Tag: cloud computing

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Cloud Computing

Serverless Cloud Computing And Its Benefits

Serverless computing provides a platform which allows the developers to execute code in response to certain events without facing any complexity in building and maintenance of cloud infrastructure. These codes are usually used in conjunction with codes written in traditional server style, like microservices. For instance, part of web application can be written as both as microservices as well as serverless codes. These serverless codes are activated with the help of specific events such as registration with Amazon Cognito or can also be activated by configuring to run behind an Application Programming Interface (API) platform.

Even though there is a word “serverless” in the term “serverless computing”, but it should be remembered that this platform does require servers to run the code. The word “serverless” is used to signify that, the organization or an individual does not need to purchase, rent or provision any server or even virtual machines to develop an application.

One of the attraction of serverless computing deployment is that the cloud customer need to pay, only for the service usage and not for any of the cost associated with idle time or down-time. 

Benefits of serverless computing

It is important to understand that despite the old way of computing which works fine, why would a developer go through the trouble of building a software through serverless computing. The following benefits are the key reasons which can provide an explanation for this.

Simplified management of operations

Serverless computing platforms are meant to provide clear distinction between the infrastructure services and the applications that are running at the upper end of the platform. Thus, the automatic scaling functionality of serverless computing (also known as Function as a Service) not only helps in reducing the computing cost, but also helps in reducing the operational management overheads. Thus, it allows the System engineers and the Software Requirement Engineers to focus on managing and running the underlying platform along with the core services like load balancers and databases.

Packaging and deploying a serverless computing system is easier as compared to the deployment of an entire server. As serverless computing system has no requirement of continuous delivery, continuous integration, and containerization tool thus, enabling the developers to write the code directly in the vendor console and therefore, there is no need of system administration in case of fully serverless solutions.

Reduction in operational cost

Serverless computing saves money, in terms of both, the computing power as well as the human resources. For a developer, it is important to understand that in case of serverless computing you need to pay only for the time your function or functions are running and since, you don’t run the app 24/7, this is a considerable cost saving.

From the perspective of a big company with the huge collection of apps, APIs and microservices, there is continuous resource utilization, no matter whether those resources are currently in use or not. With the help of serverless computing, the company can execute the function for any number of apps in demand and share all the resources, without running the apps 24/7 thus, it reduces idle time to almost zero and provides a fast response time. Therefore, with the introduction of serverless computing, the days of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars for servers are gone.

Ease of innovation

Serverless computing has alleviated the problems of system engineering and its underlying platform, thus making it easy for product engineers to innovate at a rapid pace. This less time for operations translates into a smooth application of agile methodologies which is highly attractive to enterprise cloud users.

Serverless computing can handle the regular concerns of the internet facing applications such as identity management, storage, etc. Thus, with the ease of innovation through serverless computing due to its various features, it’s not a dream but the reality that product engineers can thereby focus on developing the actual business logic of the application.

An interesting fact about serverless computing is that, it is not meant to replace the existing delivery models rather, it complements them. The world’s largest online media streaming provider, Netflix planned to reduce the rate of errors and save time by replacing the inefficient processes and use AWS lambda to build rule based self-managing infrastructure. Thus, serverless computing seems to provide a promising future in the betterment of computing scenario.

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Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing Trends to Watch in 2017

Cloud computing is a major technology trend that has become a buzzword in business circles. In a recent survey by IBM, 78% of companies said their cloud systems are fully integrated which is a major improvement from the 34% recorded in 2012. Meanwhile, 45% of workloads remain with on-premise solutions on dedicated servers.

You can avail the benefits of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms by reading detailed Financesonline.com reviews of leading solutions and selecting suitable ones for your needs. The global public cloud services market is predicted to grow 18% to $246.8 billion in 2017 from $209.2 billion last year. This boom is fueled by increasing corporate investments in public clouds as companies seek to integrate their on-premise systems with cloud offerings. As a result, hybrid cloud has become a preferred choice of innovative companies. Now, let’s take a look at the top cloud computing trends that are expected to rule the roost in 2017 and beyond.

Automated Data

Big data has become a major technology buzzword as companies look to analyze the tons of data they collect to get actionable insights from it. Cloud analytic apps are fueling this trend as they enable users to sort, store, and analyze data using automated processes. As a result, businesses expect to get deeper insights from the data with which they can make smarter business decisions.

Cognitive Computing

The growing sea of data accumulated by companies is often unusable and remains “dark”. Cognitive cloud solutions are helping businesses to make use of this “dark data”. These systems can learn, reason, and understand. Cognitive cloud solutions are thus expected to provide new experiences in a range of industries including airlines, healthcare, retail, and financial services.

Cloud without Servers

Cloud systems and capabilities mainly use server storage. But now, serverless cloud is being developed which means vendors can save costs on server maintenance resources such as network infrastructure. This is expected to reduce overall operating expenses. Besides lower cost, the other main advantage of serverless cloud computing is reduction in development time.

