Today, cloud services are available everywhere, and businesses get to choose from a wide range of options based on their requirements for storage, database, file records, and server. Safety has become an inseparable part of these cloud solutions, and it is now possible to protect all data without the need of storing in physical storage drives.
Cloud services are cost-effective and provide users with numerous features. With cloud solutions, sharing data among team members is possible. Multiple people can modify the same files simultaneously, without encountering any issues.
In simple words, a cloud service is a type of digital service that can resolve all users’ computing requirements. This way, users can securely access data stored in remote servers. There is no availability limit, and data can be accessed from anywhere, at any time, by any device. Files are stored in multiple servers that are located in the cloud host’s data centers.
There are various cloud solutions for small businesses that can help manage several tasks effortlessly. Learn more about cloud computing, types of cloud servers, and benefits of cloud services.
Types of Cloud Computing
Cloud computing can be done using public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, and multi-cloud. Each method of cloud computing has its pros and cons. In this part, we discuss the different approaches to business clouds.
Public Cloud
Public clouds are provided by cloud service providers. These servers include all the required tools and features of a physical server but are not completely private. Instead, cloud servers are partitioned and users get as many parts as they need. The cloud provider is responsible for the maintenance and control of the hardware system usage.
Public clouds are cheaper than other kinds of servers since customers pay merely for their in-use resources and the hardware of a compute server is shared among many users. Public cloud providers offer many advanced features and tools that facilitate the management of infrastructure for businesses.
Private Cloud
Private cloud servers can only be accessed through a private network by authorized clients. Private clouds can be on-premise servers or hosted dedicated servers. These servers offer higher security and lower latency. Furthermore, private clouds can be configured to their owner’s preference.
On the other hand, Private clouds usually cost more than public clouds. These servers have fixed resources and require manual maintenance.
Hybrid Cloud
Hybrid cloud servers are a combination of public and private clouds that offer higher flexibility and efficiency. Many different structures of hybrid cloud can be arranged to optimize functionality, where private servers are used for critical operations and public servers are used for general purposes.
Multi-Cloud Structure
The multi-cloud structure is the arrangement where a company uses multiple cloud service providers simultaneously. The multi-cloud arrangement allows the separation of resources in use and the optimization of services. For instance, a company might use a cloud provider to host their software and another to take backups from their data. The downside of a multi-cloud infrastructure is that the coordination of resources between cloud providers can be difficult.
Benefits of Cloud Computing
Cloud computing brings along various features and benefits to any company. Using cloud computing services, businesses can increase their availability, accessibility and reliability, while having scalable and easy-to-use cloud computing resources. Furthermore, cloud computing services are cost-efficient in comparison to other physical alternatives.
With cloud computing, resources can be scaled up on-demand and conveniently. To function properly, expanding businesses must increase their resources adjacent to their growth. Unlike cloud servers, on-premise and dedicated servers’ resources are not flexible, creating gradual difficulties for companies.
By storing data and enabling connection over the network, cloud computing services give users access to resources without physical limitations. Cloud servers are reachable through internet-enabled devices all over the globe.
Cloud computing services use groups of servers (clusters) to store data and process requests. In the event of a server outage, other servers in the cluster respond to the client’s request, ensuring high availability and reliability of services.
Cloud servers are designed to be manageable by clients through simple user panels and tools. Physical servers require manual maintenance and supervision, while cloud servers are free of operational difficulties and costs.
Users solely pay for their in-use resources with the pay-as-you-go billing method. While dedicated servers have high initial costs, cloud servers are budget-friendly and cost-efficient. Cloud computing provides processing power and storage, convenient for small businesses.
Disadvantages of Cloud Computing
Along with the countless benefits of cloud computing, there are also disadvantages that you need to consider when choosing this approach. A shared storage infrastructure can be inconsistent in the matter of performance as other users’ usage would impact your services.
There is also a common belief that cloud computing is not secure. Like any other service, you should make your service secure. There are hardware-level firewalls in most providers alongside all OS-level firewalls you can easily install on your servers.
