Tag: Cloud computing
In the digital age, cloud investment is your business’s propulsion, offering flexibility, scalability, and a competitive edge. However, many companies don’t fully reap the cloud’s benefits. The cloud’s potential remains untapped.
So, why is cloud investment crucial, and how does it contribute to a company’s success? Let’s explore! We’ll help you master cloud investment.
The Cloud: More Than a Buzzword!
In a rapidly evolving tech landscape, the cloud isn’t just jargon; it’s your business compass. It’s a dynamic virtual ecosystem transforming operations. But here’s the key point: merely having cloud infrastructure in place is just the starting point.
To truly unlock its potential, you need to understand how to maximize your cloud investment. Whether you’re a startup seeking growth or an enterprise aiming for efficiency, the cloud is your golden ticket to success.
Studies predict the global cloud computing market will surpass $2,321.1 billion by 2032, driven by a consistent 16% CAGR from 2023 to 2032. Companies of all sizes are increasingly recognizing the advantages of cloud technology, and you should, too!
So, let’s dive right in!
Unlocking the Cloud’s Potential
Why don’t some businesses make the most of the cloud? Their approach often holds the key.
Imagine having a sports car with a powerful engine but only using it for leisurely drives. That’s what it means to have cloud technology but not know how to utilize it fully.
Common pitfalls include choosing the wrong cloud model, neglecting data security, failing to optimize costs, and missing out on scalability. These elements can turn your cloud investment into a business powerhouse when managed effectively.
In the following sections, we’ll delve deeper into each area, providing you with a map to unlock your business cloud investment’s full potential.
Know Where You Stand!
Did you know? A staggering 92% of enterprises now utilize multiple cloud services.
Your business’s cloud potential is significant, and your cloud journey is pivotal for your business’s success and growth in today’s digital era. With the right approach, you can unleash the full potential of the cloud, boost efficiency, and drive innovation. Here is how you can know where you stand in your cloud potential
Step 1: Assess Your Current Cloud Environment
The first step in grasping your cloud potential is evaluating your existing cloud setup. Regardless of whether you’ve already transitioned to the cloud or are contemplating it, it’s crucial to gain a clear understanding of your current position.
- Cost Efficiency Metrics: Review your cloud spending. On average, organizations wasted 35% of their cloud budget in 2021.
- Performance Metrics: Measure your cloud infrastructure performance. Downtime carries a significant financial burden. Companies experiencing frequent outages and brownouts incur costs 16 times greater than those with fewer instances of downtime.
- Security and Compliance: Assess your security measures. The average cost of a data breach is $4.45 million.
Step 2: Establish Clear Objectives
Once you’ve gained a comprehensive view of your current cloud environment, it’s time to set precise goals for your cloud strategy. In a 2021 survey conducted by Gartner, a notable 80% of organizations indicated they had either transitioned to a cloud-first strategy, were planning to do so, or were considering it. Your objectives could include:
- Cost Optimization: Trim cloud wastage and streamline spending to enhance cost efficiency.
- Scalability: Ensure that your cloud environment can smoothly adapt to shifts in workload or demand.
- Innovation: Foster innovation by tapping into the cloud’s capabilities for data analytics, AI, and machine learning.
Step 3: Harness Data and Analytics
Data-driven decisions are the linchpin of maximizing your cloud potential. Leverage analytics tools to gain insights into your cloud usage and performance. This approach can assist you in spotting trends and identifying areas that require improvement.
Large enterprises are now prioritizing cloud adoption, aiming to move 60% of their operations to the cloud by 2025, underscoring the critical role of data-driven decision-making in business.
Step 4: Seek Expert Guidance
Do not hesitate to seek guidance from cloud experts on your cloud journey. Organizations achieve greater success in realizing their cloud goals when they have access to cloud experts. Collaborate with cloud service providers, managed service providers, or cloud consultants to navigate the cloud landscape effectively.
Step 5: Continuously Monitor and Adapt
Cloud technology is continually evolving. Routinely monitor your cloud environment and adapt to changes. This iterative process is pivotal in making the most of your cloud investment.
Now let’s understand why is embracing the cloud vital for future-readiness.
Read more: Cloud Application Development: Empowering Your Business in the Digital Era!
Why Embrace the Cloud for Future Readiness
In our dynamic business world, cloud adoption is more than a choice; it’s a strategic necessity. Let’s explore some reasons:
- Scalability and Flexibility: As your business grows, you can seamlessly adjust your cloud resources to meet increased demand. This flexibility ensures that you’re prepared to adapt to changing market conditions and accommodate rapid expansion.