Enhanced Security

Reliable security is a major concern for potential cloud adopters. However, security for web-based solutions is expected to improve this year as companies are developing in-depth answers to major cloud security questions. This is expected to boost the cloud services market as more businesses will be convinced that cloud systems are indeed safe and secure.

Another trend is cloud vendors are utilizing cognitive capabilities to convert security loopholes into strengths. These solutions are designed using security intelligence and they generate hypotheses, reasoning based on evidence, and recommendations to improve decision making. For these reasons, cognitive security is expected to resolve skills gap, speed up responses, and reduce the complexity and cost of tackling cybercrime.

More Secure Transactions

In addition to better security, transactions made using cloud systems will also become safer. This is because encryption measures are becoming more sophisticated which makes it harder for hackers to crack the data passing through web-based networks. Thus, consumers can safely carry out financial and purchase transactions on cloud networks.

Use of Blockchain Technology

Blockchain is an exciting peer-to-peer technology that promises to transform personal and business transactions. It is a reliable distributed ledger that is made secure by sophisticated cryptography. For this reason, it is considered a fail-proof system. Only selected participants can access the transaction details and each person is only allowed to see the data they are permitted to view inside a transaction.

Of late, a lot of companies and businesses are opting to use cloud blockchain technology. In fact, experts estimate that use of blockchain to improve global supply chains can help to improve efficiencies and save greater than $100 billion annually. The best blockchain systems are broadly accessible, easily scalable, and usable as cloud solutions or APIs.

Widespread Migration to Cloud Systems

Cloud is no longer considered a vague technology that could be understood only by IT experts. Today, businesses are expressing a keen interest to know about the advantages of cloud solutions and researching ways on how they can profitably migrate their IT infrastructure to the cloud. The IT units of technologically savvy companies are actively planning and executing their cloud strategies to move into the digital age.

Culture Transformation

As more organizations migrate to the cloud, they need to transform more than technology. Businesses and IT developers need to embrace a changing culture that prioritizes collaboration and user experience. They need to experiment freely to develop innovative ideas about how they can make the best use of their cloud infrastructure.

Conclusion

Innovative companies are developing smart devices and apps to make the most of cloud technology. Cloud-based systems are becoming simpler yet smarter. Their growing power is therefore attracting more and more businesses. Feel free to share your feedback on this article as well as any other cloud computing trend you may have read about recently.

Ronald is a digital marketing specialist who has been working with a B2B company. Over the years, he has developed a keen interest on small business trends because of the nature of his work. You can find him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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Cloud Computing

The UKs Changing IT Landscape: Where Does Cloud Fit In?

Owning and running a business in today’s ever changing and technologically advanced environment is not easy. It requires knowledge, skill, patience, an eye for detail and most importantly the ability to see advantages in your environment and go with them. The way we work has changed over the years and as technology is growing and becoming more complex it give us the ability to do new things in relation to both our business and personal lives.

Cloud is one of these recent technological innovations that will help to make the day to day running of your business and management of your data and information simple and straight forward. With Cloud your business has the potential to become more productive which will in turn improve your chances of growth and success. There are a number of other advantages to using Cloud services, including:

The Flexibility of the Service

As a business your needs are always changing and increasing and it is important that you have a service provider that can keep up with these needs and changes and work with you to ensure the smooth running of your business. The capacity that the cloud remote servers have is second to none and can provide almost instant action if your organisation needs extra bandwidth; and this is one of the reasons that many businesses choose to move to the cloud system.

Fast and Effective Disaster Recovery

Before cloud-based services, companies required complex plans in place in case of the need for disaster recovery. The cloud system is able to take care of most issues quickly and effectively, and faster than many other systems. As all the information is stored in one  place and is Internet-based rather than being computer-based, it is also possible to recover lost information in some cases, if the need arises. So you no longer need to worry about keeping all of your company’s information backed up by a separate organisation or in a different place as this can all be done through the innovative and useful tool that is cloud.

Control of Documents

In many organisations it is important for individuals and members of the company to collaborate and connect with people in different regions and countries; and without the use of cloud these individuals would have to work on one file at a time constantly re-saving it and amending it before passing it back to the other person. This makes the task of updating or changing a document extremely time-consuming for all those involved. With the help of cloud you are able to keep all of your files in a central location so that you can work off one copy. If you need to discuss anything with your colleague then you are also able to do this which can improve collaboration results and increase productivity and performance; which is ultimately what an organisation should be trying to do.

Completely Mobile

An extremely useful benefit of cloud services for Microsoft and other software is that no matter where you are in the country or the world, as long as you have access to the Internet it is possible to connect to cloud. This enables colleagues in different countries and time zones to connect effectively without having to go to the time and expense of travelling to meet each other.

With all these benefits it is easy to see why cloud is such a popular choice for companies throughout the world today. So isn’t it time for your organisation to reap the benefit of a simple and state-of-the-art system.