Tag: Cloud and Mobility
The cloud approach is gaining immense popularity amongst businesses due to its scalability, enhanced productivity, and cost-effectiveness. According to Cisco, in 2021, over 94% of workload and computing processes will be hosted on the cloud. While many firms are already implementing and thriving with the Cloud, a few still remain to deploy this technology. This blog is a simple guide to help you understand every aspect of the Cloud, and how your business can drive success with Cloud Application Development!
What’s Ahead?
- Knowing the Cloud!
- What is a ‘Cloud-based Application’?
- Benefits of a Cloud App
- Types of Cloud Application
- Key Features to Consider When Developing a Cloud Application
- Some Examples Of Cloud Application
- Developing a Cloud Application
- A Look at the Tools to Build Cloud-based Apps
- Challenges of Cloud-based Application Development
- A Few Common FAQs
- Conclusion
Knowing the Cloud!
In simple terms, the cloud refers to software or service that is accessed over the internet. The cloud uses data centers to store data, which enables easy access of files and applications from anywhere and from any device.
For businesses, leveraging cloud technology can immensely reduce IT costs and overhead, eliminating frequent updates and maintenance of servers. Cloud computing can also simplify international operations for companies by allowing seamless access and control of files and data from anywhere. Google Drive, Dropbox, Apple iCloud, and Microsoft OneDrive are some widely used cloud services today.
Read more: Why It’s Time to Embrace Cloud and Mobility Trends To Recession-Proof Your Business?
What is a ‘Cloud-based Application’?
In the last decade, cloud computing has experienced a tremendous investment. By the end of 2023, the global cloud market is estimated to reach over $ 623 billion.
Typically, a cloud-based app is an Internet-run program having its components stored online with some or all of its processes carried out in the cloud. These on-demand services allow you to access computer networks, storage, or resources using the internet.
Cloud-based solutions help businesses augment capacity, scalability, and functionality while at the same time reduce maintenance and cost for computer infrastructure or in-house teams.
Common solutions provided by cloud-based applications may include;
- File storage and sharing
- Order entry,
- Inventory management
- Word processing
- Customer relationship management (CRM)
- Data collection
- Financial accounting features
Benefits of a Cloud App
The cloud is creating a huge impact on businesses. According to Gartner, over 60% of companies will majorly rely on the cloud for their operations by 2022. Of course, this means that the cloud has some huge benefits to offer for businesses. Here are a few to highlight.
1. Improved data sharing and security
The data stored in the cloud is easily and instantly available to authorized users. Since the cloud offers easy availability of data, security and privacy are often a concern. That is why the advancements in cloud technology have majorly focused on providing enhanced data security. Many cloud providers now guarantee improved data security, making the cloud the best source for secure storage. Also in case of disaster recovery is inevitable, the cloud provides a streamlined solution to restore and back up data.
2. Improved collaboration
Cloud-based apps and software enable organizations to make collaboration an easy and effective process. These applications provide easy data sharing and editing options allowing employees to work effectively on projects remotely and in real-time. Role-based access control enables better monitoring of tasks, and improves team management, especially when operating remotely. Improved collaborations can help enterprises to reduce time-to-market and enhance customer service. InfinCE is a prime example of how enterprises can use a cloud-based app to improve team collaboration. The app provides centralized management, enhanced visibility, and easy communication that drives operational efficiency and productivity.
3. Cost-effective
The cloud space can be scaled up or down depending on your business needs. Cloud service providers allow you to pay per usage of the cloud infrastructure allowing you to only pay for the services you need. Most cloud providers offer seamless concierge support and regular maintenance, which in turn immensely helps reduce the stress and cost of maintenance. Moreover, there is no need to invest separately on devices to store data, as the cloud ensures safe and secured data storage. Put simply, cloud-based apps help enterprises reduce the upfront cost of the IT infrastructure and hence are a cost-effective solution.
Types of Cloud Application
To proceed with cloud application development, you will have to decide what type of app you would want to create. One way to classify the categories is about the differences in the app architecture.
SaaS – Software as a Service
SaaS serves both cloud apps as well as individuals. These apps run on third-party hardware and not on the user’s device. Also, the software is hosted remotely. A big advantage of SaaS is that you don’t have to spend on additional hardware or buy licenses for every software update.
IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service
This type of product often requires middleware and app support from the clients. The customer may have to create a custom programming bridge between the application and its operating system. However, with IaaS, one can develop a customized product without building the basic components from scratch.
PaaS – Platform as a Service
This cloud-based app development requires the application code from the customer. PaaS providers allow their customers to use their hardware and basic development software. As this software is updated constantly, developers can use only its latest version. PaaS is flexible and lets the users scale the product as per their needs. Cost efficiency and flexibility are some of the major benefits of PaaS.
Read more: Cloud Migration Strategy: 7 Steps to Accomplish a Flawless Transition
Key Features to Consider When Developing a Cloud Application
The Cloud is a powerful technology, which if leveraged the right way can do wonders for your company. That is why it is imperative to be clear and sure of what benefits you need exactly to derive out of the cloud application development. Here are a few things to consider when fixing the features of your cloud application.
One of the most eminent features of the cloud is that it provides ample space for flexibility and scalability. With the cloud, one can empower safe storage of data that can be expanded as per convenience.
Most users prefer the cloud because of its storage facilities. However, its security is always a concern. When investing in cloud application development, one must highly prioritize app and data security by ensuring a code-based architecture for improved security.
