With the rise in cloud usage by both professionals as well as regular users, the need for servers has increased rapidly. Earlier, the entire computing process was created and managed by the organization, or else they cannot run their software applications. Not only was it a tedious task but consumed a lot of money as well. However, the improving technology came up with a solution called Cloud Computing. This article will talk all about cloud computing, its types, languages, and other numerous things.

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is providing the entire package of computing services to the user over the internet. This mode of software delivery has created a new model that is used by organizations. In the traditional method, the company plans to provide software to the user. Not only has to bear the cost of developing the software but the hardware aspects as well. In cloud computing, the organization does not have to obtain or manage any physical servers as these are done by a third-party provider. 

Furthermore, the biggest limitation in the traditional method was that in most of the cases, the physical servers held by the organization were not utilized up to their potential, making these resources go in vain. This factor made computing solutions expensive for small-scale enterprises. However, cloud computing has solved this issue by providing the companies only what they need. Cloud computing solutions are customizable and the users can determine how much cloud storage or services they need depending on their requirements. Doing so ensures that they only get sufficient server space for their task, allowing them to cut unnecessary expenses. 

Models of Cloud Computing

As mentioned above, cloud computing has given organizations the option to customize the services as per their requirements. With that in mind, there are four different models of cloud computing that organizations can choose from. 

• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS): Software-as-a-Service is among the most widely used cloud computing models in the present time. Here the software service or the application is provided through the internet by using a web browser. In the majority of cases, the services are delivered on a subscription basis, but it entirely varies with the software and the organization providing it. The biggest benefit of using SaaS for an organization is the eradication of hosting and managing the software application and the infrastructure. Be it software upgrades, maintaining the physical server, or adding a security layer to the program, everything is handled by the cloud computing service provider. Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Slack, and MailChimp are some of the biggest examples of SaaS programs. 
• Function-as-a-Service (Faas): Also referred to as serverless computing, this cloud computing model segregates the code into smaller components that are triggered upon a certain action and will only be used when needed. Akin to other models, they also run on servers, but the user does not have to manage any server for building or using the software. One key factor about the FaaS model is that even though it is similar to the IaaS model, it does not use its resources until an event triggers it. Due to this reason, the pay-per-use fee is only charged only when it is actually used. Top cloud providers including Microsoft Azure Functions, IBM OpenWhisk, and AWS Lambda provide FaaS.  
• Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS): Providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) offer Infrastructure-as-a-Service where they offer a virtual server and storage along with an application programming interface where the users can migrate their workload to a virtual machine. Depending on the requirements of the users, these providers can offer large, medium, and small storage capacity where they have the ability to start, stop, access, and modify the virtual machines. In other words, IaaS lets users create a data center virtually without the need to bear the expenses of acquiring or maintaining physical servers or data centers. Apart from AWS, Google Compute Engine, and DigitalOcean are some other IaaS providers.
• Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS): When it comes to building an application, resources like operating systems, development tools, and infrastructure are necessary. In the Platform-as-a-Service model, the vendors provide all these resources to the organization over the internet to build their applications and they do not have to pay for any hosted application. Rather than getting all the resources available, the companies only get the resources they truly need to build the applications, hence saving a lot of their expenses for completing this action. The vendor will be the one maintaining the resources as well as the infrastructure. Google App Engine and AWS Elastic Beanstalk are some of the biggest examples of PaaS products. 

Types of Cloud Deployments

The models of cloud computing showcase the way how services are provided in cloud computing. However, there are several types of cloud deployments that vary with their nature, management, and other numerous factors.

1. Public Cloud: As the name suggests, Public clouds are cloud environments that are not owned by direct users. The location of most of the public clouds is not on the premises of the user. Rather they are located in different areas of the globe and a certain amount of the cloud is given to the user. Providers like Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft Azure offer public clouds to tons of organizations. Even though the cloud is public, the access to the specific data owned by the end-user is restricted, and only authorized subscribers can use the resources. 
2. Private Cloud: Every cloud environment made solely for an individual user or a group is a private cloud. Only the owner uses and maintains the cloud and it mostly runs behind their firewall as well. In other words, a private cloud is any cloud whose IT infrastructure is dedicated to a single entity. In most cases, the private cloud is located on the user’s premises and only they are authorized to access it. However, with the changing trends, the need of having a private cloud on-premises is changing. Private clouds can now be rented on off-premises data centers, making the ownership of the cloud easier for the end-user. 
3. Hybrid Clouds: Hybrid cloud is the perfect blend between public and private cloud that has an orchestration between them. In this cloud computing, the organizations may get a public or a private cloud and switch between the two whenever necessary or when requirements change. One of the best things about hybrid cloud is that they provide the utmost flexibility and better deployment options to the user including network and hosting. Furthermore, by choosing the right environment for the set purpose, hybrid clouds are proven to be better at cost management than the other two. 
4. Multi-Cloud: When it comes to using cloud services, a single cloud provider is preferred to support one or more applications by an organization. Multi-cloud deployment is where several cloud services are used from multiple providers. The reason why multi-cloud setup is used by legions of organizations is that they reduce the dependency of the organization on any single cloud service provider. Even though it is rare with reliable cloud providers, downtime still persists that can hamper the overall functioning of the organization. Multi-cloud deployment saves such organizations by minimizing the effect of downtime or data loss by a provider. 

