Answer 1:
With adoption of electronic health, mobile health and wearable technologies this is poised to increase drastically in next few years. This means that the data that is comprised in all this will increase drastically. In recent trends instead of hard copy digital data is used to maintain data. In this case maintaining data in cloud is the best option. The data aggregated from cloud adoption trends show that companies are willing to use cloud services due to their business and IT benefits and to evade costs in maintaining and upgrading their in-house infrastructure. The various cloud service models offered from cloud service providers in combination offer an added benefit for companies planning to adopt a model that is most suitable for their operations
Benefits of cloud adoption:
1. Reduced Capital Expenditure: Capital expenditure means money incurred in purchase of new hardware and in building and managing an in-house IT infrastructure. In the case of cloud, there is no requirement for any in-house infrastructure tools as the entire network and storage infrastructure can be made available from a data center. Likewise the company need not spend money in upgrading hardware and buying software licenses with limited time span because the cloud service provider will take the responsibility for providing infrastructure and provisioning resources (both hardware and software) for the company to suit business needs. In the cloud, resources are made available on-demand and redundant resources can be returned back, thus saving cost. Similarly the company may not spend money on hiring IT personnel to look after the infrastructure. Also, the cloud provides the ability to expand easily in future without additional expense in purchasing in-house equipment.
2. Scalability, Flexibility and mobility: Cloud allows users the ability to scale or de-scale infrastructure on demand with ease, resulting in optimal utilization of resources. This apart, cloud services permit users to access resources from remote locations using any type of device (Tablets, Laptops, Smartphones, etc.). Data, files and documents can be accessed around the clock and it is also possible to work online replicating an office environment. Hence, flexibility and mobility are inherent benefits which make employees to be productive. Cloud models provide everything that allows people to stay connected while being mobile.
3. Easy to maintain and upgrade: The management of infrastructure (servers, storage, software, network, bandwidth, etc.) is the duty of the cloud service provider. With this benefit the in-house IT personnel can be allocated with other work and may not engage themselves full time to monitor the IT department. Cloud service providers hire teams of experts who are liable to ensure continuity of service. In addition to this, upgrades are done by the service provider and may not be done in-house which saves time and money for users. This implies that each time a new solution or a patch is implemented in the cloud, it becomes available to all the users right away at no extra cost.
4. Enhanced IT security: The area of IT security is very much dangerous for organizations. Many companies have compromised their data and information due to security breaches or attacks. Cloud computing actually makes servers and storage extra secure by defining different levels of security by implementing robust interference detection and prevention systems, firewalls and performing security audits frequently in their data centers to guard data. As cloud computing models are growing fast the aspect of security and fear of data hammering or theft is comforted for the user.
5. Ensures Business Continuity: This benefit refers to providing continuous IT services to make sure continued business operations throughout events such as technology outage, hardware failure or even unpredicted disasters such as fire or flood. Business operations can be dangerously exaggerated and disrupted for many days for the duration of such events mainly in case of in-house IT systems. The remote operational capabilities presented by cloud models ensures user data and services are on hand during unforeseen events. With cloud services, employees can merely login usually from their laptops and carry out work as natural. In addition to the above benefits, there are many more benefits of cloud computing services. Clouds make sure smooth incorporation of data during mergers and acquisitions, launch new business products or services without spending money on supporting systems and leveraging most up-to-date technology and tools to foster a tech-savvy enterprise, and so on, to bring up a few more advantages.
