Cloud computing has become an inherent part of digital transformation. Since it has so many benefits, with barely any downsides, lots of companies decide to replace their legacy infrastructure with Cloud computing. Seeing that Cloud computing development has been moving at an amazingly fast pace, it became the primary solution for companies, as they decide to move to PaaS, IaaS, or SaaS.
With rising popularity, the Cloud market is growing accordingly. Currently at $257.5 billion and predicted to be $362.3 billion in 2022, the industry is one of the most rapidly developing sectors.
Here are the most notable advantages, and the best Cloud service providers for 2021.
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The benefits of Cloud computing services
In these strange times the world has noticed Cloud’s advantages and possibilities, and so here are the main benefits that are to explain why its adoption is so widespread.
Scalability
Assuming that your business grows, you’ll most definitely need more computing power and storage as more and more projects come up. Cloud computing services provide indefinite scaling to suit all of your needs.
Cost efficiency
Instead of maintaining on-premises infrastructure, which requires both hardware and a designated IT team, you get complete maintenance from the Cloud provider. This can prove to be far cheaper than the upkeep of your regular servers.
Reliability
Should anything happen to your infrastructure, you immediately know about it and are able to make necessary fixes instantaneously. Still, Cloud platforms can prove to be even more reliable than legacy infrastructure.
An advantage over your competition
If any of your competitors choose to operate on legacy software, you immediately have the upper edge. Migration to Cloud seems like an inevitable process that all of the appropriate will have to undertake at some point to avoid a gap.
Flexibility
You get to free up your IT team from managing your on-premises infrastructure. This will enable you to put them to more pressing matters such as innovation and growth. If you need anything extra from your Cloud provider, you can get it almost instantly, contrary to updating your own systems.
Rapid deployment
The amount of time it takes to launch your system is minimal compared to legacy infrastructure.
Easy backups
Cloud computing suppliers provide you with easy backup and file recovery tools. This makes mistake prevention and disaster recovery far better.
Top 4 providers of Cloud computing services
Amazon Web Services
AWS boasts the widest variety of services. Since they have been on the market the longest out of all of their competition, they were able to get a considerable lead in terms of available features. They were the first to provide Cloud computing services, being at it since 2006.
In a recent Cloud 2021 market analysis by Jacek Żmudziński of Future Processing, it was established that they’re the most prominent provider in the industry. This is no surprise, considering the fact that they offer the most comprehensive array of tools.
Their global network of databases proves to be the quickest and most reliable. AWS has the most computing, storage, and AI services, which makes them a perfect fit for almost anybody. Additionally, the availability in 24 world regions remains unmatched.
Microsoft Azure
Azure is the runner-up, ever so slightly behind AWS in terms of market share. Now, Azure’s main advantage is the popularity of Windows. Since most machines operate using their system, Azure’s growth is relatively quick. There’s even a possibility of overtaking AWS at some point in the future.
Microsoft Azure is perfectly optimized to run their software with the most efficiency. The same can’t be said for its competitors. Microsoft continues to make an effort to make Azure its main selling point, further increasing its chances to surpass AWS. Azure shares most of the features with AWS, although they operate on a slightly different basis, due to the fact that it has a lot more integrations with their legacy software.
Another advantage of Azure is the fact that Microsoft is more open to a hybrid Cloud, meaning that combining it with third-party services is easier. The pricing model is much clearer, too, as with Azure, you pay by the minute, compared to AWS’s pay by the hour.
Google Cloud Platform
Google started offering Cloud services in 2008, two years after Amazon. Being late to the party, Google still managed to become the third-largest provider on the market. This is mostly due to them being one of the most established IT businesses out there, providing the most popular search engine. In fact, Google Cloud Platform runs on the same infrastructure as Search and their other products.
The main advantages of Google Cloud Platform are their cheapest disk price, great DevOps environment with Kubernetes, simplicity, and smooth learning curve. While it can’t yet compete with the giants in terms of availability and processing power, GCP is still a considerable player, especially in terms of open-source applications, AI, and machine learning. Plenty of companies with these needs has been migrating to Google Cloud Platform. Google’s Linux support is also an advantage, as Linux is one of the best programming operating systems.
Oracle Cloud
While the firm itself was founded 43 years ago, Oracle is one of the newest players in the Cloud services industry but still manages to be quite the contestant. Having emerged in 2016, Oracle had a lot of distance to cover between them and the competitors.
Seeing that Oracle is quite a bit smaller than other large providers, it doesn’t offer as much computing power and storage capabilities. Still, Oracle Cloud’s features are more affordable than the other providers’. Its hybrid cloud possibilities are right there at the top. In terms of security, they’re one of the leaders, too, as years of experience caused it to be one of the major priorities.
Wrap-up
Cloud computing services offer a lot of benefits for your business, although choosing a provider can be a bit tricky. Since there’s a lot to choose from, it all depends on your needs and characteristics. While AWS seems like the best choice with its established position on the market, this is not necessarily the case.
There are a lot of conditions that decide which supplier is the best for you. For instance, Azure is the best choice for startups, due to the fact of great hybrid solutions and easy migrations. AWS is better for large enterprises since they have the most computing power and the best availability of all. GCP, with its advanced Kubernetes capabilities, seems like the best choice for Cloud-based app creators. Due to its great security and database management features, Oracle Cloud looks to be the best for database administration businesses.
