The Basic Advantages of Public Cloud

It’s not a bad time to be a public cloud service provider. The public cloud services market is expected to reach 186.4 billion in 2018, up 21 percent from 2017 according to research firm Gartner.  The market is expected to double in revenue by 2021, reaching $302 billion. While few can deny how prevalent public cloud is becoming on the IT landscape, some businesses are still hesitant to forego their on-premises systems, private or hybrid cloud solutions and go “all in” on public cloud. If you’re in that camp, you need to know what you’re missing and why the time to fully embrace the cloud is now. Public cloud adopters:

1. Improve Security. While forward-thinking companies worldwide recognize the added security benefits that come with transitioning to the cloud, the misconception that if you don’t control and house your own data, it’s less secure still exists. This couldn’t be further from the truth, which is evident through the fact that the majority of data leaks occur with on-premises solutions. The public cloud offers improved security for many reasons, including:
   • Cyber security expertise. Big cloud vendors attract the world’s most talented engineers and have the money to pay for large security teams and the best security tools available. With the Cloud, you get access to highly skilled teams of IT professionals tasked solely with protecting your cloud infrastructure.
   • Security innovation and more modern technology. The most advanced security services are cloud-native. Security innovation is happening in the cloud and being designed specifically for cloud-based solutions.
   • Regular penetration testing. Public clouds undergo penetration testing regularly and are held to tougher standards than on-premises solutions and private clouds. Some private clouds never receive penetration testing at anywhere near an acceptable level.
   • Controlled access. Most data breaches are a result of human error. Cloud skeptics think that keeping their data in-house allows them to better control it, but really the opposite is true. Data stored in the public cloud is less likely to fall into the wrong hands because of an employee’s mistake. As human control of your information decreases, so does your risk.
   It should be noted that cloud security is a shared responsibility. Your cloud service provider is responsible for the security of the cloud, and you are responsible for your security in the cloud. Cloud customers need to understand their role in securing their data and make sure their IT team has the proper cloud training to do it.
2. Save Time: As a public cloud user, you aren’t responsible for managing your cloud hosting solution. Your cloud service provider is responsible for the management and maintenance of the data center(s) in which your data is stored. This means no lengthy procurement processes and no waiting around for operations to install your operating system, configure and assemble servers, or establish connectivity. Cloud technology also enables developers to adopt Agile workflows, significantly reducing lead times in testing and deploying new products and releasing product updates.
3. Save Money: How much money can you save with public cloud? It depends of course. Some organizations literally save millions, and if your account isn’t managed properly, you might not experience cost savings at all. But if you look why public cloud saves you money and then examine your own IT environment, you can get an idea of how much you can save. The public cloud saves you money because you have:
   • No capital investments. There’s no need to purchase equipment or the space to house it. Public cloud subscriptions cost little to set up, and then you only pay for the resources you use. Public cloud transforms your infrastructure spend from capital expense (CapEx) to operating expense (OpEx).
   • No maintenance and update costs. Your service provider handles maintenance, which is a fixed cost included in your subscription. All software updates are handled by your service provider and included in your hosting package, eliminating the need for you or your staff to perform upgrades.
   • Pay-as-you-use pricing. You only pay for what you use, which eliminates wasted spending on unused resources. You also have the flexibility to easily scale up or down, using more compute capacity when you need it, less when you don’t.
   • Lower energy costs. No internal servers means you eliminate the cost of the energy required to run them.
4. Free up IT talent. Without the responsibility of managing a datacenter, IT teams can focus their time and talent on more revenue-generating activities, such as writing business logic -- features, fixes and new innovations that can improve your customers’ experience and give you an edge over your competition.

Operating in the cloud is a paradigm shift for organizations, but in addition to the basic benefits listed above, it leads to greater agility, efficiency and innovation. If you’re ahead of your competition in those areas, it’s likely you’ll be ahead of them in market share too.

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