Not everything is in a cloud yet, but soon it will be. The need for heavy hard drives and DVDs is quickly disappearing. Storage and software no longer have to be local.
Government in the Clouds
The federal government started an initiative in 2011 to organize its data with cloud storage. The effort is meant to save money and space. By eliminating inefficiencies, the federal government can improve its customer service and move faster in a digital age, according to Vivek Kundra, the U.S. chief information officer.
After several years, the federal government today has many of its assets stored on cloud servers by working with Amazon Web Services, Google and CGI Federal, reports Barb Darrow of Fortune. Microsoft also jumped on the government market with cloud services for Office 365, Azure and Dynamics CRM. Government contracts are a big deal for private corporations.
With the exception of the National Security Agency, most federal government agencies are renting cloud space from a private company. The NSA made its own secure cloud.
By migrating to cloud-based systems, the government now has access to better data mining tools. These new tools allow for faster project completion. No one has more data than the federal government, so its demands for new software and automation are helping to drive disruptive innovation in the IT industry.
Giant Data Centers
Corporations such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft are building more data centers across the country. They tend to pop up near small towns and look like massive warehouse forts. The buildings store thousands of servers and require very few employees to operate.
Usually, the data centers are on cheap, unused land and have impressive security. The small towns nearby supply electricity and water, reports Quentin Hardy of The New York Times. The global cloud market is worth $1 trillion, Hardy says. Providers tend to build data centers in cooler areas of the country to keep air conditioning costs down.
The fourth industrial revolution will include big data, the Internet of Things and cognitive computing. Cloud-based applications will be part of this. New companies and cloud-based applications emerge every day.
The future trend is for companies to pursue innovation by implementing more outsourced cloud-based operations and automation. This not only can speed up innovation, it also can help companies keep up with competitors’ price outs.
As companies seek to lower costs by abandoning physical data storage on site, many software programs and capabilities continue to develop for cloud-based computing.
The ability to set up a cloud video conference has become much easier thanks to companies like BlueJeans Network. Aside from eliminating the new for IT implementation and maintenance onsite, cloud-based video conferencing services allow for easy and fast scalability.
Startups only have to pay for what they need and increase their spend as their business expands. Cloud-based video conferencing allows companies to communicate with their mobile workforce and remote workers in real time.
This can save time and travel expense. The availability of high-speed internet around the world makes becoming an international company easy for startups. Collaboration no longer has to be face-to-face or over the phone. The only snag nowadays is time zone difference.
Cloud computing brings many advantages for enterprises. The as-a-service state of software through a cloud provider offers the chance to get the newest versions of software without having to go through the pain of installing it locally.
Although some people may be paranoid, cloud services are much more reliable than locally stored server service. Except during rare lightning storms, cloud servers can provide 24/7 uptime.
It’s much easier for employees to access company data and software because of the cloud. The business world is moving toward mobile even beyond laptops. Companies with evolved cloud-based infrastructure will be ready for the next generation of mobile devices.
Customer Relationship Management
As companies rely more on data to make business decisions, the accuracy and timeliness of the information becomes more important. To stay competitive in today’s markets, companies must know as much as possible about their customers.
Cloud-based customer relationship management software provides companies with the best access to the metrics they need to drive sales. Software integration is quickly evolving mostly because of mobile devices. Users want to be able to access apps without switching screens or leaving their favorite or most-used application.
CRM software such as Salesforce works with a variety of other programs to deliver information in an organized fashion. CRM software has become seamless in the cloud. Many related programs can access the same customer data from the cloud. Users can easily repurpose the same data through the same CRM program.
The main thing to know about cloud computing today is it is taking over business and moving in on consumers at a rapid rate. This is evident in the latest consumer laptop offerings. Hard drive storage is shrinking because companies want consumers to move their data to the cloud.