Cloud Computing for Small Businesses
Nowadays, cloud solutions and their benefits are not limited to large businesses. These incredible services serve other businesses and are equally suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises. Cloud solutions can boost productivity by improving team collaboration and promoting innovative ideas while increasing cost-efficiency. As businesses grow, cloud solutions can be scaled up to fulfill their expanding needs. In one of the latest articles, we covered why cloud computing is ideal for small businesses.
Why Small Businesses Should Use Cloud Computing
Cloud services include numerous features and have many benefits, especially for small businesses. Cloud computing services are cost-efficient yet can resolve businesses’ cloud requirements. With increased file control, processing power, security and scalability of resources, small businesses can focus their energy on their progress.
When to Use Cloud Computing
Companies with limited budgets that need a space to store their files, host their software and access and configure their servers from anywhere should use cloud computing. Cloud solutions resolve all infrastructural requirements of small businesses.
Businesses can migrate to a cloud infrastructure using the cloud solutions made available by providers. Cloud migration has become simple with customer support and consultation services. Small business owners can convert to ArvanCloud infrastructure at any time.
Contact ArvanCloud migration specialists to get help converting to a cloud infrastructure.
Small Business vs. Larger Business
Similar to small businesses, large-size businesses can also use cloud services to increase their efficiency and improve their services. CDN improves SEO and user experience, the VoD platform can create a smooth video playback, cloud servers host their software services and object storage provides space to store files and data.
Cloud services are infinite and scalable, suiting businesses of all sizes.
Why Organizations Use Hybrid or Multi-Cloud Approaches
Hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructural architectures have become more popular since they offer more flexibility. They are more customizable and can be modified to specifically suit the businesses’ cloud requirements.
However, it is important to notice that the coordination of resources in hybrid and multi-cloud structures can prove challenging. On the contrary, public cloud providers are responsible with the maintenance of servers and offer an integrated workplace.
Five Best Cloud Solutions for Small Businesses
Choosing the best cloud solutions for small businesses mainly depends on the future perspectives, business approaches and most importantly, the requirements. The best cloud solutions for small businesses are as follows.
1. PaaS
Platform as a service (PaaS) is a full development and deployment environment in the cloud with resources helping deliver data from simple cloud-based applications to sophisticated cloud-enabled business applications.
To implement PasS, a third-party provider will provide hardware and software tools over the internet. Usually, these are needed for application development. PaaS eliminates the necessity to install in-house hardware and software to run/develop a new application. PaaS will not replace the whole IT infrastructure for software development. It will be provided through a cloud service provider’s infrastructure. The offerings are available through a web browser.
PaaS can be delivered through public, private, and hybrid clouds to deliver services like Java development and application hosting. PaaS can be bought from a cloud service provider on a pay-as-you-go basis and access the resources over a secure internet connection.
PaaS includes infrastructures, networking, servers, development tools, middleware, business intelligence services, database management, operating system, and more. Also, different vendors may include other services, but these are the main services offered by PaaS.
PaaS is designed to support the web application cycle by building, testing, deploying, managing, and updating processes. PaaS can be one of the best cloud solutions for small businesses. It helps avoid expenses and complexity of buying, managing, and maintaining software licenses, application infrastructure, middleware or development tools, and different resources. A business is responsible for the applications and services, and the cloud service provider manages everything else.
ArvanCloud provides PaaS services in its Cloud Container product.
2. IaaS
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is also one of the best cloud solutions for small businesses. Infrastructure as a service delivers fundamental compute, network, and storage resources to users on-demand over the intent and pay-as-you-go basis. Once enabled, users can scale up/down resources as needed. It reduces the need for high and upfront capital expenditures and unnecessary infrastructures. It also offers real-time insights.
IaaS helps businesses to provision new applications and increase the reliability of the underlying infrastructure. It allows users to bypass the cost and complexity of buying and maintaining physical servers and data center infrastructure. In IaaS, each resource is offered as a separate service component, and users can pay for a particular resource for as long as needed.
To use IaaS, enterprises can rent or lease servers for the needs in the cloud from a cloud service provider. Any operating system or application can be run over on the servers without additional operating costs or maintenance.
