Category: Business Intelligence Tools

8 Common Uses Of Cloud Computing

Analytics Insight presents the 8 Common Uses of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing refers to a computer paradigm and a collection of technologies that enable users to pay for cloud services over the Internet. Despite the fact that cloud computing is a comparatively recent paradigm that has only recently gained widespread acceptance, it is growing in popularity.

The many uses of cloud computing have proved beneficial in offering an assortment of solutions to everyone from government departments to non-profit organizations and tiny start-ups. The following are some popular cloud computing applications that should make you think about how this technology may help your company.

1. Software Testing and Development

If you’ve ever built an in-house app, you know how time-consuming, costly, and expensive the process can be. It necessitates the installation and deployment of sophisticated gear and software, as well as ongoing training for all personnel involved.

This simply implies that even a basic project might take months to execute, putting you at a competitive disadvantage in today’s economy. Many solutions for continuous integration and continuous delivery are available through cloud computing companies, making development and testing faster, easier, and less expensive.

2. Social Networking

Social media platforms are designed to assist you in finding individuals you already know – or connecting with those you don’t. They also provide you with a variety of options for exchanging data and information, including tweets, photographs, instant messaging, and posts. Alongside cloud storage, one of the most frequent use cases for consumer-driven cloud computing is social networking.

Social networking is maybe one of the most underappreciated uses of cloud computing. The Software as a Service (SaaS) cloud computing concept is exemplified by platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

3. Big Data Analytics

If your company does not gather big data now, it will be at a considerable disadvantage. This information might include information on your clients, industry trends, sales performance, and so forth.

Big data is required by businesses of all sizes for a variety of reasons. Some people gather it in order to uncover new business possibilities, while others do so in order to solve complicated issues. Big data collection and analysis, on the other hand, isn’t easy. It necessitates the employment of massive computational resources, which come at a high cost.

If you buy the resources you’ll need for cloud computing, you could have to cut expenditures for other important services like marketing. If you use cloud computing, you won’t have to worry about this. The main advantage of cloud computing is that it has a pay-as-you-go pricing model. This means you won’t have to pay for the time you don’t utilize, which will save your company a lot of money. You just use and pay for resources when you really need them. – Read more

‘We’ve seen rapid cloud adoption post pandemic’

The software-as-a-service (SaaS) market, according to Gartner, is estimated to grow to $104.7 billion in 2020 as firms shift from on-premises licenced software to subscription-based SaaS models, as well as adopt new software collaboration tools during the covid-19 pandemic. Zoho Corp., based in Texas and Chennai, has emerged as one of the major SaaS companies globally, riding on the surge in demand. The company is aiming to touch the 1-million customer mark and further expand its market in India. In an interview, Sridhar Vembu, founder and CEO, talks about the changing trends, areas of focus, and expansion strategy. Edited excerpts:

Which markets are you focusing on? How much will India contribute?

We have over 400,000 customers worldwide right now, and we are seeing a rapid increase in customer count. We will probably add another 100,000-150,000 more clients in the next 12 months. So we are approaching and going to target the one million-organization mark in 2-3 years, of which, we would expect India to account for 20% of our customers, from about 12-13% today. The rest is split globally among North America, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Japan and China.

Has your expansion strategy changed post-covid?

We always had this plan of rural expansion, but the pandemic has just accelerated this. It has now become a strategy for us. We are opening smaller rural offices everywhere. In fact, even in the US, we are in the process of opening rural centres. I personally don’t like to expand in major cities because of congestion, cost of living and real estate prices. One rule of thumb I use is that our employees should be able to live well on their salary. That’s an important criterion for me to decide where I locate the office.

Do you see consolidation in the SaaS space?

The market is quite fragmented with too many players in too many subdivisions, and a lot of them are venture capital-funded. You have an extraordinary explosion of venture funding that is keeping a lot of companies afloat, who are otherwise not profitable. In the early pandemic period, there was a wave of consolidation, but thanks to the easy money policies, the availability of venture capital is still very high. So, the amount of capital going into these is keeping the market forces operating, as unprofitable players continue to receive funding.

Eventually, rationalization has to happen because there has to be a limit on the number of SaaS tools a company can use. That’s why consolidation becomes inevitable.

How has the pandemic impacted your business?

During the first 1-2 months, we saw some slowdown, but by May-June, we started to see some of the growth return. By September, we were actually doing well. Things have come back to normal with the opening up of countries, including India. We have seen a more rapid cloud adoption post-pandemic. We are definitely in a growth cycle, but the main concern is how the global economic landscape will look like. These are the long-term challenges. Our business is doing well. – Read More

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