Benefits of Cloud Services to SMBs

[cliffJ]

I have heard a lot of people saying that cloud can benefit is many ways. It doesn't matter whether its a small or large enterprise, any size and type of business can gain long term benefits from cloud services. So, what I would like to know is the reasons why small and medium businesses should opt for cloud services?

[Macdale]

Re: Benefits of Cloud Services to SMBs

Indeed, Today the cloud computing based applications has totally transformed the ways of operations of small and medium businesses (SMBs). Today, businesses are able to purchase high-cost premium softwares at a very low cost and without any requirement for advanced infrastructure which is truly amazing. Many solution providers offer various cloud services to aid SMBs cope each and every element of their business such as sales, scheduling, marketing data storage, etc.…

[SeanyG]

Re: Benefits of Cloud Services to SMBs

Around 50% of small and medium businesses shuts down their business due to the large investment in software and hardware. When thinking about the services like software, data storage, analytics, etc.… as a cloud services, the OPEX model does make more sense for SMBs. It has been noticed that, when it comes to the purchasing of software or developing a software, the cost of such development is pretty high and impossible for SMBs to purchase such softwares and hence, tries to save their capital wherever possible. Today, as compared to the installation of expensive systems and software with license, the use of cloud-based service (SaaS model) is more feasible in terms of economy.

Also, in terms of scalability, using cloud computing SMBs can instantly scale their server resources up and down in real-time. With traditional hosting, you are always limited to the allocated storage and other resources as well as when it comes to installation of new servers and updates, these things can lead to the lost of production time as in order to upgrade the server components you will need to take your server down. However, by using cloud solutions like eNlight - Auto Scalable Cloud Solutions all this can be avoided as the auto-scaling feature automatically scales the server resources up and down in real time based on its need and without having to reboot.

[paul]

Re: Benefits of Cloud Services to SMBs

Well, IMO, the most significant features of cloud based hosting is the ability to dynamically adjust the computing resources...and secondly, the usage-based options that allow you to pay what you use.

[Albie Stevens]

Re: Benefits of Cloud Services to SMBs

Hi there,

Cloud is always a better solution for those who expect for 100% up time. As the cloud is a Cluster of servers which offers much better up time and redundancy thus helps in enhancing the performance of your website. This is one of the best solution for e-commerce stores to start with. We always have an option for downgrade and upgrade at any point of time.

[eUK-Vikram]

Re: Benefits of Cloud Services to SMBs

Hi Cliff,

Youve asked a very pertinent question here!

Indeed, businesses of any size can gain short term as well as long term benefits by moving to the cloud. The benefit would be from operational as well as marketing perspective. Operational benefits would include greater uptime, redundancy, scalability, exceptional performance etc. The organizations hosted on cloud can market themselves to be using cutting edge technology and would also get benefits gained through higher uptime.

If an organization is selling a product through its website or launching intermittent promotions causing higher loads during those times, then uptime during peak loads also translates directly into increased revenues and customer satisfaction. Such peak loads are very efficiently handled by eNlight as it scales vertically thereby alleviating the need to create multiple instances of application or database and replicating them in order to handle higher loads.

Considering that you are referring to small and mid-sized businesses, one of the main factors for them to host on cloud would be the costs they incur for cloud services. Most popular clouds charge for specific instances on monthly or at the most hourly basis, whereas eNlight charges you at a much shorter interval making it the real pay-as-you-consume cloud. Also, a number of cloud hosting companies provide scalability through horizontal auto-scaling whereas eNlight scales vertically, so you can just use the same application on a VM created on eNlight as the application still runs on a single VM as against a set of VMs. This removes the additional expenses that you may have to incur in making the application cloud-ready. While most of the COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) products arent cloud ready, the organization may have to spend some development pounds to get that application work on cloud, if they plan to host it on a horizontally auto-scaling cloud platform, which isnt the case with eNlight.

Being on Cloud also gives you flexibility to limit your cloud bill by limiting the scaling parameters which can be done through the simple UI of eNlight. So, you can get on the cloud but still maintain your monthly expenditure by limiting the auto-scaling range.

Hope this answers your question.

[Veronica]

Re: Benefits of Cloud Services to SMBs

The cloud computing platform has created a new world of opportunities for the small and medium businesses. This platform enables the SMBs to take the advantage of the larger enterprises. In today’s scenario SMBs are capable of competing in the global market with supreme power and freedom as a result of the resources provided by the cloud computing platform. By utilizing cloud computing, SMBs can respond to the customer requirements and industry demands virtually from any part of the world.

[AnthonyWilliams]

Re: Benefits of Cloud Services to SMBs

Certain benefits of cloud services to SMBs are:-
The biggest advantages of cloud service is Accessibility and Flexibility.
Security
Cloud computing is affordable
Keep Back-up in case of emergency
The service providers like to deal with the technical side of the things and save money and time both.

[solarvps]

Cloud users can access the same software anytime and anywhere they have internet access. This makes it possible to establish and adjust plans.

The ideal cloud vendor will offer a variety of options that will allow you to maximize speed of use and monitor cost. The scalability is an incredibly important feature. It allows administrators and other members of the IT team to actively control use of resources. Scalability makes it possible to allocate more resources to more commonly used applications and the opposite can also be true.