Cloud computing has been around for a while now, and is becoming more and more popular for both large and small businesses. In its early days, cloud computing offered limited functionality compared to the wide range of functions it is used for today. The more modern trend that has come to the cloud is the inclusion of many services within the same account, offered by one provider. There was a time when a business would be maintaining five different servers to perform five different functions. They may have needed a mail server, a web server, and so on. If a new need arose, then that company would add a new server. There were even times when the same business would be renting capacity from multiple providers. It was complex, time consuming and expensive to maintain.
The Modern World
In today’s world, cloud computing providers manage this problem by offering users a central interface and system that provides multiple functions and can be easily accessed by multiple users. There was a time when managing the IT systems for a business was very hard to do. A spreadsheet was used to keep track of each and every server and its corresponding information, including passwords and usernames. It was cumbersome, inefficient and expensive.
Pricing was impossible to keep track of as a visitor to the website that submitted a contact form was using two different servers that were charging through data usage. A business was literally counting on the server companies to properly bill everything and there was no easy way to verify it all. As technology gets more and more advanced, pricing has changed to reflect the change in cloud services. Sliding scale pricing is becoming more common, where businesses only pay for the resources they use.
The Future
Anyone that owns a modern cellular telephone can see the future in their hands. One email address links everything together and allows access to the same information from almost anywhere. This trend of unlimited, constant connectivity is becoming more and more prevalent, especially in the world of cloud computing.
The fact is that businesses and their employees want – and need – to be able to access email, applications and important business information wherever they go. Modern cloud computing is addressing this need by condensing all server functions in one easy-to-use place. Website hosting, email, applications and even streaming media can all be put together in one place and then used as needed.
There are still many untapped functionalists of cloud computing that most businesses just haven’t had the need for. However, as things continue to grow and evolve, more and more businesses will be looking to increase efficiency and lower costs while taking advantage of new technology. This means that more and more businesses will be looking to the cloud to meet their growing needs. Cloud service providers will also continue to grow, providing these new services to cloud users. Although there are still many businesses that are not yet on the cloud, there’s a strong trend that over time, many will migrate away from traditional hosting options and begin to take advantage of the benefits cloud computing has to offer.
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