In small businesses decisions related to Information Technology can often be very challenging and for small businesses which are looking for scalability, flexibility, convenience and support at a manageable price, the traditional client-server model is a poor solution. Services which are based on the cloud are great but their management can become quite cumbersome and overwhelming very quickly. Below are some points which will help you to find out if your business is ready for the cloud-based solutions?
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There are three types of service models which are based on the cloud and they are:
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Platform as a service (PaaS)
Software as a service (SaaS)
The common point among these three models is that they shift the responsibility of managing the technology to the service provider which consequently frees the business owner so that he can focus on the business and its operations.
Using IaaS, businesses are no longer required to have the space where they can place their network infrastructure. IaaS makes it possible for businesses to access the network infrastructure on demand much like electricity.
PaaS is a technology stack which consists of operating systems, databases and programming languages which allow developers to focus more on application development without having to worry about the middleware.
In a similar sense, SaaS is a software model where software is accessed through API (Application Program Interface). For customer relationship management (CRM) SaaS is highly efficient Not only for CRMs this model is also very in financial, accounting applications and logistics as well.
Build v/s buy is the first decision which many organizations have to make depending upon their size. So, if you have the resources to write your own code or to hire someone who can write it for you then it’s okay. If not then SaaS offers an excellent option as it is affordable and is able to meet all the core needs of the business.
Depending upon the scalability and performance you will have to make the decision between IaaS v/s PaaS. Generally, PaaS solutions have limitations on resources which automatically make it less practical for scaling and for applications with high performance. However, it offers another crucial advantage which is to say that it speeds up the time of the application to the market.
It is important to remember that PaaS is still not mature enough as IaaS.
Given that for most businesses time and ease of implementation are key factors, SaaS offers what they exactly are looking for. SaaS solutions are so simple that most businesses find themselves up and running in no time. Not to mention these solutions are also user-friendly and very intuitive by nature. Another key point about SaaS is that the application is updated at the vendor level and all end users can access the updated version.
It is essential for businesses to find the right IT solutions for themselves in order to power and speed up their all internal solutions and to stay competitive in a fast-paced consumer-controlled market.