Top Cloud Computing Languages

Now that you have understood about different types of cloud computing models and deployment types, it is essential to know about different cloud computing languages to work proficiently with the cloud. Below are some of the best programming languages for cloud computing that are widely used in the industry. 

1. PHP: Created in 1994, PHP is one of the most popular programming languages due to its easy manipulation and learning. It is a server-side language that is preferred for web development and is maintained by the PHP Development Team. With an excellent output buffer, PHP runs exponentially well on UNIX as well as Windows servers.Furthermore, its great dynamism makes it highly effective in building dynamic and feature-rich applications. Be it a small website or a large-scale web application, its object-oriented nature allows the developer to build what they want from this programming language. Having extended support for legions of database management systems along with compatibility with all the industry-leading operating systems has made this language one of the primary preferences of developers.PHP is easy to learn, fast, open-source, and comes with great community support that makes it a reliable programming language. It works by sending an HTTP request to the web server through the browser. Afterward, the PHP preprocessor will process the PHP code to create the HTML document which is sent back to the web browser through the webserver.  
2. Python: Considered as one of the first best programming languages, Python is the primary preference of new developers. This backend programming language can be utilized for web scraping, creating, and scripting data sets. Python can also be used as web programming as it can send and receive web requests. One herculean reason why Python is preferred by new developers is that it is easy to learn. Its syntax is highly similar to English which makes learning and practicing uncomplicated as compared to other languages.Even though it is great for beginners, it does not signify that it lacks any functionality. Rather, it is considered a high-level programming language due to its extensive nature, object-oriented approach, and graphical user interface programming support. Apart from that, Python can help in DevOps automation as well. 
3. Java: Whenever a talk about the best programming languages takes place, Java is the name that is always mentioned. Being called one of the best languages for cloud computing, Java is used by legions of developers around the globe. Java is an object-oriented language that is based on an independent platform. However, the best factor about Java is its versatility.Whether it is an application for desktop, mobile device, website, or a video game, Java can be used for creating all. Java is suited for creating all the aforementioned applications. Moreover, cloud computing platforms built using Java support all the major operating systems including Linux, Windows, and iOS.With the support of ahead-of-time compilation for several frameworks, using serverless architecture is also possible with Java. When it comes to security, then Java is categorized into some of the safest languages for cloud security. Several leading clouds like Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud Platform provide extended support for Java in their software development kits.Java is considered to be a suitable language for both new as well as experienced developers. The multithreaded feature of Java helps the developers in creating interactive applications that can perform several tasks simultaneously and function without a hiccup. With its adaptive nature, Java is often called more dynamic than other programming languages. 
4. Ruby on Rails: If you are looking for a cloud computing language that is beginner friendly but does not compromise on any functionality, then Ruby on Rails is the one you should try. This language is not only easy to use but is highly reliable and functional. For new users, Ruby on Rails comes with over 50,000 libraries and frameworks that can be used to make application development easier and more efficient. All these libraries can be used to build any type of software on the cloud.Beginner developers tend to face certain unknown issues while building their programs. Rather than scratching their head while finding the right solution for their issue, they can take advantage of the broad ecosystem of the Ruby on Rails community. The community consists of all levels of developers and there are stances that the same issue might be faced by someone else previously. Instead of waiting for the solution, you can quickly understand the resolution from the community.  
5. ASP.Net: Owned by the tech goliath Microsoft, ASP.NET is another popular language for cloud computing that is preferred by several new-age developers. The reason why this language has gained immense popularity is its ability to develop both web applications and websites. In addition, the created program or app through this language can be dynamic and supports all the major browsers as well.Using ASP.NET reduces the overall use of large code while building large-scale applications. When it comes to the security of the data, then this language comes with integrated Windows authentication. Cutting it short, with .NET, you can create modern, scalable, and fast cloud applications on all the industry-leading cloud platforms. 
6. Node.js: In the current scenario where quick software delivery is the priority, developers want a language that is fast and scalable. Running on the blazingly fast Google JS engine, Node.js is a fast and scalable cloud programming language that is extremely easy to manipulate. Moreover, this language is proven to be effective in developing end-to-end applications. Node.js is highly reliable in creating applications with vast connections due to its non-blocking and asynchronous communication pattern.
7. Golang: Golang is an uncommon cloud computing language that is used by several developers in server development. Mainly used for the development of applications for robots, IoT, and drones, this language comes with advanced tools for parallelism management and a reliable framework. Even though the users are limited, its functionalities for the app categories mentioned above are highly useful, making it among the top programming languages for the cloud today.

Understanding cloud computing along with different cloud computing languages is essential for cloud engineers. Apart from knowing about the languages, another major aspect is to pick the best cloud service provider that can fulfill the needs of the application or the organization. ThinkSys Inc provides the best cloud computing services to different organizations. The cloud team at ThinkSys Inc consists of highly experienced IT infrastructure management professionals who offer top-notch cloud computing services. Furthermore, ThinkSys partnership with several cloud providers ensures that you get the best support and consultation with the service.

