When adopting IaaS, there are a number of factors that can influence businesses in their decision to invest in this modern form of cloud computing.
Here are five of the best uses that a business can access as a result of IaaS, arranged in no particular order to provide you with some motivation of your own.
Storage
Perhaps the most important asset of IaaS is that it can help businesses to store the ever-increasing amounts of data that they generate.
The rate at which storage requirements are growing could completely swamp your company if you are unable to keep up with demand in house. But with IaaS you can invest in a flexible, scalable storage solution that can expand to meet your needs and give you the additional benefit of being affordable thanks to the pay-as-you-go pricing structure used by most providers.
Data Analysis
Storing data is one thing, but businesses will also need to be able to analyse the information to extract value from it, as opposed to simply allowing it to sit dormant on some remote server.
With IaaS you can have access to full analytical tools and almost unlimited amounts of processing power, thus giving you the opportunity to carry out analysis of large amounts of data without putting unnecessary strain on your on-site systems.
Big data is becoming an important market within the cloud industry and IaaS is enabling modern businesses to keep up with better equipped competitors.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth can be quite expensive, but it is a necessity if you want your IT ambitions to be achieved. This makes the operation of internal systems over your own network infrastructure, with the bandwidth limitations that this entails, far from ideal.
With IaaS you can buy bandwidth just as you would storage or processing capacity, since this on-demand approach to most elements of a typical cloud service is convenient for both providers and customers. Having bandwidth that can scale to suit your needs and budget will allow you to properly access all of the other business applications of IaaS.
Software Apps
A business that wants to use IaaS but remain in control of other technical elements of the service can opt to take this particular approach, opening up the possibility for software apps to be hosted externally but managed by an in-house IT team.
Apps of all kinds running in a variety of operating system environments can be tackled by IaaS, giving you the freedom to pick and choose from the most preferable packages while once more avoiding the concerns associated with maintenance of hardware or networking elements.
The benefit of this approach is that it gives you the leeway to integrate legacy apps into a modern environment without having to completely migrate to newer apps, which could require costly retraining.
Desktop Virtualisation
On a broader level than individual software apps, businesses may find it convenient to use an IaaS platform to virtualise the entire operating environment for those using workstations.
Desktop virtualisation has become popular not only because of its convenience and flexibility, but also because IaaS can actually offer businesses better levels of security than they might be able to achieve on site.
This is particularly relevant for firms that have to comply with industry regulation relating to data protection or the handling of card payments.
IaaS may not be ideal for every company, but for those which want to combine the benefits of the cloud with a good deal of individual control might well consider this type of platform an appropriate acquisition. Given that adoption rates for IaaS are higher than ever, making the leap could give you the competitive advantage.
About the Author: This article is supplied by Jamie Garner, an employee of Daisy Group, who have recently launched new Infrastructure as a Service products.
License: Creative Commons image source