- Cost Efficiency: The cloud allows you to pay only for the resources you use. This eliminates the need for heavy upfront investments in hardware and reduces operational costs. A well-managed cloud strategy can result in significant cost savings, which is vital for long-term sustainability.
- Innovation Acceleration: Cloud platforms offer a plethora of tools and services for data analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and more. Leveraging these capabilities can spark innovation, drive competitiveness, and enable your business to stay at the forefront of your industry.
- Global Reach: Cloud services allow businesses to reach customers and partners around the world. This global accessibility is crucial for international expansion and remaining competitive in a global marketplace.
- Security and Compliance: By migrating to the cloud, you can benefit from their expertise and state-of-the-art security protocols, enhancing your ability to protect sensitive data and adhere to industry regulations.
- Competitive Edge: Access to cutting-edge technology and the ability to swiftly respond to market changes can be differentiators in a crowded marketplace.
- Sustainability: Cloud providers are increasingly focused on sustainable practices. By migrating to the cloud, your business can reduce its carbon footprint through more energy-efficient data centers and shared resources.
How Can Fingent Help in Your Cloud Journey?
At Fingent, we understand that each business’s cloud journey is unique. We are committed to helping you unlock the full potential of your cloud investment. With a deep understanding of cloud technologies and a proven track record in cloud consulting, we offer:
Tailored Solutions: We’ll work closely with you to understand your business needs and provide customized solutions that align with your objectives.
Expert Guidance: Our team of cloud experts is always ready to assist you at every stage of your cloud journey, ensuring a smooth transition and ongoing success.
Innovation and Efficiency: We leverage the latest cloud technologies to drive innovation, enhance efficiency, and optimize costs, helping your business thrive in today’s competitive landscape.
So, take the plunge, make the most of your business cloud investment, and watch your business soar to new heights. The cloud is your oyster; it’s time to unlock its treasures! Give us a call today.
- Companies can save 20% of the total annual cost if they migrate to the cloud.
- Hyperscaler Cloud Services can enable businesses to experiment, build, innovate, and run any form of application.
- Hyperscaler adds immense value when creating custom software applications with a specified focus on the data center hardware and software needs.
Organizations of a variety of sizes are now able to reinvent how they operate and move more quickly and more agilely, thanks to the cloud. The move to the cloud has fundamentally changed how we perform our jobs, communicate, and interact. It is quickly becoming a requirement to be competitive in today’s digital environment.
Custom software applications powered by the cloud are a force to be reckoned with, and the benefits become manifold with hyperscalers like AWS, Azure, and Google. What are these hyperscalers, and how can they supercharge your business? Let’s find out.
What are Cloud Services?
In very simple terms, cloud computing is access to computer services such as servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, intelligence, and more by means of the cloud (the Internet). With cloud computing, you can store and access data and programs on remote services hosted on the internet rather than the computer’s hard drive or local server. Cloud computing can be done with cloud services, which are essentially software programs that are hosted by third-party providers who make them available to users over the internet.
Studies recently revealed that, on a worldwide scale, 94% of all companies will use some kind of cloud computing service in 2023 to help them run their business operations. This is a 14% jump from 2020.
A major reason for this wide shift from on-premises servers of the companies to cloud providers is the ‘Pay as you go’ service offered by them, meaning that you only have to pay for the service that you are utilizing. However, the cloud offers more, much more!
How Does the Cloud Work and How Does it Benefit Businesses?
Just like any other IT solution, cloud services also rely on hardware and software. Users typically need just a computer, a stable internet connection, and operating systems to access cloud services.
Benefits To Businesses:
- Cost Reduction: This is a major factor that makes this technology desirable. On average, 20% of the total annual cost can be saved by companies if they migrate to the cloud.
- More Storage: Many tools are available on the cloud with the sole purpose of providing more storage capacity. Some examples include Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, and iCloud Drive.
- Higher Security Barricades: Another attractive feature of cloud services is their tight security regulations. A report by Salesforce states that 94% of businesses claimed to have seen an improvement in security after adopting cloud services.
Read more: Advance your business software development with Cloud Native. Download the complete 451 Research now and strategize a successful Cloud Native adoption process.
Hyperscalers: What Are They, And How Do They Add Value To Cloud Services?