From implementation to support service, ThinkSys offer all the cloud computing services that you need. 

Cloud computing is now the core component of the modern technology ecosystem, for businesses of all sizes and kinds. Rather than investing in very costly hardware, enterprises are building out their IT infrastructure with heavily integrated and managed cloud architecture.

But what should an enterprise do while choosing and implementing the ideal cloud infrastructure for their ecosystem? It requires an in-depth understanding of the different cloud computing approaches enterprises can follow to enhance their workflow productivity and maximize results.

Why are enterprises actively choosing Cloud Computing?

Enterprise cloud computing, as we know it today, is not an old practice. It dates back to 19 years ago when Amazon Web Services (AWS) was launched in July 2002. Today, as more and more enterprises undergo digital transformation, they are opting for the flexibility and scalability of cloud computing. Other key driving factors include:

• Overall cost reduction.
• Better security.
• Time-saving.
• Scope of innovation.
• Disaster recovery solutions.

Types of enterprise cloud architecture

To choose the best cloud computing approach for your enterprise, let us understand the four main categories of cloud computing.

• Public:The most common cloud computing approach, public cloud services, are available over the internet for all those who subscribe. The most common public cloud service providers include Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and VMware Cloud on AWS. These cloud service providers are hosted by large companies with huge data centers to contain sizable virtual resources.

Public cloud can be the way to go for your enterprise, in cases like:

• Companies with fluctuating levels of utilization, without requiring governance or control over the data in situ, can opt for the public cloud.
• Applications in their development and testing phase work perfectly in a public cloud environment.
• Web applications are also good to host on the public cloud as the public cloud models have localized delivery, closer to the end user’s access point.
• Private: 

  For enterprises concerned about their data security, the private cloud offers better controls than the public cloud. The private cloud means dedicated usage of all hardware and software by any organization. While some enterprises develop their own private cloud infrastructure, some also collaborate with managed service providers who can host secure private cloud networking infrastructure. It is great for companies that deal with highly sensitive data or classified information.

  Private cloud can be a more expensive choice, but if your industry demands secrecy or other specific criteria to follow, private cloud is your way to go. Other conditions where private cloud can be the ideal selection, are:

  • As private cloud guarantees complete ownership of data, databases can be effectively stored there.
  • In a private cloud, you have complete control over your entire data stack.
  • Private clouds also enable companies to adopt intuitive GUI and simplified tools.
  • For organizations requiring more flexibility and scalability, private cloud computing makes sense.
• Hybrid:

To have a seamless, secure, and synced cloud environment, hybrid cloud computing or multiple deployment models are chosen. Hybrid cloud computing is a combination of private, public, and pre-existing on-premise infrastructure. All the separate instances have several integrations, yet they operate independently without any data leak from one system to another. It is entirely in the enterprise’s hands to decide which data, resources, and applications they want to keep in their private environment and what goes to the public cloud, and how these different sets of information interact.

The major benefit of hybrid infrastructure is that it offers speed and flexibility while also utilizing any pre-existing infrastructure that the enterprise may have. Hybrid cloud tends to be the go-to choice for many enterprises, for the following reasons:

• If you want to have an easily accessible private cloud infrastructure but also have disaster recovery needs, you can opt to save the less sensitive data on public clouds and pay for only the services that you use. A hybrid cloud can be very flexible and cost-effective.
• With the right hybrid combination, cloud adoption can get easier as it allows the enterprise to grow and innovate faster without moving entirely to the cloud environment.
• As privacy and security is a major concern with public cloud and private cloud can be very expensive, using a hybrid model and utilizing both resources as needed, is the ideal scenario.
• Another benefit of hybrid cloud model is cloud bursting. Cloud bursting refers to expanding to a public cloud during higher demands and scaling back to the original server when the surge is over. The additional public cloud resources are only rented for the time being.
• For Big Data organizations, hybrid cloud can help in personalizing their news, e-commerce, and social media promotions as per the user behavior.
• Hybrid cloud is also faster and greatly scalable, with potential for real-time interactions, improving the overall customer experience.
• Multi-cloud:

A more recent approach, multi-cloud computing strategy refers to using two or more (multiple) public clouds, as the name suggests. It is different from hybrid cloud computing as hybrid has both public or private deployment models, but multi-cloud uses two or more public clouds.

Multi-cloud can be the right choice for your enterprise, if:

• You have a strong on-premise infrastructure that you need to expand with public networks.
• As price-competitive cloud services, multi-cloud aligns with the speed, capacity, and scalability requirements of your enterprise.
• For enterprises that have rapidly changing business requirements such as major surges during a particular season, multi-cloud infrastructure can be beneficial.
• Multi-cloud is also a good approach for industries that cannot afford downtime due to any failure in a localized infrastructure.

What should be your pick?

If your company has long postponed cloud migration, maybe it is now time to actively start working on it. For the best cloud computing approach for your enterprise, you must thoroughly go through the implications of each type. Create a list of services that you wish to avail of from your cloud computing strategy.
Following the best match for your enterprise can also include an organization-centric approach, along with a workload-centric approach. So, pick out that one cloud computing approach for your enterprise, and be ready to transform your business through enterprise cloud computing.

