Use of mobile phones and computers is on the rise and so many businesses are now launching either their websites or mobile apps or both to tap this new market where billions of people can become their potential customers. Suppose you are an established company having a physical store and now you want to launch a mobile or web app to sell your products online. One thing you must plan is that slowly as your app will become popular and more number of visitors start visiting your app and buy products, you have to be ready to scale up fast. At this point of time you will need more servers, in some cases even more than 100. But if you could not scale on time then the visitors will see error messages and eventually you will lose them forever.
Good thing is that when you go for Web Application Development or mobile application development you can always go for cloud computing which can solve these problems. Yes, like so many other businesses, you can also go for cloud platforms. Due to its many benefits businesses are now switching from on-premise app development to cloud-based development. Some of these companies are Facebook, Instagram, Quora, Netflix, LinkedIn, Reddit, Airbnb among others. By going for cloud platforms, these apps can scale up quickly and it saves their expenses too.
The companies which have already adopted cloud-based computing say that they have achieved many times more revenue growth. By switching from on-premise app development to cloud based app development, companies can save more than 50% of the total expenses as half of the total expenses are spent on the hardware, software and infrastructure in case of on-premise approach.
Now let’s discuss some of the reasons why cloud based development is more beneficial than on-premise development: -
- Using Cloud Computing Services leads to faster development and deployment and you don’t need to spend time in installing hardware and software to build your app.
- You don’t need to maintain or back up hardware and software used for development.
- You get access to latest and cutting edge software and hardware as cloud platforms are regularly upgraded.
- You will get high level of data security as cloud platforms invest in resources to protect your data.
- You get remote access from any part of the world which means you can hire skilled professionals from any country or part of the world if requires.
- You can measure used and provided services with the cloud platform and can know how much money and resources are spent on the app.
- You get on-demand scalability both up and down and need lesser hardware and software resources.
- Investors find cloud based apps more attractive hence you will get more money invested in your product.
As per an estimate the public IT cloud spending which was $148 Billion in 2018 is expected to touch $205 Billion in 2020. Hence there are so many reasons why you should start developing your app in a cloud platform. Now let’s learn more about different cloud platforms so that you can choose the best one for you.
Choosing the Best Cloud Platform
When you go for Cloud Application Development then there are mainly three types of cloud platform to choose from: -
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): IaaS provides online access to resources like storage, networks and servers for deploying operating systems and programs. This is done through virtualization, without having to maintain your own infrastructure i.e. renting a physical server online. With IaaS, you get high level of customization, control of infrastructure and scalability.
- Platform as a Service (PaaS): PaaS provides customers a fully ready software environment for building apps. These services also provide tools for environment configuration like the required hardware, operating systems, middleware, database systems and also tools for testing and developing. Its main benefit is less coding for your project, flexibility, customization and easy development process but you will still need developers for database deployment, business logic and the frontend.
- Software as a Service (SaaS): SaaS is a ready made software provided over the internet on a subscription basis. SaaS solutions are best fit when your business doesn’t have time and willingness to build up infrastructure and develop and deploy your app. The SaaS solutions make app building easy and your software can scale automatically and requires no administration. SaaS platform is the best for short-term projects and temporary collaboration and for specific software that is demanded only by a specific audience and for a specific time period.
There are many good Cloud Computing Companies in the market hence when you are going for mobile app development or web app development, you can choose any one of the services discussed above and reap its benefits.
What You Should Get When You Choose a Cloud Platform?
Whether you choose an IaaS, PaaS or SaaS solution, you should get these things: -
- Stability and Quality of data center and your app will work perfectly even when lots of people are using it.
- Great Technical Support and proper assistance in maintenance of your app if something goes wrong.
- Large number of customer using the service and more number of customers is a sign of trust and customer satisfaction.
- Proper update policy to make sure that your app is always running smoothly on latest cutting edge hardware and software and you are getting best customer experience.
- High Level of Data Security so that your user’s data is safe from fraud, hacking attacks, breaches and leaks.
- Best pricing to make sure you are getting cost effective services along with discounts and special offers as and when they come.
Now as you know the so many benefits and features of cloud computing let’s now discuss the situations when you can wait for some time before taking the plunge.
Although in most cases, it is wise to develop an app for your business with the help of cloud platforms but there are some exceptions like for businesses which need specific security standards – for example, banks, financial institutions and medical companies that have to store personal data in local data centers. In other cases too, you need to answer the following questions before going for cloud computing: -
- Is your business ready for cloud based solutions?: First you need to evaluate the actual needs of your organization and analyzing technologies you are going to implement. Find out whether your problems can be resolved with the help of cloud computing. Don’t use it only because your competitors are using it. Look upon your app features. If using cloud computing, they can be optimized and the users can get a better user experience then go ahead with it.
- Are your employees ready for cloud computing? If you go for cloud computing, then it is not just that you want to save on cost it will also change the corporate culture within your company especially IT division. Your employees will have to learn a lot of things and skills and how to think in advance. Cloud computing allows teams to act independently hence they need to use different ways to achieve their goals. Also all of the divisions within your company should know that your company is adopting cloud computing so that they can adapt their processes accordingly.
- You have already invested in hardware and software in your company: If you have already invested a lot of resources in your hardware and software requirements, then you should check whether cloud computing will be really cost-efficient for your business or not. These resources have a life cycle and it might be that you don’t need to move to cloud computing for at least a couple of years.
Conclusion
As we have just discussed there are enormous benefits of going for cloud computing but along with that you should also check the situations and cases in which cases it may not be the right decision for your business or may be it is not the right time to go for it. Other than that, you should also check the technical details and license agreements provided by the cloud platform you have chosen. Sometimes their cost and efforts are too much. Also you should check how they will protect your data. If taking all of this things into account, you still think that your business and your employees are ready to adopt cloud computing then go for it and you will certainly see your business getting its benefits and it will start to move in the right direction and that is only up.