Although the cloud delivers unlimited benefits, cloud hosting comes with a cost. Thus, data size optimization and condensed user requests should be the top priorities while developing a cloud platform.
To ensure you attain maximum benefits from these and the many other features of the cloud, it is imperative that you partner with developers who are highly aware and experienced with the diverse cloud platforms so that you attain software that perfectly suits your business needs. Moreover, following an agile method of development would allow you to collaborate better with your developers, programmers, designers, data architects, and QA managers for improved development efficiency. At Fingent, we ensure client participation at every stage of app development.
Some Examples of Cloud Application
Most of the apps we use today, utilize the cloud in one way or another. Cloud application development has given birth to some amazing tools and services that make operating businesses a little less stressful. Here are a few to point out!
- InfinCE: Provides streamlined and simplified IT Infrastructure, centralized management, enhanced work collaboration, access to unlimited productivity tools, all under a single platform.
- Dropbox or Google Drive: This allows you to store your files on the cloud easily and help others access them from anywhere.
- Figma: This powerful cloud-based design app is gaining popularity due to its collaborative nature.
- Miro: This provides a virtual board that enables you to work with other users in creative and fun ways.
The possibility to collaborate with users from all over the world, even in real-time is one of the biggest advantages of cloud apps.
Read more: InfinCE – Untangling Technology for Businesses
Developing a Cloud Application
Cloud application development involves different stages, each of which matters to enable your app to hit the market. Most cloud application development teams use DevOps practices and tools such as Kubernetes to ensure an effective and successful project.
At Fingent, we analyze your business needs and custom-build apps that solve your business complexities. We can help you seamlessly transit to the cloud and efficiently deploy its benefits to achieve greater business growth and value.
A Look at the Tools to Build Cloud-based Apps
A wrong tech approach can slow down your business development, so the technological stack is of utmost importance when developing cloud-based apps. You can choose a cloud service vendor from market leaders such as;
- Amazon Web Services(AWS) – In 2019, it obtained a 32% market share and became the leading provider. AWS includes over 140 flexible and integrative services. This allows you to build almost any custom app.
- Google Cloud Platform – As a PaaS, it offers you cloud computing, API services, advanced analytics, storage, NoSQL database service, and even virtual machines. It is flexible, affordable and a great platform for start-ups.
- Microsoft Azure- Its solutions are designed for enterprises looking for scaling or having many web products. Its services may include ML modules, mobile back-end, database services, and virtual machines.
Cloud-based app structure
- Another aspect to consider when cloud application development is the data architecture. A cloud app operates as a collection of interconnected services or APIs. So, to get maximum benefits of cloud services, you will have to connect them and at the same time understand the kind of components you have while ensuring that those services are integrated.
- Next, you must consider data organization. Remember, the app architecture must instruct the cloud services about how to decouple the data. This will help you store the app components either on a public or private cloud. As a result, your business will become flexible and enable you to make your web performance better.
- You must develop a communication logic between the data and services of your app. The app components should communicate instantly. If the logic is not well-designed, the customer experience could be poor due to slow loading speed. So, optimize the communication and apply either single-channel streaming or system message grouping.
- Scaling is something you must think of in advance. Create a margin of safety for your operational channels and consider future traffic extensions. Make sure to build an operational model to help back-end components and storage server customers especially in extreme situations.
- The last issue to think about is the security algorithm. Banking, retail, or healthcare have their dedicated standards so make sure your tools meet their expectations. Make sure to check the security algorithms for any vulnerabilities of your cloud-based solutions and the encryption is strong. Also, implement a cloud identity and access management (IAM) approach, to ensure your product is secure and cost-effective.
Read more: 7 Reasons For Enterprises To Implement Multi-Cloud Strategy In 2020
Challenges of Cloud-based Application Development
When you decide to opt for a cloud-based software solution you should figure whether your company can be a cloud provider (SaaS, IaaS, or PaaS) or build an app based on third-party cloud solutions.
If you decide to be the cloud provider, you will have to think of issues such as the data processing logic, hardware, and service security as you will have to host your service and provide the users with a cloud network. If you decide to develop your app on a third-party cloud, you will have to consider the integration and so you will have to choose your provider carefully.
Here are a few challenges that you may come across during cloud application development.
- Reliability: Your cloud software design includes critical operations that need to work if you want your customers to benefit from the solution. Avoid using a cloud framework that cannot maintain important processes. You can consider backup data and operations with a private cloud.
- Scalability: You must ensure to provide a scalable solution with the service you have chosen. If a product can’t be scaled or it falls over due to sudden traffic surges or you are unable to deliver services to a large audience regularly, you are bound to lose potential profits to your business.
- Performance: More data centers mean the better your app will perform. Global providers place their servers in such a way that users can experience the same page loading speed from any location. If the number of servers is less or the custom UI needs more than three seconds to load, the app customer experience is likely to be poor. More loading time means less conversion. The app loading speed is defined by a Content Distribution Network(CDN) which is a part of the cloud app infrastructure.
- Interoperability: The cloud environment should be able to run your app on different devices and integrate other cloud services into your infrastructure. However, as all cloud systems do not communicate with each other, you may not have a chance to mix components from different services.
- Security: Security especially client-side along with storage protection will remain challenging for developers. Security is the biggest challenge when it comes to adopting cloud computing. Cloud apps may include API integrations. These apps also must be easily accessible for users. To raise the security level of your cloud-based app, you will have to leverage strong data encryption, SSL, and reverse proxy.