Hyperscaler got its name from the data processing method known as “hyperscale computing,” which allows software architecture to expand and scale on an enterprise level. Hyperscalers enable their clients to experiment, build, innovate, and run any form of application—from a social network to a smart city to online banking—while controlling costs and operating with agility by offering users access to a ready-made, scalable infrastructure. Some famous examples of hyperscalers are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). These technologies combined are reported to have an estimated 65% control over the cloud market.
Benefits Of Hyperscaler Cloud Services:
- Scalability: They can provide virtually unlimited computing resources, which enables organizations to scale their services and applications swiftly without worrying about hardware constraints.
- Global Availability: Users can easily access content with lower latency through hyperscalers, which boosts efficiency and user satisfaction.
- Security: Hyperscaler clouds provide a high level of security by frequently investing in infrastructure reliability, disaster recovery, and cybersecurity.
Value Added By The Big Three: AWS, Azure, and Google
Let’s now talk about these three hyperscalers:
AWS: Four primary elements of value—cost savings, employee productivity, operational resilience, and business agility—are measured and tracked by AWS to assist enterprises in developing an in-depth case for the cloud.
Azure: Azure is the only consistent hybrid cloud that delivers exceptional developer productivity, offers extensive, multi-layered security, including the most conformity coverage of any cloud provider, and costs less than AWS.
Google: Google’s solution provides a complete data foundation for unifying all workloads and overseeing the entire data life cycle. It can process data anywhere and is designed with and for AI, so you can obtain the most up-to-date tools for machine learning analysis, prompting, adjusting, training, and deploying unique foundation models—all while being connected to your business data.
How Can Custom Software Applications Benefit From These Hyperscalers?
Hyperscalers generally oversee the in-house technical skills of an IT team needed to customize data center hardware and software in accordance with the company’s business model and applications. This adds immense value when creating custom software applications.
AWS:
AWS offers many tools you can use to build custom SaaS applications and third-party SaaS solutions.
- Cognito: enables organizations to provide extra sign-in alternatives to their users.
- AD Connector: adds an extra degree of security.
- Quicksight: is a BI solution that you can use to provide simple insights to the people who work with you.
- Cost Explorer: displays and analyzes your costs and operations.
- Aurora Serverless: takes care of routine database chores, including provisioning, patching, backup, recovery, failure detection, and repair.
Azure:
Azure services can assist you throughout the process of custom software application planning, development, delivery, and operations.
- Github: It is a programming solution for collaboration and version control that allows you and others to work on projects from anywhere in the world.
- Azure Pipelines: Works with any language or platform and is used to simultaneously deploy services to multiple targets.
- Azure Boards: This tool lets teams organize, monitor, and talk about their work across the whole development cycle.
- Azure Monitor: This helps improve the responsiveness and availability of your services and apps.
- Visual Studio: This can be used to connect applications and services to Azure and create services that operate in the Azure cloud.
Google:
To help you create high-quality apps as quickly and dependably as possible, Google provides a wide range of resources.
- Firebase: It is used for cloud communications, performance monitoring, and authentication validation.
- Web: It offers information to assist you in enhancing your site’s organization, how it appears in Google searches, and the effectiveness of its user interface.
- The Cloud: Here, you can access services like BigQuery (for processing large, ready-only data sets), Compute Engine, and Cloud Storage.
- Tensor Flow: This tool is mostly used for machine learning and gives developers access to a variety of workflows and high-level, logical APIs to build machine learning models in a variety of languages.
Why Should You Choose Fingent?
Fingent is one of the top providers of technology solutions around the globe right now, serving customers from four different continents. To assist you with your projects, we provide top client-centered personnel who can help you with any of the three types of Cloud services – SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS.
With our team of experts, you can scale up or down as you need and manage and integrate cloud environments according to your business needs. We provide excellent pre- and post-development support by monitoring performance and making any necessary adjustments, and we are accessible at any level of development.
Give us a call, and let’s talk about how to get your business to succeed on the cloud.
For more than a decade, businesses in all industries have undergone a digital metamorphosis. This evolution is marked by a transition from on-premises software solutions to cloud-based computing technology.
By leveraging cloud-computing resources, businesses can gain access to scalable assets, increase organizational performance, and optimize digital agility.
It’s a mistake to think about cloud solutions primarily as software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications. While these technologies are a valuable component of business modernization, they’re only the tip of the iceberg.
Businesses that create their own cloud-native applications can truly harness the power of discrete cloud technologies to deliver long-lasting competive advantages. As their name implies, cloud-native applications are “native” to the cloud computing environment. In other words, cloud-native software development involves creating applications in components optimized for deployment in the cloud instead of a physical computing environment.
