This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Should I consider AWS for Cloud Computing?
Last updated on April 14th, 2021 at 03:20 pm
One of the most recent innovations in the computing industry, cloud computing offers businesses IT resources on demand, allowing companies to simply pay for using them in a similar way that they would pay for utilities. Available whenever required, cloud computing facilities are only chargeable when used, and are shared between countless remote users over the internet. The Worldwide Web makes cloud computing on a widespread basis possible, and it is rapidly becoming one of the most popular means of accessing resources. While dedicated networks and intranets are sometimes in use too, the cloud is rapidly overtaking in terms of popularity. The Worldwide Web makes cloud computing on a widespread basis possible, and it is rapidly becoming one of the most popular means of accessing resources. While dedicated networks and intranets are sometimes in use too, the cloud is rapidly overtaking in terms of popularity. One category of cloud computing services, known as PaaS (or Platform as a Service), provides an environment and platform which enables developers to build services and applications online. Hosting within the cloud, PaaS services can be accessed via a web browser and can benefit software developers, businesses, and web developers alike by offering the ability to develop, test, and host a website or to develop internal software with a ring-fenced testing and development environment. The reason why cloud computing has become so popular is that enterprises which require expensive and complex IT systems in order to support their business processes are becoming increasingly attracted to the idea of paying on demand for IT services to be provided remotely without having to worry about the details of getting the job done. Often eliminating the need for intermetal IT departments, cloud computing services save companies time, effort and money that would otherwise be spent on hiring a skilled IT workforce at premium prices.
AWS'S ROLE WITHIN THE CLOUD COMPUTING LANDSCAPE
AWS, or, to give it its full name, Amazon Web Services, is a cloud services platform which is highly secure and offers database storage, computing power, and content delivery, as well as other functionalities which allow businesses to grow and scale themselves. Businesses are able to use AWS cloud solutions to create applications that are increasingly scalable, reliable, and flexible in order to meet their unique needs. There is a wide range of more than 50 different infrastructure services available in the AWS Cloud and all is available instantly, on demand and with pay-as-you-go prices. The benefits include no upfront expenses which means that new startups, enterprises, public sector customers and SMBs can easily access the tools they require to make a rapid response to changing requirements of their business landscape.
THE POPULARITY OF AWS
AWS has proven to be the cloud computing service of choice for a number of big-name companies, including Verizon, having recently migrated over a thousand of its back-end and business-critical applications to its cloud in order to benefit from the speed, reliability, and innovation AWS can offer. Airline “Ryanair” has recently taken the decision to close most of its data centers in order to migrate its services to the AWS cloud, and even the online business directory Yelp has progressively moved its master database to AWS’s cloud-based platform.
However, despite the trend that is seeing increasing numbers of companies turning to AWS and cloud computing, for some, building their own infrastructure still represents the best option. In fact, Dropbox has recently taken the decision to drop its AWS cloud-based infrastructure and focus on creating its own.
AWS AND ITS ALTERNATIVES
The AWS cloud offering is certainly impressive, with plenty of hosting options, reasonable prices and a solid data center infrastructure, as well as a support team manned by high-quality IT professionals. However, it isn’t the only cloud computing service out there; some of its competitors include the following services listed below.
Digital Ocean Cloud Hosting
While Digital Ocean might be relatively new to the cloud computing game, they have already reached the status of being the 11th biggest infrastructure provider worldwide and have turned the cloud hosting marked upside down by providing an even more reliable infrastructure together with truly impressive development tools, an expansive internal community, and highly powerful SSDs. Digital Ocean is incredibly affordable and yet doesn’t compromise on what consumers are expecting from their services provider.
Microsoft Azure
The Microsoft name is synonymous with quality computing services, and their Azure cloud computing platform is ever expanding, enabling businesses to meet the many challenges that they face, and giving them the freedom to manage, deploy and build applications on a global network using popular frameworks and tools. Microsoft Azure is proud to say that 90% of Fortune 500 businesses are running on the Microsoft Azure cloud, although governments and start-ups are also counted amongst its users.
Alibaba Cloud
The Alibaba Cloud is the Alibaba Group’s cloud computing unit providing a comprehensive range of cloud computing global services to power online businesses on a worldwide scale. Offering flexible and high-performance computing power in a cloud-based environment, Alibaba Cloud’s services include relational databases, data storage, big-data processing, CDNs, and Anti-DDoS protection all on a pay-as-you-go basis. Already the leading provider of cloud computing services in its native China, Alibaba Cloud is set to become one of the most popular global cloud options.
Google Cloud Platform
This suite of cloud computing services is offered by one of the biggest names in the business, Google. Including a broad spectrum of hosted services, the platform offers application development, storage, and computing services which run on Google’s hardware. The Google Computing Engine offers virtual workload hosting, while the Google App Engine provides scalability and a software developer kit for developing software products. The Google Cloud Storage platform stores unstructured large data sets while the Google Container Engine is an orchestration and management system for Docker containers.
CONCLUSION
Whether you decide to go with Amazon or one of their competitors, cloud computing is becoming more and more valuable to the success of modern businesses, allowing them to harness the power of cloud computing and take advantage of enhanced storage, processing, and data analytics capabilities. As customers demand more and enhanced technology makes companies more competitive than ever before, the speed, reliability, and practicality of a system such as AWS would be useful for any company dealing with IT in some form or another, posing a very credible ROI which would undoubtedly help them to facilitate their operations more efficiently than ever before.
Cider is a Software Development Company based in the heart of Silicon Valley. We combine business domain knowledge and technology expertise of more than 50 development studios spread around the world. We specialize in custom software development, AWS and Salesforce integration, web development and mobile app development. We have experience in building software across different verticals: from eCommerce to Healthcare.
We will be happy to help you choose the right hosting provider and build a website! Reach out to us for a FREE Quote!