Cloud Computing is now an essential technology with more benefits continuously emerging and driving up usage with every passing day. By some estimates, the cloud market is worth over 300 billion USD with SaaS offerings being on the top of the charts followed by IaaS and PaaS solutions respectively.

Some reports say that by 2022, the SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS global market size will be 172 billion USD, 122 billion USD, and 101 billion USD respectively.

As users grow, use-cases surge, and usage rises, optimal and effective resource sharing becomes critical to effectively serve users on cloud apps and services.

Multi-tenant architecture makes that possible by enabling them to effectively get the resources they need.

What is Multi-tenant Architecture?

Single-tenant architectures dedicate infrastructure to specific users. Multi-tenant architectures utilize advanced scheduling algorithms and virtualization to divide infrastructure amongst multiple users whilst maintaining strict isolation between tenant workloads and strive to impart “single tenant” experience to the tenants. That leads to greater scalability and flexibility.

Multi-tenant Architecture Benefits for Cloud Apps

The multi-tenant architecture has a positive impact on cloud service delivery. In this architecture, multiple customers share the same resources, such as the hardware, storage, network, etc. The cloud provider applies overarching rules to address performance expectations. However, the provider ensures that the architecture does not compromise the privacy and security of the customers and their datasets.

#1: Better Flexibility and Scalability –

The cloud vendors only have to update a single application or codebase and the changes reflect for all the users. Upgrades are often easier with the multi-tenant architecture with changes instantly visible to the customers. The architecture also supports greater agility and responsiveness.

#2: Cost-Savings –

There is a positive impact on costs. The server/cloud needs for applications with multi-tenant architecture are proportionally lesser than for single-tenant architecture. The maintenance costs also go down with this environment. As a result, cost savings are possible for the cloud providers as well as the customers.

#3: Optimal Resource Usage –

This is one of the primary benefits of using multi-tenant architecture for cloud applications. With these architectures comes the ability to utilize the same infrastructure and resources to address multiple needs. The data centers also do not require individual increments for every single customer. This allows providers to utilize every bit of the considerable computing power the servers and other devices in the ecosystem command. All of this brings down the performance overheads while maximizing resource usage.

Types of Multi-tenant Architecture for Cloud Apps

End-users may have different priorities for a cloud app depending upon the type of application, information categories, user types, and interfaces. Multi-tenant architecture comes with the following two options to suit these customer requirements and priorities.

Type #1: One App Instance, One Database –

In this multi-tenant architecture, a single instance of the cloud application supports one database. The users accessing the application have their data present in the same database. With the increase in the number of users, the multi-tenant architecture enhances the resources and capacity to offer better scalability. The costs also come down due to the concept of resource sharing.

There are, however, a few drawbacks to this option. The primary drawback is the noisy-neighbor effect. In such a case, network performance issues may emerge for one or more tenants due to the other tenant using a majority of the available resources.

Type #2: One App Instance, Several Databases:

This is the multi-tenant architecture that includes one instance of the cloud application and supports multiple databases. There is a mapping of a dedicated database for each of the tenants. The maintenance and management of these database instances are also independent of one another. This brings down the overall complexity levels and also introduces ease of management. The drawback around the noisy neighbor effect in one app instance, one database option is also not present in this case. However, the option has lower scalability and higher costs. It can be expensive to have a separate data storage space. To promote scalability, additional database nodes can also have adverse implications on the costs.

To Sum Up Multi-tenant Architecture:

The demand for cloud apps is rising due to the wide range of benefits made possible with cloud technology. That being the case, for cloud providers, the challenge is to provide an acceptable level of services without letting infrastructure costs get out of hand. In that situation, multi-tenant architecture for cloud apps promotes scalability, flexibility, and cost savings through effective resource sharing and utilization.

Cloud Computing has become an essential technology for most businesses across the globe. 94% of all enterprises use cloud computing in one form or the other. According to a study, the total data on the cloud will be 100 Zettabytes by 2025.

We know that the three key cloud models are Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

What is IaaS Cloud?

Infrastructure-as-a-Service, IaaS is one of the key cloud service delivery models and it provides access to cloud resources as per the business’s requirements. The cloud service provider completely manages the cloud infrastructure in the case of IaaS. The users manage the applications, data, middleware, runtime, and the operating system while the cloud service provider takes care of virtualization, storage, networking, and hardware. With so many software products being offered in cloud-friendly and SaaS models, more ISVs and software companies are turning to IaaS for the benefits the model offers.

Let’s know more.

IaaS Uses and Benefits for Software Companies

1. Control Virtual Machines

Software companies can manage their platform at the architectural level with the adoption of the IaaS cloud model. These companies have complete control over the applications and the data along with the middleware and the OS without worrying about the memory, servers, and virtualization. It enables software firms to easily design and implement their own IaaS software from virtual machines. The organizations need not set up massive infrastructure as the hardware side becomes the responsibility of the service provider.

IaaS is specifically designed to meet the business needs of enterprise-level organizations. IaaS also offers significant benefits with the hybrid on-premises cloud.

