Rezwana Khan :
Cloud computing tends to shift spending from Capital Expenditure (Capex) to Operating Expenditure (OpEx) as companies buy computing as a service rather than in the form of physical servers. This may allow companies to avoid large increases in IT spending which would traditionally be seen with new projects; using the cloud to make room in the budget may be easier than going to the CFO and looking for more money. Business of all sizes, geographies, and industries are turning to cloud services. The cloud is a great way to run a business, since it offers many advantages and only a few disadvantages. Cloud computing is a term used to describe the use of hardware and software delivered via network (usually the Internet). The term comes from the use of cloud shaped symbol that represents abstraction of rather complex infrastructure that enables the work of software, hardware, computation and remote services. Simply, cloud computing is computing based on the internet. In the past, people would run applications or programs from software downloaded on a physical computer or server in their building. Cloud computing allows people access to the same kinds of applications through the internet. By hosting software, platforms, and databases remotely, the cloud servers free up the memory and computing power of individual computers. Users can securely access cloud services using credentials received from the cloud computing provider. Key benefits an enterprise can expect to achieve when adopting cloud infrastructure.
1. Efficiency & cost reduction
By using cloud infrastructure, you don’t have to spend huge amounts of money on purchasing and maintain equipment. This drastically reduces capex costs. You don’t have to invest in hardware, facilities, utilities, or building out a large data center to grow your business. You do not even need large IT teams to handle your cloud data center operations, as you can enjoy the expertise of your cloud provider’s staff. Cloud also reduces costs related to downtime. Since downtime is rare in cloud systems, this means you don’t have to spend time and money on fixing potential issues related to downtime.
2. Data security
Cloud offers many advanced security features that guarantee that data is securely stored and handled. Cloud storage providers implement baseline protections for their platforms and the data they process, such authentication, access control, and encryption.
3. Scalability
Cloud based solutions are ideal for businesses with growing or fluctuating bandwidth demands. If your business demands increase, you can easily increase your cloud capacity without having to invest in physical infrastructure. This level of agility can give businesses using cloud computing a real advantage over competitors. This scalability minimizes the risks associated with in-house operational issues and maintenance. You have high-performance resources at your disposal with professional solutions and zero up-front investment. Scalability is probably the greatest advantage of the cloud.
4. Mobility
Cloud computing allows mobile access to corporate data via smartphones and devices, which is a great way to ensure that no one is ever left out of the loop. Staff with busy schedules, or who live a long way away from the corporate office, can use this feature to keep instantly up-to-date with clients and coworkers. Resources in the cloud can be easily stored, retrieved, recovered, or processed with just a couple of clicks. Users can get access to their works on-the-go, 24/7, via any devices of their choice, in any corner of the world as long as you stay connected to the internet. On top of that, all the upgrades and updates are done automatically, off-sight by the service providers. This saves time and team effort in maintaining the systems, tremendously reducing the IT team workloads.
5. Disaster recovery
Cloud infrastructure can also help you with loss prevention. If you rely on traditional on-premises approach, all your data will be stored locally, on office computers. Despite your best efforts, computers can malfunction from various reasons-from malware and viruses, to age-related hardware deterioration, to simple user error.
6. Control
Having control over sensitive data is vital to any company. Cloud enables you complete visibility and control over your data. You can easily decide which users have what level of access to what data. This gives you control, but it also streamlines work since staff will easily know what documents are assigned to them. It will also increase and ease collaboration.
7. Competitive edge
Cloud adoption increases every year, since companies realize that it offers them access to world-class enterprise technology. By using a cloud-based solution, an enterprise can prevent a lot of problems that plague organizations that rely on on-premises infrastructure. Cloud computing is the delivery of on-demand computing services — from applications to storage and processing power — typically over the internet and on a pay-as-you-go basis. Rather than owning their own computing infrastructure or data centers, companies can rent access to anything from applications to storage from a cloud service provider. One benefit of using cloud computing services is that firms can avoid the upfront cost and complexity of owning and maintaining their own IT infrastructure, and instead simply pay for what they use, when they use it.
In short-12 business advantages of cloud computing.
Cost Savings
Security
Flexibility
Mobility
Insight
Increased Collaboration
Quality Control
Disaster Recovery
Loss Prevention
Automatic Software Updates
Competitive Edge
Sustainability
Having said above, the vision of digital Bangladesh, the usage of the internet has been growing tremendously where general people to large corporates and even in rural area the Internet is becoming a daily means of everyone’s life. People are exchanging all the data through the internet.
Bangladesh banking sector is expanding in remote areas as well. Now we also all types of services from banks as user like mobile banking, online banking, ATM etc. Presently banks should be more aware of the new BOT based self services targeting the youth group of the country to attract them as their smart & effective client base. Cloud can play a vital role to achieve this objective. Telco, manufacturing, pharmacy and media are also strong verticals for fast moving cloud adaptation.
Industry analysts predict that more than 50 percent of all enterprise data will be managed in the cloud and 80 percent of application operations will be resolved autonomously by 2020. The new business world is going to be total data driven. To keep pace with this data-driven business world, Bangladesh should walk in the same path as well.
(Rezwana Khan, CEO, Star Computer Systems Limited, Technology Entrepreneur & Venture Capitalist, Business Process & Enterprise Solution Advisor)
