The cloud as a computing strategy is helping millions of businesses be the best version of themselves. The main reason for this is the inherent scalability that is made available through cloud solutions. Let’s take a look at how scalability benefits a business and how it works.
Supporting Business Growth
For years, businesses would invest a hefty sum into purchasing their servers, storage, and mission-critical and productivity software to meet the demands of their business. They then had to hire or outsource staff to properly set this technology up, actively manage it, and support any inconsistencies that may come from relying on that technology.
Then the cloud came along.
For a while businesses were reluctant to move too many of their processes to the cloud, mainly because there were many people talking about how data security for cloud-based systems was suspect. Nowadays, however, millions of businesses are utilizing some type of cloud computing.
The cloud now has options for any computing issue your business could face. You can get whole servers, workstations,storage, stand-alone applications, even advanced computing options for business intelligence, AI deployment, and more. It allows businesses to get the processing, storage, and applications they need when they need them without having to pay huge swaths of capital to build onto their IT infrastructure. In fact, many businesses have switched to a predominantly cloud-centric environment where remote employees can access work-related systems from anywhere securely and reliably.
What is Cloud Scalability?
When we talk about the cloud being scalable it goes back to the traditional IT deployment methods that have been used for years. For example, if a business used a certain application, they would need to purchase the amount of licenses needed for their staff. These licenses only had to be purchased once per year, but they are expensive and if you only need resources for a short time, you could be wasting a fair amount of capital.
With the cloud, you are able to scale the technology you need to the demands of your business. You no longer need to spend months overhauling your IT infrastructure. You can now purchase the computing you need directly from a company (AWS, Microsoft, etc.) to get the computing you need. Better than that, you can do this very easily. All you need to do is add an account to the solution you decide to use and in minutes the account will be active and ready to use.
Types of Cloud Scaling
To better understand how cloud scaling works, you need to understand the three different types of scaling used by businesses today. They are:
- Vertical scaling - Vertical scaling involves the addition of more resources to your cloud platform. This can be something as simple as adding an account to a productivity suite or Email platform, or something a little more complex such as adding RAM or processing power to a virtual server that you purchase.
- Horizontal scaling - Horizontal scaling involves adding new servers to a cloud computing platform. Since there are more machines running similar computing environments, this is the type you would use if you need to grow your hosted computing infrastructure to run more dynamic tools, such as a PBX server for VoIP.
- Diagonal scaling - Diagonal scaling is basically a combination of the two previous methods. This happens when you need more computing resources on each server that you run due to a change in usage.
There’s no best choice on how to scale your cloud platforms; it really depends on what you need at the time. The best part is that when your computing needs normalize, you can scale up or back as needed.
The cloud is an indispensable tool for businesses of all types. If you would like to talk to one of our IT experts about getting the cloud solutions you need for your business, give us a call today at 800.618.9844.