Apart from such services, IaaS cloud providers have recently come up with IaaS+ services. These include useful services, such as messaging queues, databases, and others. Such services offer great utility for the software companies and add to the modularity of the organizations. For example, a cloud provider can manage the organization’s database while the employees can handle the raw code to create new software packages customized to the business requirements.

2. Scalability and Flexibility

The world of cloud products has lowered the exit barriers for customers . Consumers can switch products and tools more easily. In fact, this flexibility is one of the key value propositions of the cloud for enterprises. That apart, usage can also quickly peak and dip based on seasonal, opportunistic, and trendy events. For the products companies, this means customer growth can surge at times and drop at others. To maintain an edge cloud product companies must have scalability and flexibility in their services and operations. IaaS enables organizations to modify their infrastructure as per such changing needs.

3. Cost-Savings

Cost-savings are among the pivotal objectives for any organization. Software companies can benefit in this area with the adoption of the IaaS cloud model. These are challenging times for the software industry. With costs always being under pressure, limited budgets are being allotted to the IT infrastructure. IaaS can easily provide such businesses with cost savings in the setup and maintenance of the infrastructure. Even a new venture in the software space need not make initial investments in servers and storage with the IaaS model. This also significantly brings down the recurring maintenance costs.

Such cost-savings can be very productive for start-ups, and small/mid-scale software companies. IaaS provides a pay-as-you-go system to handle the costs according to budget constraints.

4. Innovative IT Support

IT support is an important functional area within any software company. With IaaS, software companies need not worry about server IT support. IaaS providers manage all these activities with the software company left only to manage the IT support on their specific applications and platforms. IaaS has brought this massive shift in the focus of IT support teams. IaaS has also significantly enhanced the efficiency of the infrastructure. It has also brought down the hardware support requirements.

5. IaaS and Information Security

Information security is one of the areas that software companies need to manage with the implementation of the IaaS model.

Software companies operating in the cloud need to have a special focus on data security. Data, for instance, constantly moves between on-premises and cloud resources. The absence of data encryption is one of the major loopholes enabling attackers to breach information security. The misconfiguration of cloud resources is another error by software companies resulting in the violation of information security and privacy.

With the IaaS model, the companies get control over the data sets and are accountable for managing the security and privacy of the data. Measures, such as data encryption, careful configuration, advanced access control, and continuous monitoring are essential to maintain information security and privacy.

In the End

Software companies can derive a massive range of benefits from the IaaS cloud. The cloud model offers flexible servers and dynamic storage with complete control over the applications and platforms. It is essential for companies to carefully manage the security of their data and applications to gain the most out of the IaaS cloud capabilities. Adopting IaaS can help software companies dramatically improve their flexibility, agility, and resilience. All that, while managing costs.

Schedule a Meet for any IaaS Related Services

Companies made the inevitable transition to cloud computing as it was scalable and required less infrastructure expenditure. All they needed was a remote virtual server that could be physically in a data center miles away or continents apart. However, as the dependency on virtual servers increased, companies found it difficult and time-consuming to manage their software stacks in a distributed environment. It also started becoming expensive as developers over-provisioned server resources to manage traffic or activity spike, which went underutilized at most times. To achieve a cost-effective and manageable solution, developers building cloud products or web apps started to turn towards serverless technologies.

Serverless computing enabled these developers to write and deploy code without worrying about the infrastructure. The code was run in a stateless container and was triggered during events such as a file upload or an alert, or during an HTTP request.

That’s not all; serverless technology allowed developers to build a complete stack of serverless applications and serverless frameworks that would drive how the serverless applications should be built. They could also build serverless databases. So, there was no pressure of provisioning or maintaining a database.

According to Gartner, more than 20% of global companies would have deployed serverless technology by the end of 2020.

However, what does it mean for business, and how is it beneficial to end-users?

Let’s explore to know more.

How Can Serverless Technologies Benefit Businesses?

1. Reduces dependency on backend infrastructure: 

   Developers are often bogged down by roadblocks such as provisioning, configuring, and managing backend infrastructure. Serverless technology removes that stress. It ensures that the developer focuses only on developing and deploying application code. The service provider looks after the provisioning, managing, and scaling of the infrastructure. There are two types of serverless computing:

   • Backend-as-a-service (BaaS): In this case, the developer does not have to create a backend for the databases, storage, authentication, etc. for each of the apps they build. They can link them all by using SDKs and APIs provided by the service provider. They can focus on the front-end and the user experience they provide.
   • Function-as-a-service (FaaS): In this case, the applications are separated into individual functions. The service provider manages the execution. This reduces the complexity of managing applications and improves productivity and agility in the development process.

2. Reduces overhead costs:

   Serverless technologies are, obviously, an apt solution for companies who want to cut their overhead expenses. It does not require the same level of maintenance or human resources as technologies dependent on servers.  In fact, since developers do not have to worry about building the infrastructure from scratch, they can focus on managing the front-end. The other advantage of adopting serverless technologies is that infrastructure is priced based on usage. So, if the code is not running, the company does not have to pay for it. They just have to pay for the number of executions and the memory usage. This also becomes a valuable benefit for the end-users of the product or app when it passes into their hands.

