If you’ve had your tent pitched in the tech space for a while, you should know that everyone talks about “the cloud.” About a decade ago, it was sort of an IT buzzword. Now? Cloud software development is the next step in the business software evolution, and the numbers do not lie.
Eighty-nine percent of enterprises already use a multi-cloud strategy, with 80 percent leveraging a hybrid approach, combining private and public clouds.
But here’s where it gets interesting. Fifty-seven percent of these enterprises are migrating more workloads to the cloud.
Cloud computing allows businesses to store and share data securely. It also helps organizations develop, deploy and scale applications quickly while accessing work across teams in real-time. For these reasons, businesses are starting to shift from on-premise to cloud-based software development models.
This article will discuss all you need to know about cloud computing and cloud software development to get you started.
Cloud computing describes a range of computing services or infrastructure offered by cloud service providers to users over the internet. These services or infrastructure include software, servers, storage, networking, intelligence, analytics and databases to provide faster innovation, flexibility and reduce operational costs.
Businesses and development teams that use cloud computing no longer need to maintain their own infrastructure for software development. Instead, they can “rent” these computing resources from cloud vendors and use them on demand.
These “rentable” resources are of three types:
The technologies you’ll use will depend heavily on your business needs.
For developers, PaaS is in high demand as it lets teams collaborate on projects efficiently. On the other hand, enterprise users are more likely to sign with IaaS and SaaS providers. Enterprise users decide what they need and pay for resources as they use them, saving upfront costs of purchasing physical infrastructure or tools.
There are many reasons why you should adopt cloud software development.
For starters, it is an excellent alternative to traditional on-premise infrastructure. That aside, cloud software development makes it easier to develop and deploy robust software without colossal overhead costs, maximizing business performance and facilitating growth.
Let’s examine some of these advantages to understand better why developers and businesses are moving to the cloud.
You can scale up your business depending on your needs without incurring the costs of managing your servers. Cloud service providers have their own DevOps teams. You don’t need to hire a large team to maintain your cloud infrastructure to keep everything running smoothly.
Maintaining on-premise infrastructure is time-consuming and costly, with security patches and operating system updates. Adopting cloud software development ensures your team can focus on more critical tasks, such as application development and customer support.
Moreover, cloud computing storage enables you to host applications on remote servers, saving you the headache of hardware-related costs.
Building and maintaining an in-house infrastructure can be challenging, especially for small businesses without a dedicated IT department. You can access cloud computing platforms from any device that has an internet connection, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones.
Retrace users enjoy seamless usage, including access to all application logs from one place across all their applications and servers.
As the centralized logging feature aggregates all your logs into one place, you can get started right away without having to learn complicated systems or processes.
If your business grows, your cloud apps can grow with it.
Cloud platforms can help you scale more effectively than traditional platforms because you can handle increased usage by allocating resources according to current demand. You pay for what you use and can increase your usage seamlessly as needed.
Cloud solutions are suitable for enterprises that fluctuate or escalate the demand for computing power. You can scale up your cloud capacity without having to invest in physical equipment as your business grows. Businesses that use cloud computing may gain a significant competitive advantage because of their flexibility.
Cloud computing allows you to focus on your core business functions while leveraging cloud providers’ expertise to deliver your software on the web and mobile devices.
You’re not restricted to a single operating system or device, and you’re not responsible for server upkeep or application updates.
As shown below, cloud services’ versatility and their ever-expanding variety of tools and technology have sped up adoption across industries. Cloud technology allows you to have more efficient computing by centralizing storage, memory, processing and capacity.
Here’s a list of the standard features of cloud computing to keep in mind. Features also determine why businesses and developers choose one cloud software platform over another.
Multi-tenancy is a software architecture in which a single instance serves many tenants. While working in the same shared environment, many tenants can share the same software, hardware, data storage and other resources. The data of each tenant is separated from that of other users.
Multi-tenancy can reduce costs, hardware requirements and maintenance costs, improve server response time and have a lesser environmental impact. By allowing several users to access the same instance without losing performance or security, multi-tenancy makes cloud computing accessible to small and medium businesses.
Cloud products are self-serviced, meaning that you can start using them without waiting for anyone to configure and test the software for you. You save time and money on implementing the service in your business.
For example, you can go onto a website, register their details, and immediately access the software. You may choose to access email verification tools first, then add other features as your business needs change. When cloud software is accessible through a mobile app, there is no need to install or update the software on each user’s device or computer.
Many cloud vendors provide flexible pricing models that allow businesses to pay only for the resources they use or require. Enterprises can scale up their development based on their needs without spending much money on IT infrastructure management teams.
Users pay only for the services they consume, giving them greater flexibility in how much they use and spend. You can also start small as you test new applications and then scale them as your business grows.
Cloud Computing is based on a third-party hosting your applications over the internet without accruing operational and maintenance costs. The hosting company pays for the equipment needed to run your software and any maintenance or upgrades required. You won’t have to worry about any of those expenses, and you’ll still be able to use the service for your business needs.
Cloud providers invest extensively in quality control tests, monitoring and other methods to assure a high level of service. Cloud providers also keep redundant systems in place for data security and disaster recovery. If one system fails, the other takes over, resulting in more dependable services than those you might set up yourself.
With Retrace, for example, you can identify application performance issues earlier and solve them faster. Your team can identify and fix any problems within your suite of work management tools before the end-users even notice.
Cloud computing has been a game-changer since its inception. Its significance will continue to grow. According to many in technology and business, cloud software development is laying the groundwork for the world’s economy of tomorrow.
If you want to reach your SMART goals while running your business, it’s time to consider uploading all your data files and applications to the cloud. You won’t regret it. You’ll be able to save money on overhead for larger projects.
In the end, cloud software development will offer you several unique benefits that you can’t get with a traditional software development plan. With the right software and minimal costs, you too can implement a cloud infrastructure that is scalable and easy to use.
Consider adopting this revolutionary approach, and you’ll be setting up your business for success.
Stackify's APM tools are used by thousands of .NET, Java, PHP, Node.js, Python, & Ruby developers all over the world.
Explore Retrace's product features to learn more.
If you would like to be a guest contributor to the Stackify blog please reach out to stackify@stackify.com