A Few Common FAQs
1. What are cloud-based technologies?
These technologies are applications, services, or resources that are made available to users on-demand via the internet from cloud computing providers’ servers.
2. How do cloud applications work?
To process logic, a cloud-based app relies on remote servers. This is accessed through a web browser using the internet.
3. What are the different types of cloud computing?
There are three types of cloud computing; public cloud, private cloud, and hybrid cloud.
4. What are the different types of cloud services?
Cloud services are of four types – serverless, infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS).
5. What is the difference between a web application and a cloud application?
A web-based application requires some or all the software to be downloaded from the web every time it is run. On the other hand, a cloud-based application function within the cloud and is similar to a web-based application as well as a native desktop application.
Conclusion
From cost reduction and scaling opportunities to higher accessibility of the final product. Cloud application development offers a host of benefits to businesses. However, cloud application development has its own set of complexities if not carried out the right way. A custom software development partner plus a trusted cloud service provider like Fingent can help you seamlessly transit to the cloud with 24/7 concierge support and consultation. Get in touch with us today to discuss your project!
A comprehensive guide to developing mobile apps in 2021 and beyond!
- Introduction
- What is Mobile Application Development
- Types of Mobile Applications
- Mobile Application Development Platforms
- Mobile Application Development Process
- Mobile Application Front-end and Back-end
- End-to-end Mobile App Testing
- The Cost to Develop a Mobile App
- Five Reasons Why Mobile Apps Fail and How to Prevent The Let-down
- Tips for Building Successful Mobile Apps
- Develop Your Mobile Application with Fingent
Introduction
Mobile apps – it seems like the world cannot function without them anymore! 2021 has seen a dramatic shift to online shopping. Increased reliance on the digital world pushes businesses to turn to mobile apps to tap a higher customer base. This makes it imperative for businesses to leverage the benefits of mobile application development. Regardless of their size, all businesses can use mobile application development to improve their revenues.
This blog will help you understand all that you must know about mobile application development. We will give you a basic idea of the app development process, different types of mobile apps, and the cost of developing mobile apps.
What is Mobile Application Development?
Mobile application development is the process of creating specific software applications that work on mobile devices. It involves creating installable software bundles, implementing back-end services, and testing the application on target devices. Mobile application development is also about the strategic process of designing, building, and launching a successful mobile app.
Mobile app development is a technique that leverages all the benefits a mobile device has to offer. This process takes into account the limitations of mobile devices and helps businesses to balance cost with functionality.
Types of Mobile Applications
Mobile applications are designed and developed with various frameworks. These include:
1. Native mobile apps
These are developed exclusively for a single platform written on one programming language for a particular operating system, for example, Android mobile apps or iOS mobile apps. As they are built to work on a specific OS or platform, native mobile apps are faster, more reliable, and offer offline capabilities.
2. HTML5 mobile apps
These apps help you enjoy the write-once-run-anywhere approach. Most of the Zoho apps are built using HTML 5. HTML5 mobile apps are compatible with cross-platforms and are cost-effective.
3. Hybrid mobile apps
These apps consist of back-end code and native viewer capabilities. Some of the world’s leading apps, like Gmail, Twitter, Amazon, etc., are hybrid apps. Hybrid apps can take advantage of plugins that allow developers to access the native features of platforms. In addition, they are faster to develop and simple to maintain.
Read more: Hybrid Mobile Apps: When and Why to Choose It For Your Business
4. Progressive web apps
Progressive web apps operate in a browser but act like native mobile apps. This means that no installation is involved, and PWAs are secure, cheaper, faster, and easier to develop.
Each mobile application development approach has its own advantages and disadvantages. Hence choose a method that matches your strategy. Your choice will help you achieve the desired user experience and build native features needed for your application.
Watch video: How To Choose The Right Mobile App Development Approach
Mobile Application Development Platforms
Two important mobile application platforms are iOS and Android. iOS is Apple’s mobile operating system specifically built for iPhones. Android runs on mobile devices manufactured by Google and various OEMs. Though there are many similarities between the two, each of them uses a different software development kit. For example, some of the top Android programming languages include Java, Kotlin, C++, C#, BASIC, Lua, etc. Examples of leading iOS programming languages include Swift, Objective-C, React Native, Flutter, etc.
Besides Android and iOS mobile application development platforms, there are cross-platform development programs such as Apache Cordova, Xamarin, Ionic, Python, Ruby, etc.
Read more: Top Technologies Used to Develop Mobile Apps
Leading mobile application development companies like Fingent help you choose the right combination of programming languages and SDKs for developing your mobile apps.
Mobile Application Development Process
Even with all the evidence pointing in favor of developing an app, it is important to thoroughly run through the mobile application development process. This will help you understand how your application will fit in with your goals and your market niche. Choose a path that will give shape to your vision.
Here is an overview of the mobile app development lifecycle:
- Research: All apps begin with an idea. However, it can be successful only when that idea benefits the customer. Ensure that your analysis includes the demographics, motivations, and behavior patterns of your buyers.
- Wireframing: Drawing a detailed sketch of the envisioned product will help you uncover usability issues. After sketching, wireframing will help refine your idea and organize all components.
- Assess technical feasibility: Asking questions, brainstorming ideas, and reviewing the status will help your team decide the initial functionality’s feasibility.