3. Scalability is events-based:
   

   Events in this context could mean uploading a new file or a video or an email being sent through an email sending service. These events change based on situations. Scalability cannot always be predicted. Hence, over-purchasing the server resources and underutilizing, while the norm, isn’t a viable solution. With serverless technologies, companies need not worry about scalability. The scalability depends upon an event. Every time an event occurs, a code is executed in response. This saves the company from spending on unnecessary infrastructure and resources.

4. Reduces latency:
   

   Latency issues are a nightmare for developers. Imagine an application taking hours to download a file or an image. The end-user might lose patience with the application. Especially in the context of today’s digital consumer, speed is critical. According to Walmart, even a one-second improvement in page load time can improve conversions by 2%. One of the reasons for latency is the distance between the client’s device and the server responding to it. However, serverless technology can address this issue. Serverless technologies thrive on edge locations that are close to the end-user. So, the information doesn’t have to travel far. This allows for faster exchange of information to fix the latency issue.

5. Faster go-to-market: 

   As the backend and other technical bottlenecks are taken care of, the developer can focus on writing the application code and deploying it. According to a survey by Dashbird, companies can save four developer work days by taking the serverless route. Even the delivery speed has reportedly been improved by 77% after using serverless technology. Developers also get time to experiment more and launch innovative products rapidly. This can add value to the business and give the company a competitive advantage over others.

How Can Serverless Technologies Benefit End-Users?

Considering that serverless technologies enable companies to experiment and create innovative products, there is an indirect advantage for end-users too. They are able to enjoy new features in their products quicker than before and with little or no latency issues, they are likely to experience a more seamless experience. Some serverless apps also offer client-side caching. So, even if there is no internet connectivity, the user can still enjoy the app’s experience offline. It’s fast, cheap, and more innovative. What’s not to like?

Notes of Caution:

Sophistication in product design and architecture have become crucial to ensure an appropriate coming together of the various elements to create a unified, seamless product or app experience for the end-users.

It’s also clear that the dependency on the cloud vendors increases as they manage everything from administrative functions to security. The internal teams lose some control over the technology and overall process. Obviously, it’s crucial to find the right vendor considering the criticality to the process.

But once appropriate care is taken, serverless technology promises to reduce operational costs and improve efficiency for great benefit and impact.

Are your Planning To Move Your Business Serverless? If Yes!

Connect with ThinkSys Inc Cloud Computing Experts Today!

Related Blogs:

1. All Cloud Computing Approaches Supporting Enterprises IT Today.

2. Serverless Computing Options.

3. AWS and Azure Business Enablers 2022.

4. Serverless App Testing.

Distributed Cloud Computing has already made it to Gartner’s top ten strategic technology trends of 2020. New-age business processes are being designed to make use of distributed cloud infrastructure, applications,and databases to address modern workflows and their requirements. With the advent of advanced technologies such as distributed cloud computing, companies have accelerated the move away from their traditional ways of thinking and are now open to making the cloud central to their business strategies.

To accommodate a huge number of customers and growing volumes of data, traditional companies are now making the strategic shift by embracing the technology necessary for them to become cloud-driven companies. Clearly, cloud-native giants such as Facebook and Google have not only successfully adopted cloud, but they are visibly reaping the benefits of their cloud move. The sense is that to gain a competitive advantage in the market, companies have to scale-up their cloud strategy. And those who won’t make the move will stagnate, or worse.

This is a paradigm shift for many,which also means that there are a lot of questions to be answered before and after they adopt these technologies.

But the most fundamental question is, should companies care about distributed cloud?How can it impact their business!

1. Understanding Distributed Cloud Computing–
   With distributed cloud computing,you get computation, storage, and networking in a micro-cloud located outside the centralized cloud. Edge computing is a very good example of distributed cloud technology. Distributed cloud computing establishes computing, closer to the end-user,thus enhancing security.
   This distributed cloud model brings more agility, thereby giving enterprises better business outcomes.
2. Personalize Cloud Strategy–
   The biggest advantage of the distributed cloud is that it allows companies to diversify and still personalize their cloud strategy. The distributed cloud also allows companies to pick and choose the various capabilities of different cloud providers and solutions to align with their specific business needs.What makes distributed cloud so popular is that it gives immense flexibility to companies to be able to pick different cloud providers, solutions, and infrastructures depending upon the type of applications they want to address.
   So, while companies want to make this shift, they also need to prepare. They will need to make changes to the existing infrastructure to create robust connectivity between different modules of the cloud environment.
3. Prioritize Business intelligence–
   Talking about impactful applications, enterprises now want to weave business intelligence into their IT infrastructure and distributed cloud computing is supporting this move. They are focused on what more they can do with the data available to them. The distributed cloud allows the scaling of data storage and processing capabilities for companies. This is allowing companies to adopt and take advantage of other advanced technologies such as AI, Machine Learning, etc. This integration is helping companies to leverage business intelligence and predictive insights for enhanced profitability.
   Enterprises can now go beyond capturing their operational data and embed intelligence into their core operations, bringing in more agility and productivity. This intelligence also facilitates capturing interactions between the company and the customers to analyze and evaluate products, services, and the effectiveness of overall business functions.
   Going forward, the cloud is also likely to play a bigger role in shaping the overall IT strategy of companies. Offering a more collaborative IT structure; it can help bring together operations data and customer data to create a better product experience and an enhanced workplace experience too.
4. Data and enhanced Customer experience–
   While the cloud facilitates data-processing in real-time, it also enables functions that manage that data.
   Better data management can lead to a meaningful rationalization of the data foundation. Clean, current, accurate, consistent, and relevant data can drive strategies for enhanced customer experience. Data management helps drive agility in responding to the needs of the customer. It can help in understanding the various preferences of the customers, enhance response methods, and power the building of long-term business relations built on a more customized solutions’ approach.
5. Distributed Cloud and Security–
   While enterprises are looking at distributed cloud computing as a boon, some of the companies that still hesitate to adopt cloud are doing so due to some perceived security issues. Distributed cloud has data distributed over a large number of machines and networks, wireless sensors, mobile devices, etc. This scattered data can mean higher risks of security breaches and can make data security in the cloud more complicated than centralized systems.
   However, a lot depends upon the individual company data compliance stance, IT regulations, governance controls, and data security administration policies.Companies that can address security concerns with well-managed cloud computing infrastructure stand to gain, while still staying secure.