What Is Cloud-Native Development?
In simple terms, cloud-native software development is the process of creating applications using core cloud-computing principles and resources. The architecture of cloud-native applications is highly scalable, responsive, and dynamic.
Cloud-native applications are designed to be deployed and run in cloud computing environments, and as such, they offer a number of benefits to developers. Some of the advantages of developing cloud-native applications include:
- Scalability: Cloud-native applications can easily (and often automatically) scale up or down to meet changing demand with consistent performance levels, making them well-suited for applications with fluctuating usage patterns.
- High availability: Cloud-native applications can be designed to be highly available, meaning they can withstand failures and continue to function even in the event of a hardware or software failure.
- Elasticity and Agile development: Using independent microservices isolates the effects of changes, making it easier for developers to iterate on their products and respond to customer needs.
- Cost efficiency: By leveraging the economies of scale offered by cloud providers, businesses can reduce their infrastructure costs and invest in building and improving their applications.
- Integration with cloud services: Cloud-native applications can easily integrate with other cloud-based services, such as databases, messaging systems, and analytics tools, which can simplify development and improve the functionality of the application.
Overall, the main advantage of cloud-native applications is that they are designed to take full advantage of the capabilities of cloud computing environments, which can help developers build and deploy applications more quickly, efficiently, and at lower costs.
Additionally, many cloud-native applications are “cloud-agnostic,” meaning they can be run on a range of cloud providers (hyperscalers) or function in multi-cloud environments. Much of the appeal of cloud-native software development lies in the ability to yield adaptable and versatile applications. Sometimes applications can benefit from services that are only available from certain cloud providers, which risks “vendor lockin,” so it pays to consider the trade-offs carefully.
Read more: Can Moving to Cloud Native Improve Business Agility?
Why Modern Businesses Need Cloud-Native Development
Like on-premises computing resources, software created with traditional application-development practices are bound by the limits of that technology. As such, they can’t provide the quality of experience that modern audiences expect.
Additionally, applications developed in an old-school environment often need re-factoring to try to match the performance of cloud-native alternatives when the former is introduced to a cloud environment.
By leveraging cloud-native development services, modern businesses can facilitate their digital transformation on a faster time horizon. Cloud-native processes enable businesses to serve their customers better and deliver a frictionless user experience.
Top businesses in virtually all industries leverage cloud-native development. Those that neglect to do so will fall further behind these trailblazers and find it challenging to maintain a foothold within their respective markets.
Adopting cloud-native processes is no longer an optional step—it’s become necessary for businesses that want to thrive in the digital marketplace.
Top Benefits of Cloud-Native Software Development
Your business can tap into the multiple benefits of investing in cloud-native software development. Specifically, your organization can:
1. Streamline the User Experience (UX)
When the goal of cloud native is to develop applications that can serve your business while adjusting to the speed of changing technology, the end user is always the priority.
Because of the improved speed of development and the ability to make changes during the development process, cloud native puts UX first. While there are many ways to enhance the UX, investing in cloud-native development is one of the most effective approaches.
2. Improves Development Strategy
Cloud-native applications enable developers to leverage two essential UX-centric methodologies: continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD).
Continuous integration is the process of merging code changes using automation. Multiple developers can merge code changes into a centralized project to streamline app development and generate a cohesive, fully functional product.
Continuous delivery addresses post-release application software updates. Instead of occasionally pushing out massive updates, CD involves delivering smaller updates more frequently. This short-cycle approach improves software delivery and performance while yielding a super UX.
Moreover, microservices can be easier to implement with quality assurance automation, which elevates achievable levels of code quality.
3. Protect Business Continuity
Making dynamic, user-friendly applications a central part of your business model can give you a competitive edge in the modern marketplace. However, if your application goes down, customer frustrations will mount, and your brand could experience lasting reputational damage as a result.
Since cloud-native apps can tap into stand-alone, scalable cloud resources, these products are far less likely to experience extended outages due to spiking utilization. Developers can more rapidly isolate and remedy the issue, as well as rapidly test changes when a cloud-native app experiences downtime, thereby protecting business continuity.
4. Meet Evolving Demands for Services
In the digitized marketplace, it seems as if customers’ expectations and demands are in a constant state of flux. Unfortunately, it can be difficult — if not impossible — to pivot rapidly using legacy application development processes.
Cloud-native architectures can give your organization the agility it needs to respond to sudden shifts in customer expectations. For instance, you could add a new feature that enables customers to communicate easily with your brand. You could also frequently update your app’s capabilities to improve overall performance and stay relevant in the digital marketplace.