- Prototype: This step will help you see if you are moving in the right direction. It will also allow different stakeholders to have a first look at your app and validate the information you have gathered.
- Design: Create multiple variations of the screen. The clear visual direction will help you visualize the final product.
- Develop: This is the core phase of the app development process, where you actually develop the mobile app.
- Testing: The app is delivered to users to test the user experience. Their feedback and opinions will help you add what your app lacks from their point of view.
- Launch: Publish your app to the app store. However, plan regular maintenance to fix bugs and enhance user experience.
Having understood the lifecycle of mobile app development, it is vital to learn how ‘front-end’ and ‘back-end’ fit into mobile application development.
Mobile Application Front-end and Back-end
Mobile application front-end and back-end services are two core components of the mobile application.
The mobile front-end (client-side rendering) is the visual and interactive part of the user’s application. In contrast, the back-end (server-side rendering) delivers high-quality mobile applications that delight and retain users. The mobile app’s back-end stores, secures, and processes the data.
Some of the key front-end jobs include web designing, UI designing, UX designing, and front-end development. Back-end developers create the services to process the business logic and access the database, cloud services, and file servers to render the app on the server-side.
For applications where there is no interaction with a server, the role of the back-end and front-end developers can be performed by one person. For applications that require internet connection and interaction with a server, you will need two separate developers for each component.
Read more: Everything a CEO Needs to Know About Software Development Outsourcing
End-to-end Mobile App Testing
To stay on top of the competition in the mobile application market, you must test your application before starting the actual sprint. Here are nine steps to ensure the success of your mobile application:
- A developer must outline the list of all the cases and create a test plan.
- Decide whether the test will be manual or automated.
- Define test cases for different functionalities.
- Begin with exploratory manual testing as it does not require the initial investment.
- After detecting the patterns of outcomes and the frequency, consider automating the predictable ones.
- Start the sprint with usability and beta testing.
- Access the performance of the entire system.
- Conduct security and compliance tests to deal with exceptions and unpredictable situations.
- Launch the application to the app store and fix any issues.
These steps of mobile application testing ensure the efficient and enjoyable performance of the entire system.
Read more: Mobile app development: 4 tips to consider
The Cost to Develop a Mobile App
Ballparking the cost of mobile app development is anything but straightforward. Partly, it depends on your choice to develop it in-house or to hire an app development agency. Building an in-house team will incur additional costs such as office space, hardware, and software requirements.
On the other hand, if you choose to hire a mobile app development agency, you can enjoy a cost-efficacy and competitive advantage. These include the agency’s location, experience, and size. It also consists of the complexity of your app and back-end scalability.
Read more: Are you planning to develop a mobile application for your business? Then explore our template and share your requirements with us. We will get back to you with a ballpark estimate.
Five Reasons Why Mobile Apps Fail and How to Prevent The Let-down
Though mobile application development technologies advance year over year, the failure of mobile applications has been a concern for entrepreneurs. However, only ill-planned and ill-executed apps are set to fail.
It is critical to identify the pitfall areas and turn them into positives. Here are a few reasons that can lead to poor mobile applications. You will also find a few tips that help you to avoid mobile application failure.
1. Lack of market research
A tiny mistake in mobile app adoption can quickly turn into a major disaster. If your app does not address your target market needs, then it will not get downloaded. Even if it is downloaded, it may not be used after the first try. A great dream can thus quickly turn into a nightmare that leads to disappointment.
What can you do?
First, do not rush into creating a mobile app. Instead, begin your mobile app development by conducting detailed user study /market research. For your research to be effective, ask yourself, ‘which solution will my app provide that my target audience needs?’
To answer that question, you must define your target audience and investigate further about them. Understanding your market and your specific users will help you create an app tailored to what they actually need.
Second, know your competition. Do a competitor analysis to improve your mobile strategy. Doing so will help connect your idea with your target audience.
2. Lack of robust mobile app strategy
Without a well-designed strategy, your app will fail. This is especially true if you are new to the industry. A poor move at the strategy level is one of the key reasons for mobile app failure.
What can you do?
Every successful mobile app development is a result of a great strategy. It is a creative effort to incorporate consumers’ needs into an app that can accomplish a specific task quickly and effectively. Goal setting is an essential step. Here are some questions you can ask yourself:
- What will be my mobile app’s selling point?
- What features should I incorporate?
- What benefits will my app offer the user?
Such clearly defined goals will help you quickly map out your strategy.
3. Lack of good design
Poor app design and development can lead to bad business because users will ditch your app in the first crucial 8 seconds if the design isn’t great. Substandard coding and improperly implemented technology will lead to epic failures.
What can you do?
Remember, great design can bring in happy customers. Unfortunately, skipping the testing process is often the reason why some apps fail. Smart mobile app developers take time to conduct several QA tests throughout the creation of your app. This will help you deliver an app that is bug-free and user-friendly.
4. Failure to execute the plan precisely
You may encounter some serious competition in your industry. Or your team may experience some conflicting priorities from some key members. Another possibility is that you may run out of cash.
What can you do?
- Your mobile app can succeed if you have an original idea to offer something appealing to your target audience
- Ensure to work with people whom you can trust. And cooperate with your mobile app development partner
- Have a conservative budget that is well planned and generously funded
Following these steps will ensure that you have the money to build and launch your app successfully.
5. Failure to market your app
After all the hard work, it might still fail if you do not market your app rigorously.
What can you do?
