Cloud Services: Reducing Costs and Increasing Flexibility with the Right Strategy [5 Reading Tips]

Cloud Services Reading Tips — Source: Pexels/Aleksandar Pasaric

Switching to the cloud makes sense for many reasons: Data loss is minimised, the security of your data is increased and resources are saved. This in turn benefits not only your company, but also the environment.

The benefits speak for themselves. No matter what industry you are in and no matter how big your company is – with the right cloud services strategy, you can become an agility champion. Our clients BayWa, TROX, myAGRAR, Mövenpick Wein and PRECITOOL show how it is done.

Cloud Services: Whether Public or Private – »Cloud First« Is the Key to Success

While German companies were still sceptical about cloud migration in recent years, more and more of them are now opting for a cloud-first strategy. This means that every new IT project is first examined to see whether it can be implemented with cloud solutions.

Depending on their needs, companies can choose between public and private clouds. Small and medium-sized companies usually opt for a public cloud because of its lower costs.

They can rent the required IT resources from various providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure and share them with other users on the Internet.

Benefits of a Public Cloud:

Low-cost access to the latest technologies
Strong security measures and backup solutions in the event of system failures
Resources can be flexibly added and removed

The services of a private cloud, by contrast, are only available to selected users on the Internet or via an internal network. In comparison to a public cloud, a private cloud offers a higher level of security and data protection through additional control and customisation options as well as a corporate firewall. For this reason, it is mainly large companies such as banks, for which security is a top priority, that opt for a private cloud or a hybrid solution.

Benefits of a Private Cloud:

High level of security and data protection
Additional control and customisation options

When several companies work together, a community cloud is also an option. In this case, the infrastructure can be provided and used by the participating companies. In comparison to a public cloud, however, greater security and better data protection are guaranteed here as well.

Cloud Services: IaaS, PaaS or SaaS

In private clouds, companies can choose between two models: infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS).

IaaS provides companies with hardware, storage and network resources based on a subscription or rental model. This way, companies can work with modern and secure technologies without having to pay high procurement and maintenance costs themselves.

PaaS goes one step further and provides developers with an environment and tools that they can use to create and test new websites and applications.

Since all the necessary tools, servers and programming environments are provided and maintained in the cloud, development teams can focus on using them effectively, allowing them to launch new products more quickly.

For public cloud users, there is also the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, which makes it possible to rent software applications and share IT resources such as hardware and platforms with other users.