Cloud computing services allow enterprises to utilize enterprise software without investing in new hardware or software. This can save time and money, as well as effort. This allows companies to move from operations to innovation more quickly and gain competitive advantage.

Servers aren’t cheap, and unless you’re investing in redundancy (like an array of redundant independent disks) there’s a great chance that at least some of your servers will go down at any time. The cost of maintaining servers and the space needed for their installation can quickly add up. Add in the fact that servers require constant cooling, and you’re looking at a significant operating cost.

With a cloud service allows you to gain access to your data and applications anywhere you have an internet connection. This allows your employees to be more productive on the road, at the office or on mobile devices.

Cloud computing also permits rapid scaling of virtual resources and storage. It is easy to quickly add capacity to meet sudden up lift in demand, and scale back down as fast when things slow down. This is referred to as elasticity and is a major benefit of cloud.

There are a handful of major cloud providers with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google getting the majority of the market share. Other leading contenders are VMware and OpenStack. As the cloud continues to grow, we’re seeing a lot more progress towards multi-cloud strategies. This is due to the fact that it reduces the risk of vendor lock-in but it’s also because working with a variety of providers offers more flexibility.

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