- Have a crystal-clear marketing message aimed at your target customers
- Focus on the solution
- Explain how your target user can benefit from it
- If possible, plan to offer discounts and other perks to attract users
Marketing your app clearly and effectively will ensure that your customers do not move on to your competition.
Tips for Building Successful Mobile Apps
Did you know that, on average, a user spends 20 minutes on a mobile app each day? Another incredible fact is, the app installs increased by 31% in 2021. Furthermore, it is expected to surge in the coming years. This means there is hope for your app. Read on to find out how to approach building a successful mobile app that achieves your business goals.
- Be Agile but know your limits: Being agile and quickly reacting to the ever-changing needs of our customers leads to success, but it comes with a price. It is important to know when to be agile.
- Be alert to risks: Be enthusiastic and optimistic about your product but be realistic about the risks and problems. Identifying the risks early will help you react faster and more accurately.
- Build trust: Make your users feel unique and appreciated. Transparency and trust are the foundation for genuine interactions between the application and its users. To achieve this, you can create a trustworthy rating or review system and a functional service system.
Read More: Building a Business Mobile App in 2021? Here’s What You Need to Know
Develop Your Mobile Application with Fingent
The increasing adoption of remote work culture, online shopping, telemedicine, and e-learning has surged the demand for portable devices, particularly smartphones and tablets. This again has increased the need for mobile apps across all lines of business. According to App Annie’s forecast, the number of mobile app installs will reach 258 billion by 2022, an incredible 45% rise from 2019.
Fingent specializes in mobile app development, and our experts can help position your app for success right from idea to launch. In addition, leading B2B review firms like Clutch and Business of Apps have recognized our mobile app development expertise. Contact us to know more.
How can companies ensure cloud security amid cyber threats and malicious online activities?
The explosion of the cloud has changed the face of the business process as we know it. Nearly 90% of companies rely on the cloud. And yet, there has been some skepticism around cloud security. With recent breaches and technological attacks, maintaining cloud security has become the foremost concern for businesses worldwide.
Security experts at Fingent understand your concern, and so we have put together this blog about the importance of cloud security and the best practices which will ensure that you are secure on the cloud.
Why is cloud security important?
According to a report by Cisco, cloud data centers process 94% of all workloads. Despite the popularity attained by cloud technology, most of these companies are skeptical about cloud security. There is a reason for this. Statista reports the number of data breaches in the U.S alone increased to 156 million in 2020. It has also been reported that hackers attack every 39 seconds. This can be fatal to businesses in the following ways:
1. Managing remote work
Remote work lets you hire talent from across the globe. However, this arrangement entails inherent security risks. Using personal devices may expose your data to malware and phishing attacks. If a malicious virus enters through them into your cloud system, the damage done could cut your company off at its knees.
Read more: Why It’s Time to Embrace Cloud and Mobility Trends To Recession-Proof Your Business?
2. Security breaches
If your company chooses to run your application on a public or hybrid cloud, you are entrusting a third-party to take care of your data. This means you no longer have any control over data security. So it is critical to stay on top of things and ensure that your cloud computing provider is serious about this responsibility. Even when you know your provider will ensure top-tier security, it is your responsibility to verify that your data is secure as a client.
3. Comply with regulations
Data protection standards were put together to ensure the integrity and security of customer data. When you store your customer data on the cloud, it is your responsibility to keep it secure, especially if your organization belongs to a highly regulated industry like finance, insurance, banking, or legal. A data breach will destroy your reputation and brand because external parties will hold you accountable.
4. Build access levels
Unintentional leaks of data will compromise your business integrity and give your competition a leg up. Limiting data access only to those employees who need it can prevent errors that lead to data leaks.
5. Disaster recovery
Disasters such as flooding or fire can strike without warning. Unless your data is secured and protected, you could lose all your data. This may undermine customers’ confidence in your organization, delivering a death blow to your otherwise successful business.
Read more: How Secure is Your Business in a Multi-Cloud Environment
Best practices to ensure cloud security
- Carefully choose a trusted provider
- Review your cloud security contracts and SLAs
- Understand your partnership of shared responsibility
- Control employee access
- Secure user endpoints
- Maintain visibility of your cloud services
- Implement a strong password security policy
- Highest levels of encryption
“Cloud computing is a challenge to security, but one that can be overcome” – Whitfield Diffie, an American cryptographer.
True to Whitfield Diffie’s words, cloud security measures can be taken to encrypt the system that will help achieve adequate cloud security.
1. Carefully choose a trusted provider
Partnering with a trusted provider is the foundation for cloud security. Choose a partner who delivers the best in-built security protocols and follows industry best practices’ highest levels. You need to ensure that you confirm their security compliance and certifications.
Learn more: Take a look at how InfinCE, an infinite cloud platform, ensures secured work-collaboration within an organization and helps enhance company efficiency & growth!
2. Review your cloud security contracts and SLAs
In an event, SLAs and contracts are the only guarantees of service and course of assistance. 62.7% of cloud providers do not specify that customer data is owned by the customer, creating a legal grey area. Read through the terms and conditions, annexes, and appendices to ensure who owns the data and what happens if you terminate the services. Also, seek clarity on visibility into any security events and responses.
3. Understand your partnership of shared responsibility
When you tie-up with a cloud service provider, you enter into a partnership of shared responsibility for security implementation. Understanding the shared responsibility involves discovering which security tasks you will handle and which your provider will handle. It is important to ensure transparency and clarity in your partnership of shared responsibility.