Conclusion:

IT is becoming the backbone of business performance. But businesses are looking at solutions that can simplify the complex nature of their IT infrastructure. They want to make IT incredibly manageable,driving better business outcomes. The distributed cloud makes it easy to integrate new technologies within a seemingly simpler IT infrastructure.

While enterprises are already looking beyond just capturing operational data; this method of cloud computing offers a lot more in terms of flexibility, convenience, cost control, and, most importantly,nurturing specific business applications like enterprise intelligence!
There’s no doubt that 2020 will be the year where enterprises will dive into the distributed cloud. The business case is just too compelling.

With cost savings being a key driver for cloud adoption, many organizations choose the public cloud to achieve economies of scale. Although the public cloud sector continues to attract enterprise customers looking for a combination of price economy and cloud productivity, many customers also look to run several workloads privately within a private cloud. Contrary to popular belief that public cloud platforms are the most economical, recent research suggests that private cloud solutions can be more cost-effective than public cloud infrastructures.

Why Private Clouds are Becoming Popular Again:

The continuous need for speed and efficiency of operations is making cloud adoption a priority for many businesses today. Cloud services enable modern organizations to break the barriers of traditional business operations and drive innovation at a rapid pace and in affordable ways. According to a study, public cloud adoption increased to 92% and private cloud to 75% in 2018.

Private clouds work better for large enterprises, especially if they operate in regulated industries or have workloads with sensitive data. With private clouds, organizations have more control over their data and enjoy additional security, compliance, and delivery options. Also, with the generational shift in IT management processes and practices, private clouds enable the millennial generation to adopt simplified tools and intuitive graphical user interfaces.

Why Public Clouds Aren’t as Economical as they Seem:

Containing costs is one of the main reasons for public cloud adoption. Other reasons are the access to on-demand resources, quicker time to market, easier product development, and the ability to scale to meet varying needs. However, many organizations do not realize that public clouds are not always the bargain they expect and that they may not deliver the promised cost savings. Although public clouds help organizations grow revenue and increase productivity, with scale, the costs can mount rapidly, without the expected savings accruing to the business.

Also, in order to move workloads to the public cloud, organizations must consider the potentially high cost of re-architecting and re-coding applications. This is significant when compared to the relatively minor premium incurred in maintaining a private cloud. This certainly busts the myth that public clouds are always the cheapest option.

Making Private Clouds Economical:

Although the private cloud has often been touted as the right choice for organizations with mission-critical requirements at a premium price, this is not the full story. There are several ways in which private clouds are more economical than public clouds. 41% of organizations claim to be saving money using a private cloud instead of a public cloud – in addition to the perceived benefits of ownership, control, and security.

• For organizations that have the expertise to manage a large number of servers at a high level of utilization, private clouds can offer a total cost of ownership (TCO) advantage.
• Organizations that use capacity-planning and budget-management tools can achieve substantial economies of scale. Capacity-planning reduces costs by ensuring the hardware is being utilized with as little waste as possible. And budget-management enables consumption and expenditures to be tracked with the goal of reducing waste and optimizing spending.
• High levels of automation an also reduce manual tasks, allowing administrators to devote more time to other critical tasks. Organizations can increase labor efficiency by having access to qualified, experienced engineers. They can reduce operational burdens with the outsourcing and automation of day-to-day operations – high levels of automation drive down management costs significantly.
• Another key consideration is how organizations utilize cloud resources. Since TCO of a private cloud is directly proportional to its labor efficiency and utilization, for self-managed private clouds to be cheaper, utilization and labor efficiency must be relatively high. If the infrastructure is only used to about 50% of its capacity, the cloud administrator will need to manage a large portion of the infrastructure to achieve a TCO advantage.
• Lower costs can also be achieved by maximizing software license use. If licenses are based on CPUs, organizations can achieve improved license utilization by hosting a large number of virtual machines per CPU in a private cloud as compared to a public cloud where each virtual machine needs to be licensed separately at increased costs.

