Cloud computing is the latest “rage” in IT, with both benefits and drawbacks. Some of the benefits include cost savings (for varied workloads), allowing IT to focus on applications and unlimited access regardless of the location. Some of the drawbacks are cost (for consistent workloads) and service levels that are less flexible. (For a more detailed look, refer to Logical Front’s article on eXtensile Hybrid Cloud.
These three IT needs are signs that your business may be a great fit for the cloud.
1. Your internal employee time for hardware support is limited
Technology is changing all the time, which means a computer that was added three or four years ago can have limited usefulness today. So there is a continuous need for hardware support. Normally, the people assigned to provide this support have other responsibilities as well. Your in-house staff has limited time, and it’s hard to manage all your IT organization needs, especially if there are not enough employees. On the other hand, hiring new employees means additional expenses and often push back from your organization. Cloud computing can alleviate this issue and allow your IT department to focus on things more strategically important to the organization. Most cloud computing solutions don’t require hardware support because it is provided as part of the solution. This means you don’t have to worry about updates and upgrades conducted by the cloud provider. In addition, utilizing a cloud computing solution reduces the need for additional staff.
2. You have insufficient power and/or cooling to add additional systems
Computer and network systems need high amounts of energy, as well as adequate cooling solutions, in order to provide optimal performance. According to some statistics, the cost of cooling and powering is more than 50% of the overall operational expenditure related to computer and network systems.
As an organization grows, it needs more servers for increased processing, which leads to additional expenses to acquire these servers. Even if an organization accepts these increased expenses, it’s often virtually impossible to get the power they need because of the existing infrastructure. Investing in new power and cooling infrastructure is an expense that many organizations can’t afford.
Cloud computing will resolve this issue simply by taking place in a remote data center with the cloud provider taking care of the energy consumption and cooling needs. Cloud solution providers have designed their data centers for enormous scale and growth, and end user organizations don’t have to worry about infrastructure constraints.
3. You have insufficient space to add additional systems
Just like desktops, servers require physical space. But unlike desktops, a single server system can take up rooms of space. Whether they are made up of servers, storage, networking devices and other pieces of IT technology in your server room, most organizations have special rooms (a server room) or even entire floors (a data center) where they keep their IT equipment. These spaces are often planned before the organization starts operating in that office space. However, as the organization grows and expands, more space is often needed to add additional systems. Sometimes that space can be found, but what can you do once you run out of space?
Cloud computing will not only save server room or data center space, but could save money and time while supporting scalability.
Cloud computing can help you when you have limited time and staff, constraints around your power and/or cooling, or when you are running out of room in your physical server space.
If you notice that you need help with these things, you should definitely take cloud computing into account and look for a professional IT solution provider, like Logical Front, which offers efficient cloud solutions for organizations of any size.
Do you want to understand where cloud computing might fit in your organization? Reach out to us and we will give you a free assessment to determine if/where cloud computing can best be integrated in your organization.