4. Control employee access
Implementing strict control of user access through policies will help you manage employees who attempt to access your Cloud services. Cloud security best practice starts from a place of zero trust. Afford user access to data and systems only to those who require it. To avoid confusion and complexity, create well-defined groups with assigned roles. This will allow you to add users directly to the group rather than customizing access for each employee.
5. Secure user endpoints
Since most of your users access your cloud services through web browsers, it is crucial to introduce advanced client-side security to keep it protected from exploits. Implementing endpoint security solutions that include firewalls, antivirus, intrusion detection tools, and more will help to protect your end-user devices.
6. Maintain visibility of your cloud services
Remember, you cannot secure something that you cannot see. Using multiple cloud services across various providers and geographies can create blind spots in your cloud environment. Make sure you implement a cloud security solution that provides visibility of your entire ecosystem. You can then implement granular security policies to mitigate a wide range of security risks.
7. Implement a strong password security policy
Strong password security may sound basic, but it is an important element in preventing unauthorized access. Have a strong and strict password policy. To defend against most brute force attacks, enforce a rule that users update their password every three months. You may also implement multi-factor authentication. This would require a user to add two or more pieces of evidence to authenticate his/her identity allowing you to trust your users while ensuring that they are authorized users.
8. Highest levels of encryption
Your data may get exposed to increased risk while sending it back and forth between your network and the cloud service. You must consider using your own encryption solutions for data, both in transit and at rest. Encryption keys will help you maintain complete control over your data.
Read more: 6 Proven Ways for Businesses to Combat Cloud Security Risks
Don’t wait till it’s too late!
You never know when a stealthy hacker could attack your business and make you go under. All organizations, independent of their size, can benefit from these best practices and improve their cloud usage security.
At Fingent, our experts go above and beyond to ensure that your business is hacker-proof and secure. If you need to discuss cloud security options, do not put it on the back burner! It could creep up on you and set your whole business afire, ruining your competitive edge and spelling doom for the future. Call our experts and discuss your options today.
What are the steps involved in a tried and tested cloud migration strategy?
Cloud is becoming an integral part of today’s market. More and more companies are adopting it. Commenting on the statistics of cloud adoption, Hosting Tribunal said that “the hybrid cloud is the weapon of choice for 45% of enterprises.” Also, it forecasts that the public cloud service market is expected to reach 623.3 billion dollars by 2023 worldwide. Why is cloud adoption so popular right now? Is cloud necessary in today’s market? What is the best cloud migration strategy for a smooth transition? These questions will be addressed in this article.
Is cloud necessary in today’s market?
“Cloud computing is not only the future of computing but the present and the entire past of computing.”
– Larry Ellison, Oracle.
Not so long ago, enterprises had to establish and maintain their own server to host and run applications on their premises. Today, cloud computing is revolutionizing all operations of the business world. Though relatively new, this technology became the cornerstone for the digital transformation of enterprises. Cloud technology provides companies with on-demand data storage, computing power, and many other cloud services. These services are maintained by service providers at remote data centers.
By partnering with a cloud migration services provider like Fingent, you can easily overcome the challenges that come with sudden operational demands, higher operational expenses, and ineffective processes. This frees your business and employees from maintenance issues.
Read more: Why It’s Time to Embrace Cloud and Mobility Trends To Recession-Proof Your Business?
Here are a few more compelling reasons why the cloud is necessary for today’s market:
1. Cost-effective
Cloud computing is a subscription-based model. That would mean there are no purchasing, labor, or maintenance costs. Since cloud computing is a technology that provides services to companies, you only pay for what you use. This allows you to optimize your budget more efficiently.
2. Digital transformation
The traditional ways of operation are becoming too costly and obsolete. Digital transformation is the surest way to remain competitive in today’s market. Digital transformation occurs when a company uses a cloud migration strategy to migrate all business operations to the cloud.
3. Data backup and recovery
One of the greatest benefits of cloud computing is cloud storage. That means cloud makes data accessible and usable, even remotely. Such accessibility does not expose data to risk because, in the cloud, data is never stored in one place. It is split into fragments and encrypted before it is distributed across various locations. This also ensures that your data is protected from cyber-attacks or natural disasters.
While there are many benefits of cloud migration, you must exercise caution. Miguel Angel Borrega, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner warns: “Through 2024, 80% of companies that are unaware of the mistakes made in their cloud adoption will overspend by 20 to 50%.” What is the solution? A well-planned cloud migration strategy!
Read more: 7 Common Mistakes Non-Tech Businesses Commit While Taking Up Tech Projects
7 steps involved in cloud migration strategy
Having a cloud migration strategy ensures you do not miss any essential steps during your move to the cloud. Use the steps below to create a cloud migration strategy and make your transition as smooth as possible.
1. Understand and select cloud migration options
Each company has its own peculiar scenarios. Understanding these will help you choose from all available options for a smooth migration. These options could range from leveraging an existing application workload environment to rewriting the application partially or even wholly. These options are:
- Lift and shift/rehosting
- Extend to the cloud
- Cloud optimized
- Cloud-native
- Replace with SaaS
2. Set up a cloud management team
The first step is to create a cross-functional team to oversee the transition. This team should be capable of managing the migration from start to finish. Cloud migration teams serve as a central point of contact. This team includes representatives from each department who would either be hosting or using the applications in the cloud.
