutions is as easy as reaching out to an IT outsourcing company. No matter the size or complexity of your project, outsourcing cloud computing services will get you where you want to be.
