Advantages, Disadvantages, Benefits and Risks of Cloud Computing

Advantages, Disadvantages, Benefits and Risks of Cloud Computing 

We will discuss a lot of benefits and advantages of cloud computing here in this article. We have made a list of advantages and benefits of cloud computing. After mentioning advantages, we will also discuss some of the risks and disadvantages of cloud computing.

22 Advantages and Benefits of Cloud Computing

1. Decrease in cost

The biggest advantage of cloud computing is the elimination of the investment in stand-alone software or servers by the user. By cloud computing, one can easily save the overhead charges such as cost of data storage, software updates, management, and most importantly cost of quality control. Now anyone can use the services of cloud computing at affordable rates.

Cloud computing is probably the most cost efficient method to use, maintain and upgrade. Traditional desktop software costs companies a lot in terms of finance. Adding up the licensing fees for multiple users can prove to be very expensive for the establishment concerned. The cloud, on the other hand, is available at much cheaper rates and hence, can significantly lower the company’s IT expenses. Besides, there are many one-time-payment, pay-as-you-go and other scalable options available, which makes it very reasonable for the company in question.

2. Speed and scalability of cloud services

With cloud computing, the user has no need to install the hardware or software for a new application; he or she can easily scale up or down the services, limiting them according to their requirements. There are many data centers that are located at multiple locations for the storage of data from near locations.

3. Almost Unlimited Storage

Storing information in the cloud gives you almost unlimited storage capacity. Hence, you no more need to worry about running out of storage space or increasing your current storage space availability.

4. Backup and Recovery

Since all your data is stored in the cloud, backing it up and restoring the same is relatively much easier than storing the same on a physical device. Furthermore, most cloud service providers are usually competent enough to handle recovery of information. Hence, this makes the entire process of backup and recovery much simpler than other traditional methods of data storage.

5. Automatic Software Integration

In the cloud, software integration is usually something that occurs automatically. This means that you do not need to take additional efforts to customize and integrate your applications as per your preferences. This aspect usually takes care of itself. Not only that, cloud computing allows you to customize your options with great ease. Hence, you can handpick just those services and software applications that you think will best suit your particular enterprise.

6. Easy Access to Information

Once you register yourself in the cloud, you can access the information from anywhere, where there is an Internet connection. This convenient feature lets you move beyond time zone and geographic location issues.

7. Quick Deployment

Lastly and most importantly, cloud computing gives you the advantage of quick deployment. Once you opt for this method of functioning, your entire system can be fully functional in a matter of a few minutes. Of course, the amount of time taken here will depend on the exact kind of technology that you need for your business.

8. Innovation in technology

With the innovation in technology, the user has no need to manage or own the resources; cloud computing does that and provides the user the complete benefits.

9. Selection of location

Service providers can select the location for infrastructure freely, according to their requirements, minimizing their overhead expenses.

10. Use of device

Cloud computing services can be used and accessed from any device such as computer, mobile phone, or iPhone.

11. Cap-Ex Free Computing

Whether you go with a public cloud or outsourced private cloud computing option, cloud computing delivers a better cash flow by eliminating the capital expense associated with building the server infrastructure.

12. Deploy Projects Faster

Because servers can be brought up & destroyed in a matter of minutes, the time to deploy a new application drops dramatically with cloud computing.  Rather than installing and networking a new hardware server, the new server can be dialed up and imaged in through a self-serve control console.  Or better yet, with a private cloud, your service provider can dial up a new server with a single call or support ticket.

13. Scale as Needed

As your applications grow, you can add storage, RAM and CPU capacity as needed.  This means you can buy “just enough” and scale as the application demands grow.

14. Lower Maintenance Costs

Lower Maintenance Costs driven by 2 factors:  Less hardware and outsourced, shared IT staff.  Because cloud computing uses less physical resources, there is less hardware to power and maintain.  With an outsourced cloud, you don’t need to keep server, storage, network, and virtualization experts on staff full time.  You get economy of scale of those expert resources through your cloud provider.

15. Resiliency and Redundancy

One of the benefits of a private cloud deployment is that you can get automatic failover between hardware platforms and disaster recovery services to bring up your server set in a separate data center should your primary data center experience an outage.

16.  Increases Collaboration

Cloud computing increases collaboration by allowing all employees – wherever they are – to sync up and work on documents and shared apps simultaneously, and follow colleagues and records to receive critical updates in real time. A survey by Frost & Sullivan found that companies which invested in collaboration technology had a 400% return on investment.

17. Work From Anywhere

As long as employees have internet access, they can work from anywhere. This flexibility positively affects knowledge workers' work-life blanace and productivity. One study found that 42% of working adults would give up some of their salary if they could telecommute, and on average they would take a 6% paycut.

18. Security

Some 800,000 laptops are lost each year in airports alone. This can have some serious monetary implications, but when everything is stored in the cloud, data can still be accessed no matter what happens to a machine.

19. Competitiveness

The cloud grants SMEs access to enterprise-class technology. It also allows smaller businesses to act faster than big, established competitors. A study on disaster recovery eventually concluded that companies that didn’t use the cloud had to rely on tape backup methods and complicated procedures to recover.

20. Environment Friendly

Businesses using cloud computing only use the server space they need, which decreases their carbon footprint. Using the cloud results in at least 30% less energy consumption and carbon emissions than using on-site servers. And again, SMEs get the most benefit: for small companies, the cut in energy use and carbon emissions is likely to be 90%.

21. Device Diversity

The cloud computing method can be accessed through various different electronic devices that are able to have access to the internet. These devices would include and iPad, smartphone, Laptop, or desktop computer.

22. Customize Settings

Last but not least, you will enjoy the fact that cloud computing allows you to customize your business applications. This is a great benefit because the world of online business is very competitive.

Disadvantages and Risks of Cloud Computing

In spite of its many benefits, as mentioned above, cloud computing also has its disadvantages. Businesses, especially smaller ones, need to be aware of these cons before going in for this technology.

The Risks Involved in Cloud Computing (Disadvantages of Cloud Computing)

1. Technical Issues

Though it is true that information and data on the cloud can be accessed anytime and from anywhere at all, there are times when this system can have some serious dysfunction. You should be aware of the fact that this technology is always prone to outages and other technical issues. Even the best cloud service providers run into this kind of trouble, in spite of keeping up high standards of maintenance. Besides, you will need a very good Internet connection to be logged onto the server at all times. You will invariably be stuck in case of network and connectivity problems.

2. Security in the Cloud

The other major issue while in the cloud is that of security issues. Before adopting this technology, you should know that you will be surrendering all your company’s sensitive information to a third-party cloud service provider. This could potentially put your company to great risk. Hence, you need to make absolutely sure that you choose the most reliable service provider, who will keep your information totally secure.

3. Prone to Attack

Storing information in the cloud could make your company vulnerable to external hack attacks and threats. As you are well aware, nothing on the Internet is completely secure and hence, there is always the lurking possibility of stealth of sensitive data.