They must ensure the following:
- Adjust applications before migration begins
- Monitor each application as it moves to the cloud
- Address any functionality issues
- Collect and implement feedback from users
3. Pick the right platform and provider
Don’t make the mistake of picking the first option you come across. Before making a choice compare different cloud platforms and migration models and then pick the one that best suits your business. Here are the three principal levels of cloud platform services:
- Infrastructure as service (IaaS)
- Platform as a service (PaaS)
- Software as a service (SaaS)
After you choose the level of service, pick the cloud provider that works best for your business.
Read more: Cloud Service Models Saas, IaaS, Paas – Choose the Right One for Your Business
4. Collect baseline analytics
Ensure to collect baseline analytics before you move anything to the cloud. Such pre-migration data provides you a basis for comparison when you run analytics on your cloud-based applications. This will help you see how speed, user experience, and other metrics have improved. This also allows you to understand when something goes wrong during the transition and correct it.
5. Gauge and Address Security Risks
Implement cybersecurity to protect sensitive data. Ensure security at your end and in the cloud. Most importantly, ensure that the migration itself is secure. According to Forrester, 43% of internal data breaches were from accidental mishandling of sensitive information. You must evaluate and address any security issues before migrating any applications or data. This will prevent data breaches.
Read more: Safeguarding IT Infrastructure From Cyber Attacks – Best Practices
6. Initial strategy: Move a single application as a test
Now that everything is in place for a smooth migration, you must be eager to make a complete shift as soon as possible. Hold on! Starting small is a wise cloud migration strategy. First, move one application or a group of applications that do not have a lot of dependencies. Once it starts running in the cloud, evaluate its performance. That first app will help you make pre-migration changes to the rest of the applications.
7. Refine and finalize your strategy: Measure post-migration performance
Once the migration is completed, measure the performance of all your applications with the help of KPIs. Comparing the performance data will help you see how performance changed after cloud migration. That data can be used to make logging improvements and to detect problems. At this point, if you notice errors or low-performance levels, you can address these quickly before they cause any significant downtime.
Read more: Cloud Migration: Essentials to Know Before You Jump on the Bandwagon
No-brainer
Cloud computing is called a “no-brainer” because it offers enhanced security, stability, and greater flexibility. To completely benefit from it, companies must have a successful cloud migration strategy. The success of migration depends on meticulous planning and consideration of every aspect of your business. The seven-step cloud migration strategy given above will ensure an easy migration for your organization. Partner with us to ensure that your cloud migration strategy goes without a glitch and propels you to success.
Cloud and Mobility: The two pillars to recession-proof your business
- Introduction
- How Does the Recovery Shape of The Coronavirus Recession Look?
- What is a recession-proof business?
- What can business leaders do now?
- How Do Enterprise Mobility Solutions Help in The Current Crisis?
- Five Unique business benefits of enterprise mobility during recession!
- Recession-proof your business by embracing Cloud
- Cloud is not a future aspiration rather an urgent mandate
- How can you capture the full value of the Cloud to recession-proof your business?
- Staying Afloat Despite the Crisis
- Are You Keeping Up with The New Normal?
Introduction
In just a matter of weeks, the COVID-19 pandemic has chopped off nearly a third of the global market cap triggering panic across the world and shaking the confidence of investors. According to an analysis by the World Bank, the “coronavirus disease pandemic and ensuing lockdowns in several parts of the world have led to a recession unmatched in eight decades.”
The coronavirus-inflicted recession which started unfolding itself in February and March of this year has left the macroeconomic landscape in a state of dilemma. For the past six months, business leaders have been trying to navigate shattered expectations and continued uncertainty forcing them to rapidly shift their expectations for the future. During the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009, unemployment soared to almost 10 percent by January 2009. From then on, recession-watchers have been equipped for the reversal of fortunes.
The economic distress caused by coronavirus may be the trigger that leads to a prolonged slump. If so, it is time for workers, investors, and entrepreneurs to seek refuge in recession-proof business practices. This article explains why it is the perfect time to recession-proof your business through cloud and mobility trends.
How Does the Recovery Shape of The Coronavirus Recession Look?
Recession is defined as a significant decline in economic activity lasting more than just a few months and is evident in decreased levels of real income, real GDP, industrial production, employment, and wholesale-retail sales. According to the forecast by the World Bank, the global economy will shrink by 5.2% by the end of this year culminating in the deepest recession since the second world war. The World Bank Prospects Group Director Ayhan Kose noted, “the Covid-19 recession is singular in many respects and is likely to be the deepest one in the advanced economies…The current episode has already seen by far the fastest and the steepest downgrades in global growth forecasts on record. If the past is any guide, there may be further growth downgrades in store, implying that policymakers may need to be ready to employ additional measures to support activity.”
Thankfully, all recessions including the present recession will not last forever. The economy will reopen at some point and start growing again. Unfortunately, the uncertainty of the times makes recovery shapes more widely dispersed. Recovery shapes are not about speed but more about the eventual return to pre-crisis levels. Therefore, the expectation for the path of recovery is hotly debatable. Perhaps we can confidently say that full return to the pre-crisis stage looks ever more challenging with the passage of time.
This raises a few pertinent questions:
- Can any business be recession-proofed?
- What can business leaders do?
- How do enterprise mobility solutions help in the current crisis?
- How can they leverage technology to recession-proof their business?
Read more: Navigate Business Impact Of COVID-19 With These Hot Technologies
What is a recession-proof business?
