Pt 1: What is "the cloud" and why should we use it?

There is still a lot of mystery surrounding "the cloud” and we often hear people say things like, “we aren't ready for the cloud”. NEWSFLASH – if you're currently using software like Microsoft 365 (formally Office 365), Salesforce, HubSpot etc., then you are in fact already in the cloud.

As you digest that information, I’ll take a few minutes to unpackage what that means.

In meteorology, a cloud is s a large collection of very tiny droplets of water or ice crystals. The droplets are so small and light that they can float in the air.

In technology, a cloud is a fancy way of saying virtual data center.

In it's most simplest form, cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet instead of your computer's hard drive or physical data center.

It’s important to understand that there are 3 main types of cloud services. There are different services to meet everyone's needs, it is not a "one size fits all" service. Knowing what is available and how each can be leveraged will give your business an edge over the competition. AWS provides a deeper dive into all this, but for now, here is a very high level explanation:

The 3 Types of Cloud Services:

IaaS (Infrastructure as a service) the basic foundation for cloud IT. Think of this as renting infrastructure (servers, data center space and software). Cost effective in the way you can adjust server space to accommodate slower or busier times throughout the year.

PaaS (Platform as a service), is really a service to support developers. Companies with an internal IT team can develop, test, deploy, manage and update their own applications and service environment within the cloud.

Saas (Software as a service), is when a software is already build on the cloud server and a company purchases the license to use it, typically subscription based (for example: Miscrosoft 365, Hubspot Salesforce).

10 reasons to leverage the cloud:

1. Agility - innovate faster, the sky is the limit!
2. Better security and compliance
3. It's a piece of cake - it's easier collaboration for users
4. Cost Savings - eliminate the cost associated with physical data centers
5. Be prepared for anything - take the cloud wherever you need to go
6. Get out of the data center business - get online and off-site
7. Stay competitive!
8. Increased reliability of services and redundancy for your most critical processes
9. Platforms built to mitigate failure or downtime of any single component
10. Flexibility – spin up, spin down, or destroy your servers as necessary

Still have questions? I encourage you to seek the answers!

Find out how technology can work for YOU, not the other way around.

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