Choosing What Works Best:

In order to get the most out of their cloud investment, organizations must have a clear understanding of what works best in various cloud scenarios and what does not. They need to get past common myths and public hype around the “public vs. private cloud” debate. Enterprises looking to adopt the private clouds need to deploy it for large projects with high utilization and labor efficiency, using the right license model and the right combination of tools and partnerships to achieve economies of scale.

According to a study, even if the public cloud were to cost half as much as the private cloud, enterprises would migrate only 50% of workloads. This suggests that no matter how economical the public cloud may seem, organizations will still have other compelling reasons to use the private cloud. Organizations can also opt for a multi-cloud strategy to avoid vendor lock-in and leverage the best attributes of each platform. According to a report, 81% of enterprises today have a multi-cloud strategy. We have written previously about the multi-cloud and when it may be right for you. Go ahead, hop across there is that’s the next set of questions in your mind.

The developments around cloud computing just seem to keep coming. With the cloud computing market expected to reach $411 billion by 2020 according to Gartner, the sheer degree of adoption is massive. For organizations, the world over experiencing challenges of market dynamism, competition, and customer demands, cloud computing is helping them to be responsive and relevant.  With cloud computing spending expected to grow at 6 times the rate of IT spending from now through 2020 according to Gartner (again!), there is a high likelihood that you will, sooner or later, consider moving to the cloud (i.e. if you haven’t already!) When you decide to migrate to the cloud to streamline your processes, boost collaboration, and increase accessibility, you will come across a variety of cloud models such as private, public, community, or hybrid, and cloud offerings such as IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS, as well as cloud architectures such as the multi-cloud. So what is the multi-cloud?

The Growth of Multi-cloud

As cloud computing becomes more and more mainstream, the introduction of new and innovative cloud technologies is inevitable. Although cloud computing started with the placing of workloads on a single cloud – whether private or public – the hybrid cloud quickly became a more attractive option because it gave enterprises more choice over storing their critical and not-so-critical data.

Soon enough, more and more vendors got into the public cloud business – starting with Amazon, and then Google and Microsoft, and now several others as well. Each has their own set of features and capabilities. Organizations were soon spoilt for choice. With such a variety of viable public cloud options, enterprises began to mix them together, both through formal architectural processes and through shadow IT. This signaled the emergence of Multi-cloud strategies.

A lot of times, the terms multi-cloud and hybrid cloud are used interchangeably. But the fact is, they are quite unlike each other.

• While the hybrid cloud usually consists of a combination of a private and public cloud, the multi-cloud uses more than a single public cloud
• A hybrid cloud environment refers to different deployment modes (public or private), while a multi-cloud environment refers to services from multiple cloud providers.
• The multi-cloud enables organizations to avoid dependence on a single public cloud provider – so they can choose to opt for specific services from different public cloud providers and get the best of all their features and benefits.

When is multi-cloud strategy Right for You?

A typical multi-cloud infrastructure allows for the distribution of cloud assets, software, applications, and resources across several cloud-hosting environments. With a typical multi-cloud architecture utilizing two or more public clouds (and in many cases multiple private clouds as well), the reliance on any single cloud provider is eliminated. The benefits of a multi-cloud architecture include choosing price-competitive and feature-rich cloud services from different providers, avoiding vendor lock-in, improved mitigation against disasters, and increasing performance and redundancy.

Many organizations think they can multiply benefits from multi-cloud environments (with the assumption that if they can benefit from one cloud, benefits will multiply if they use multiple clouds!).  But that’s not always the case. It’s not all straight-forward though -there are some specific factors to consider too. Although many businesses can benefit from it, especially those looking to improve reliability, protect privacy, remain flexible, and optimize the cloud experience, a multi-cloud environment is not for all organizations. A multi-cloud strategy makes sense only if:

• You operate in countries where laws, regulations and corporate policies require enterprise data to physically reside in certain locations. For example, a healthcare organization can choose from multiple providers’ data center regions or availability zones to improve performance and reduce latency.
• Your business and technical goals require you to leverage price-competitive cloud services. For instance, an automobile manufacturer can take advantage of the speed, capacity, and cost benefits of the storage and workload requirements offered by a particular cloud provider in a particular geography.

• Your business relies on critical data where data loss or downtime due to a localized component failure in the cloud can have severe consequences. For example, a stock exchange can leverage a multi-cloud environment to ensure round-the-clock availability of data, reduce the likelihood of data loss, or shutdown, and eliminate business interruptions.  
• You operate in a business environment where responding quickly to changing business requirements is critical for business survival. For instance, retailers who experience sudden spikes in demand during the holiday season can accommodate unexpected surges and meet demands in a more flexible and reliable manner.

Make the Most of Multi-cloud

In a world of constantly changing business requirements and customer preferences, organizations have to embrace the cloud in order to thrive and grow. Deciding to move to the cloud can be critical in improving business flexibility and agility. In that situation, choosing a multi-cloud environment can allow you to get the best features of multiple cloud service providers -a win-win all around.