Cloud Computing services: Is it all fluff or does it really serve businesses?

Cloud computing has been a recent buzz word among businesses and has been identified as the future technology. Should you start adopting cloud services now?

There is a shift in the way Information Technology has advanced and being handled and we have to keep ourselves updated and adapt to such changes. The endless possibilities cloud computing technology can bring to businesses have been reiterated countless of times, and a recent survey among Singapore businesses have shown that the local cloud adoption rate is making its climb slowly but surely, despite reservations about the technology.

There are many benefits on cloud computing for businesses in Singapore and more would be joining the bandwagon. With cloud technology, businesses can operate at a greater efficiency. This is due to the on-demand nature of such services, where users need to only pay for the traffic, bandwidth and memory space used.

This also means that operations may be scaled according to bustling or lull periods in the year. All these help lower costs of production, ridding spending on unused data storage, support staff, the need to own expensive infrastructure and etc.

Moreover, the processing speed for data storage surpasses that of any average hardware storage, since the service provider can employ as many servers as needed to help complete your project in a short amount of time.

Partnering with an external service provider does indeed help increase productivity when running a business. Extra effort could be channelled to do more meaningful tasks like improving work capabilities and expansion plans. This is a welcome for all businesses, which is vital especially in today’s competitive society.

It is clear that since its inception, people have had high expectations for cloud technology. To quote the Info-communications and Development Authority of Singapore (IDA); “[c]loud [c]omputing is the next important paradigm in computing that will sharpen the competiveness of Singapore”.

However, there indeed exists limitations to this technology that sceptics cite, and the top-most concerns that
certainly hindered many local businesses from adopting cloud technology are data privacy and security (79 per cent of 6,141 businessmen surveyed).

Entrusting any private data to a third party online service provider can be of utmost concern for businesses as security issues always pose as problems. After all, the European G-mail failure-to-access saga that happened back in 2009 is not something businesses would want to experience.

Businesses can now worry less about such technology. It was recently revealed that non-profit organisation, Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), which aims to promote the security in cloud computing, has set up office in Singapore, seeing as it is a global business hub that can put its global and regional connections to good use. This centre will thus be in a better position to reach out to other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. In the next following years, the CSA will work with Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) to improve cloud computing security.

Singapore is currently ranked third in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of cloud adoption, just behind Australia and Japan. Cloud advancements have changed the way it was when it was first introduced, and it will continue to improve to serve us better.