Recession-proof businesses are defined as industries that can stay afloat during terrible economic times or somehow survive unscathed or a business that has a better chance of riding out a recession.
What can business leaders do now?
Debatably, six months into the corona crisis, economic outcomes are not quite certain. Yet, business leaders can take these steps to prepare for the next phase of the corona crisis.
1. Prepare early
A key to surviving any recession is to act as early as possible. The willingness to make strategic and necessary moves decides if a business is weathering the storm of economic downturn or is sinking their ship.
2. Take stock
As economies reopen with varying degrees of success, now is the right time for business leaders to take stock and to reallocate resources appropriately. Take a realistic look at what is possible for your business and accept what is not possible. This is an important step towards creating goals that fit the new normal.
3. Build resilience
COVID-19 has demonstrated an immense power to surprise and upend well thought out assumptions about how business works and who is likely to win. Businesses should thus actively prepare by creating optionality to maneuver. You may have to shift your mindset from growth to survival.
4. Capture advantage
Leaders must leverage all technological trends to reinvent their superpower. Explore crisis-specific solutions to adapt to the new normal faster than ever before.
Read more: Fingent’s Response to COVID-19 Business Implications
How Do Enterprise Mobility Solutions Help in The Current Crisis?
Enterprise mobility solution services basically refer to solutions for businesses that enable employees to use their personal mobile devices securely from anywhere to enhance productivity for the company. For example, an employee should be able to access any uploaded data at any given point through any device that’s available such as a Smartphone, Laptop, or Tablet, and carry out tasks required by the company and thus increase productivity.
What does it offer?
Enterprise mobility offers employees flexibility, freedom, and choice. It can make a huge positive impact on their job satisfaction while increasing their work hours. Most businesses practice enterprise mobility in some way. Along with work flexibility, it helps businesses to maximize profits and reduce costs.
Five Unique business benefits of enterprise mobility during recession!
During the recession, enterprise mobility offers endless opportunities that help broaden the sphere of your customers and your business.
1. Improved employee productivity
Mobile applications mechanize paper-driven procedures to streamline work processes. This brilliant approach enhances information exactness and grants clients access to updated and often real-time data. During situations such as a lockdown, it allows companies to build propelled functionalities improving employee productivity.
2. Reduces operational cost
Since the implementation of enterprise mobility enables employees to work from home, it is bound to minimize the cost of your infrastructure drastically. Also, if it becomes necessary for some employees to come to the office, mobility solutions can enable workspace collaboration for your mobile environment across multiple platforms and devices.
3. Efficient collaboration
When many employees work on the same project, they will have to coordinate with each other regularly. With enterprise mobility solutions they can easily share data and important information through mobile devices, update their work progress, and collaborate continuously.
4. Data security
Security is one of the most important requirements of any enterprise. Enterprise mobility management offers businesses the necessary levels of data security and risk management allowing a secure communication medium.
5. Provides customer satisfaction
Customer service is the top business priority for all enterprises. Enterprise mobility facilitates quicker customer service increasing the customers’ trust in your business.
Read more: Enterprise Mobility Apps for Faster Business Growth
Recession-proof your business by embracing Cloud
Though cloud computing was increasingly adopted by large companies and startups in the last few years, the work-from-home culture during the pandemic has highlighted the critical advantages of using cloud-based solutions. Cloud integration services have open, continuous assistance, and discounts for their customers and prospective clients.
Internal cloud services can provide resources and orchestrate the entire application stack across different servers. The external cloud services can easily leverage the scale of application and infrastructure while providing an enhanced computing environment. This way, cloud solutions create several opportunities for both service providers and clients. It eliminates unnecessary spending of resources for work, successfully reducing the costs involved.
Read more: Top 6 Reasons Why You Should Move to a Cloud-Hosted ERP
Cloud is not a future aspiration rather an urgent mandate
Though the concept of cloud is not new, most enterprises remain in on-premise data centers. The current pandemic has reinforced the fact that the cloud is an urgent mandate at the heart of all businesses. You need an intelligent cloud journey that balances speed and value. Each migration should be started by mapping out the journey and determining how the cloud will empower the overall business strategy and goal. Once you migrate the majority of your workload to the cloud, you will be able to realize the full business value of the change. You will see how it makes your business resilient, efficient, and customer-focused.
How can you capture the full value of the Cloud to recession-proof your business?
1. Migrate at scale
The first step would be to align the entire enterprise including strong leadership from the top to provide direction. Second, focus constantly on realizing value throughout the migration process without getting stuck in a pattern of aimless experimentation. Finally, weigh out the cost savings against application complexity, data-location compliance requirements, and legacy needs. Realize the potential value and innovation that can be unlocked through cloud optimization.
2. Modernize
For your business to work with speed and agility, you need to think comprehensively about the data flow across all your systems. Hence, carefully consider your modernizing needs and long-term process that are based on a solid application discovery assessment. While planning a strategy, take into account where the organization is headed and why. Doing this will make you a cloud-first enterprise.
3. Optimize
Constantly monitor and optimize cost and capacity, manage consumption and performance, and leverage the right services from cloud providers to maximize the value/performance ratio and sustainability.
4. Innovate
Since the cloud enables experimentation at speed, try out several ideas at the same time and point to the right one quickly and securely. Gain access to cutting-edge technologies by collaborating with your partners.
Read more: Cloud Service Models Saas, IaaS, Paas – Choose the Right One for Your Business