How to Choose a Cloud Computing Technology for Your Startup

Cloud computing is the craze of today’s entrepreneur. Businesses have evolved from the customary norm of dedicated teams, running and configuring server rooms to the deployment of hardware and software over the internet.

It is estimated that 80% of small firms will have fully adapted cloud technology by the year 2020. This is according to an intuit study on the transformation of cloud computing that shows the statistics will be a double from todays 37% of businesses utilizing cloud technology.

Cloud computing has been considered a smart game changer. There are chances that you will certainly consider evaluating the opportunities that cloud computing will bring to your business.

Collins Lacey argues that the benefits come in form of IT budget cuts, shift to more agile and responsive business decisions and overall cost reduction. Currently, the highest numbers of small medium enterprises use cloud computing for software development, test environments, backup and recovery needs.

Simply put, cloud computing is a model that enables sharing of configurable computing resources through on demand network access. Such computing resources include; servers, network, storage applications and services. The resources are deployed to users across the network with minimal service provider interaction and management efforts.

Who Provides Cloud?

Cloud technology is provided as a service by cloud vendors. A cloud vendor provides cloud services for in operation of your applications. Generally, an in operation platform that is tasked  application serving, running servers, provision of cloud big data technologies, hosting static files handling network hitches, DNS management and provision of info solutions.

There are two types of cloud vendors centered on the levels of abstraction in their services, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS).

PaaS

Platform as a Service is a virtual environment that is fully managed and maintained while being hidden under a layer of abstraction that is difficult for the end user to figure out.

The cloud vendor is tasked with maintaining the client’s servers, provision of high level databases and data storage, as well as user authentication services and many more.

Most professionals recommend PaaS for small businesses because it is much easier and quick to configure and get running. Additionally, it satisfied 90% of basic applications. However, note that for complex technical operations and business architectures, platform as a Service might not be enough.

IaaS

Infrastructure as a Service is a low level solution that’s mostly suitable for advanced software development, intuitive design, and configuration and server infrastructure security. IaaS is the likely way to go when in need for future application scalability and flexibility.

However, note that the use of IaaS requires an experienced technical support professional that will help your team go about the operation.

Important considerations when choosing Cloud Technology

You have to evaluate different cloud providers to come up with the right solution for your business. Cloud technology is all about the agility and elasticity of meeting your business functions and operational requirements.

Put the following factors into consideration while subscribing to any cloud technology.

Workload Considerations

There are three crucial keys to evaluate while considering the appropriate workloads for private and public cloud.

• Risk tolerance – In risk tolerance you analyze the impacts that a brief risk on the cloud would have on your business. For instance evaluate such factors as, security, network performance, reliability and compliance requirements.
• Cyclical Workloads – Evaluate the cost efficiency of running your business on cloud against the cloud’s workload dedicated asset.
• Payment Options – Since the key goal of any business is to reap maximum profits, it is important to evaluate factors that would help cut down on capital expenditure. You should consider a cloud service that has a favorable payment model for your business.

Ease of Use

You should also evaluate how easy a given cloud technology is compared to another. Choose a scalable computing technology that is easy to configure and getting running.

Conclusion

Make sure you familiarize yourself with the existing cloud vendors; check their customer support and how easy it is to reach them in case of system failure. Evaluate the payment options associated with each other, and also make sure the cloud infrastructure meets your business requirements.