Unleash the power of cloud application development. Scale, innovate and maintain good cost-benefit ratio. Embrace the cloud today!
Cloud applications offer many advantages over locally hosted software. They are convenient, flexible, secure and cost-effective. Companies that use them can save money, improve collaboration and become more efficient. They can also be assured that their data will remain intact even in the event of a hardware malfunction or other disaster.
What are cloud applications?
Services delivered through the cloud have been available since the late 1990s and continue to grow in popularity. Gartner forecasts revenue of $110.5 billion from cloud services in 2020 and projects that number to increase to $143.7 billion by 2022.
A cloud application is a software program that is accessed over the Internet rather than on a local computer's hard drive. Users must be online to use these applications. Many of them can be used on connected devices, including desktops, laptops, tablets, and phones. This convenience is one of the great benefits of this type of software.
Applications can exist in public, private, or hybrid clouds. Apps come in three main “flavors”:
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Provides a web application along with the underlying infrastructure and platforms. Many applications that use the SaaS model are subscription-based, including some content management, customer relations, and human resources programs.
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Provides a platform on which companies can run their own applications without having to develop the underlying infrastructure. This type of environment works well for developers as they create new applications.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
It provides the entire underlying infrastructure, including servers, networking, virtualization, and storage. The provider offers access through a dashboard and takes care of the hardware. You can use this environment to manage things like the operating system, applications, and middleware.
Cloud applications for enterprises
Cloud functionality supports a wide variety of application types. Here are some examples:
- Communications .Without personal contact, dispersed teams need ways to collaborate. Cloud-based applications designed for online communication provide messaging (Skype), document development (Google Docs), video conferencing (Zoom), and other contact-based software (Slack).
- Productivity Other online tools help business professionals stay productive with email, word processing, developing spreadsheets, creating slideshows, and more. Microsoft 365 and G Suite offer cloud-based applications in this space.
- CRM Some customer relationship management (CRM) applications are also cloud-based. Salesforce is a popular CRM that allows salespeople to track customer interactions throughout the customer journey, develop insights and reports, and create strategies based on objective data.
- Marketing Since so much of marketing is now done online, it makes perfect sense for marketing applications to be cloud-based as well. Hubspot is an example of a platform that supports lead generation, marketing automation, and analytics.
- Data Analysis With so much data being collected through various online channels, companies need to find a way to make sense of it all. Data analysis is the process by which data is examined for patterns and useful insights. SAS is a leader in business analytics software, including cloud-based applications.
Benefits for your business
Cloud applications offer many benefits to companies that use them:
#1 Flexibility
As mentioned above, cloud apps allow you to easily switch between devices to complete your work when and where it's most convenient.
#2 Security
Cloud applications are highly secure and vulnerabilities can be resolved as soon as they are discovered. This process differs from the “bad old days,” during which bug fixes were only delivered to users with the next software release, which could take weeks or months. Additionally, cloud-based applications allow administrators to see details about who is accessing the application.
#3 Cost-benefit
Companies save when using cloud applications for several reasons:
- With no facilities and little need for technical management, fewer IT employees are needed.
- With greater security, fewer on-site security measures are required and companies save on costly efforts that would be required to eliminate a security breach.
- With fewer licensing, update and support fees, these costs are greatly reduced.
#4 Better collaboration.
Cloud applications are perfect for distributed teams working across multiple locations. Things like communication and file sharing are seamless, making remote work more efficient. Even professionals who work in the same physical space can benefit from centralized workspaces and tools.
#5 Scalability
For many companies, operations expand and contract due to a variety of internal and external factors, including the economy, revenue, trends and seasons. Using cloud-based applications, these companies can easily grow or shrink without having to make large expenditures on hardware and software or offload resources they may need again in the future.
#6 Business Continuity
Everyone knows the importance of backups. In many cases, cloud-based applications make backups unnecessary since all data is already stored offsite. Even in the event of a disaster that compromises computer hardware, a company can continue operations with critical documents and processes securely hosted in the cloud.
#7 Competitiveness
Cloud applications are continually updated. So when companies use them, they always have the latest technology at their fingertips, making it much easier to please customers and beat the competition.
BairesDev Cloud Application Development
Because we are a nearshore software development company, you get all this knowledge along with the convenience of working with a vendor with a similar culture and the same language and working hours.