With the increasing number of digital developments, everyone is expected to follow suit and upgrade. Over the years, the world has moved from the analog age to a digital one. Everything ranging from daily household chores to office work has been digitized and it is easier to perform tasks using new technologies capabilities.
There are many technologies that have made the digitization of the world possible. One of them is cloud computing. Over the past decade, significant advances made in cloud computing have brought it within reach of the masses and made it popular. It provides users with many benefits such as increased storage and easy access to cloud resources on the internet.
What Is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing is the concept of storing, managing and processing data on the internet by means of a network of servers. It first gained popularity in 2010, when Microsoft Azure initiated the cloud services. This allowed data to be stored on the internet and accessed easily. In the same year, Amazon launched its web services (AWS) which included cloud-based services for storing and managing data on the internet. Since then, people have studied cloud computing and developed new ways in which it can be used to ease our life. It has played a major role in the digital transformation of many organizations and businesses, especially in the insurance industry.
What Is Digital Transformation?
Digital transformation is the idea of incorporating technology capabilities into every aspect of life. Be it business, medicine, Insurance, arts, communication or any other discipline. The main aim of digital transformation is to bring ease into people’s lives.
Digital transformation within an organization refers to inculcating technology into all of its departments to improve its products and services. Industries today are making use of internet of things, artificial intelligence, and cloud services to enhance their business operations. They keep an eye on the latest technological developments and shape their processes and equipment accordingly so that they can gain an edge over their competitors.
How Cloud Computing Is Leading Towards a Digital Transformation?
Cloud computing has opened new avenues for organizations and businesses. They make use of it to increase their efficiency and improve their quality of products and services to stay in the market. Without the invention of cloud, organizations would find it difficult to survive and grow in the market. They would have no choice except to use ineffective traditional approaches to build new business models. Without cloud, organizations would find it difficult to move towards a digital transformation.
Here are the ways in which organizations benefit from cloud to bring a digital disruption.
1. Cutting Costs
Organizations have shifted from the traditional method of storing data on hard drives to cloud storage. It is a much cheaper option hence it helps organizations cut down costs. Earlier, organizations used to store data and records on papers. Afterwards, they moved to storing data on big hard drives and storage devices. This traditional approach used up a large portion of the office space and required continuous maintenance. Cloud computing has saved organizations from the hassle of storing, maintaining, and processing data manually and the costs that accompany it.
2. Increasing Productivity
Cloud computing has provided organizations with the opportunity to use Software as a Service (SaaS). It promotes automation in industries and helps lessen the amount of time taken for processes to occur. It offers organizations to quickly adapt market changes and save time. The amount of time organizations used to spend in deploying software applications has been reduced which allows them to work more and increase productivity. Also, employees can access files anywhere and anytime which helps them work faster.
3. Improved Security
Cloud-based computing allows organizations to protect their information from data theft. They store their data on secure servers that prevent intruders and unauthorized members from accessing it. By making multiple backups of their data, they reduce the chance of losing it. Furthermore, cloud computing decreases the chances of system failure due to overload because all information is stored on the internet and not on the system.
Types of Clouds Used Today
Cloud computing is implemented presently using two types of clouds – private and public.
Private Clouds
These clouds contain data and resources that can only be accessed by the members within an organization. It makes use of a localized closed server within the organization that all employees can access for instance, a mail server. It helps organizations in storing their data securely within a cloud that can’t be accessed by anyone else. It also helps them build a closely-knit private network within the organization that can work together to continuously improve their quality of products and services.
Public Clouds
Public clouds are the commonly used cloud computing systems. They are provided by a third-party cloud provider on a public network. An example of public cloud is Microsoft Azure which offers organizations with different tools they can use to upgrade themselves. Here, Microsoft is a third-party cloud provider and multiple organizations can access it through the internet.
The Future of Cloud in Digital Transformation
A large number of organizations are making use of public and private clouds while some of them are moving towards a better approach – the hybrid cloud.
The hybrid cloud is a mixture of both public and private clouds. It is what most organizations will be using in the future to move towards digital transformation. It will offer the privacy of a private cloud along with the ease of access provided by public clouds. Organizations can use it to store their private information such as financial reports as well as for tasks that require large storage space such as emails.
Since public clouds are cost-effective, organizations can use hybrid clouds for cutting down costs and only spending money when necessary. Organizations can digitize themselves efficiently by using the hybrid cloud for both internal and external data storage. They are provided with the flexibility to choose between the cloud options as per their preference.
When it comes to the development of cloud-enabled technologies and services, we have come a long way in a short time. With the advent of hybrid clouds, it is expected that organizations will embrace this technology as part of their digital transformation and their operations will improve many folds.
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