Cloud services are the latest hot development in information technology, and all major manufacturers have quickly picked up on it. Most major IT companies now offer a cloud services solution.

What is a cloud

A cloud is a collection of computing systems presented to you as a single entity, regardless of location. Most major cloud computing services offer transparent access to a multi-datacenter computing platform. Applications run on virtual machines independent of a physical host server, so they can be quickly migrated to different hardware or even to a different data center if a problem occurs. These data centers are often far apart and may even be located in different countries and continents.

The benefits it provides

Many businesses, especially in the retail sector, have significantly higher demands on computing resources at certain times of the year. To meet these requirements, a business must have many idle computers for most of the year or bring in computers for a short period. iSeries cloud services allow customers to increase or decrease their computer usage quickly, and, therefore, their costs are based on demand.

Cloud services allow companies to use the huge computing power providers provide, but pay only for their use. When demand increases, the cloud service provider sometimes allows customers to meet that demand but use less for the rest of the year.

Cloud access

Most companies that use a cloud service provider access it over the internet or through a dedicated line to a data center. It allows employees and customers to access cloud applications from anywhere in the world. However, unlike applications you install on your local PC or server, any interruption to your network can prevent access to applications and slow down performance.

It can be avoided by having more than one Internet connection for fault tolerance, such as a fixed and wireless connection for an office. Cloud services usually come from multiple data centers, so if one goes down completely.

Other Considerations

Many companies are lining up to host their cloud applications. Backup and other standard data center services will be part of the cloud provider’s package. A better approach might be to migrate one application or service at a time rather than all at once.

Conclusion

Services to the cloud will provide fault tolerance and protect critical data and applications without the high cost of upgrading existing infrastructure. The size of these vendors can give you additional cost savings and reduce the overhead of IT, support staff, by doing all the technical work for you.