IaaS gives clients access to servers in geographic locations close to the end-users. Infrastructure as a service can be more valuable for small businesses rather than owning and managing the infrastructure. IaaS offers excellent continuity of service and disaster recovery.
Scaling up and down resources according to demands in all categories of cloud computing is available through IaaS. It helps businesses to focus more on business activities instead of IT infrastructure and computing resources. Clients can use dashboards and APIs to access the server and storage directly. It offers high scalability. It is one of the most flexible cloud computing models, which allows for automated deployment of Cloud Servers, processing powers, networking, and storage.
3. Cloud CDN
Cloud Content Delivery Network (CDN) is divided into two sections; CDN and cloud. CDN is a geographically distributed network of points of presence that deliver content based on location. Cloud refers to resources available as web services. Cloud providers offer CDN as a part of their platforms, and it is called cloud CDN. A reputed Cloud CDN like ArvanCloud CDN service with large telecommunication infrastructures, advanced servers, and high-tech mechanisms can open an unlimited path to glory in front of small businesses.
Cloud CDN offers some compelling advantages. CDN uses global edge networks to serve content closer to users, accelerating the websites and applications. Cloud CDN works with HTTP (S) Load Balancing delivering content to users. This load balancer provides the frontend IP addresses and ports to receive requests and the backends to respond to the requests. The backends are called origin servers. CDNs are meant to increase the speed at which content is delivered. Cloud CDNs have improved speed, and this way, they offer low latency. Cloud CDN providers integrated with CDN solutions will design an infrastructure to stop attacks before reaching the data center. A Cloud CDN will secure the traffic and keep the website up and running.
4. Live Streaming
Live streaming is a celebrated technology allowing users to watch, create, and share videos in real-time. Live streaming is a popular method of data transmission enabling users to access videos on the internet by all network-connected devices like smartphones or laptops. Live streaming is live and uncensored. This way of creating and sharing content was helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In live-streaming, the video will be delivered a little bite at a time from a remote storage location mostly. Then a few seconds of the video will be delivered over the internet at a time, and there is no need to download the entire file. This way, the audiences will receive the content at the same time it is being created. It is based on one-to-many connections, and millions of users can watch the video simultaneously.
Live streaming can be used for video conferencing, meetings, and by broadcasters and streamers. It is one of the best cloud solutions for small businesses as it will increase real-time communication with customers. Live Streaming allows businesses to ask questions and receive comments instantly. They can collaborate with one of their partners or colleagues during the live stream. People can ask questions and receive answers at the same time. This allows a company to create an approachable face. Live streaming can also end with directing the viewers to take any action based on the set goals.
5. Cloud Storage
Cloud storage is a remote platform with a virtualized and multi-tenant environment offering scalable storage resources to different businesses and companies. Cloud storage will offer data availability on remorse servers from the cloud or the internet. It can help to back up, manage and maintain the data remotely.
ArvanCloud Object Storage solution, hosts, secures, preserves, handles all the server and guarantees uninterrupted data availability. Hard drives are expensive, for that cloud storage can store an infinite amount of data using massive data centers with developed computers. Once enabled, users can store, upload, retrieve and access data remotely whenever it is needed. Cloud storage will help deliver data in-demand with in-time capacity, costs, and unlimited access.
How to Choose a Solution for Your Business
Cloud-based solutions help businesses, especially smaller ones, with data storage, resources, and on-demand services accessible through the internet. This allows businesses to lower the upfront costs and reduce infrastructure management needed for a perfect IT infrastructure.
To access the benefits of cloud computing solutions, businesses must choose the right ones. This is important for long-term success and operations. To choose the best cloud solution for small businesses, it is essential to look for the matches. The services must match the business needs. Research the options and find the solution that supports the requirements. Small business owners must use a cloud service provider with reliability, security and storage capability. And finally, flexibility is another feature to look for. As a business grows, cloud providers should allow the services to scale up. If you own a small business and want to choose a cloud computing service or simply want to learn more, check ArvanCloud Solutions for Startups.