Read more: Cloud-Native Application Development: How It’s Powering App Delivery
When Should Businesses Shift to Cloud-Native?
The short answer is “yesterday.”
In the long run, cloud-native software development outperforms traditional application development practices at every turn. Cloud-native development reduces risk, has broader scalability, and allows developers to make changes more quickly. Most notably, the speed of delivery is far and above one of the most compelling advantages of shifting to a cloud-native approach.
Your organization is undoubtedly using cloud-based computing resources in at least some capacity. You can complete the transition by modernizing your cloud-native development processes, too. Doing so will empower your business to regain a competitive edge within your respective industry.
At the same time, one should consider the downsides of cloud applications. Some cloud-native applications can be more complex than traditional applications, due to the need to integrate with multiple cloud-based services and manage distributed systems. This can create more opportunities for something to fail.
While cloud native applications can be cost-effective they can also be more expensive than traditional applications in certain situations, particularly if they require a large number of resources or if they have high usage patterns.
The Nexus Between Cloud-Native Development and Business Modernization
Today’s customers want the freedom to interact with brands across multiple touchpoints. This holds true whether your target audience consists of individual consumers or business-to-business (B2B) clients.
Modern businesses live up to this customer expectation by providing their clients access to user-friendly, intuitive, and dynamic applications. These organizations can expand their reach in the digital marketplace, connect with a broader audience, eliminate friction from purchasing processes, and generate more revenue, all by transitioning to cloud-native development.
Conventional, monolithic application development practices often present a significant hurdle to large-scale integrations, digital transformation and business modernization efforts. Your business can’t achieve its digital transformation goals without fully embracing the cloud-computing environment and its many resources.
Examining the Business Impact of Cloud-Native
The notion that cloud-native software development is the new gold standard isn’t just pure conjecture. This fact is supported by numerous case studies and research projects, including a recent business impact brief by 451 Research.
In the brief, the organization’s team reported that:
- 64% of companies develop at least half of their applications using cloud-native technology
- 49% of companies have partially or fully adopted Kubernetes
- 55% of companies have partially or completely adopted containers
451 Research analysts concluded that cloud-native software development has gone beyond the development process and evolved into a full-fledged methodology. As such, it should continue gaining momentum among brands passionate about actualizing digital transformation.
And that’s just the barest overview. Managers can review 451 Research’s business impact brief by downloading the report.
Why Choose Fingent for Cloud-Native Development?
Fingent’s suite of cloud-native software development services is designed to deliver maximum value to our clients. When leveraging Fingent’s cloud-native development services, your organization will experience:
- Consistent, High-Quality Results: As a client-oriented cloud-native development firm, Fingent focuses on providing high-quality, consistent results that exceed expectations. Our robust, agile teams and dynamic quality assurance practices ensure that our deliverables expressly meet your needs and address your most significant organizational pain points.
- Best-of-Breed Solutions: Fingent’s unique approach enables us to provide world-class cloud-native software development services that produce best-of-breed solutions. These cost-effective solutions will align with your budget and delivery timetable. With Fingent, you won’t have any last-minute surprises like budgeting issues or missed deadlines.
- Prebuilt Services: Fingent’s talented team can build truly custom solutions for your organization. However, we can also expedite development by leveraging prebuilt frameworks, applications, and microservices for common functions that are a staple of virtually all industries. Some of these prebuilt services include cognitive AI, shipment, and payment service functions.
- Pay-as-You-Go Models: With Fingent, you can transition away from speculative technology spending — that is, purchasing new machines and acquiring more infrastructure in anticipation that you will succeed. While it’s important to believe in your business and plan for its success, tying up resources on unneeded equipment for months or years will only harm your bottom line. But Fingent enables you to break the cycle of speculative spending and rely more on operational expenses (OPEX). Instead of letting new hardware gather dust in the data center until its eventual use, you can access additional servers on-demand via a cloud-native infrastructure.
- Scalability: As your business grows, you must have the flexibility to support additional users at a moment’s notice. However, scaling IT capabilities can too time-consuming, and costly if you are limited by monolithic software architectures.Take advantage of Fingent’s expertise to create your cloud-native capabilities that are able to support more users in more locations, all while accommodating a dynamic array of devices.
- Speed of Delivery: Fingent can help you stay on top by providing an expedited speed of delivery via cloud-native solutions. Skip the need to field a development team with the right mix of skills but assigning your project to Fingent. We facilitate an accelerated speed of delivery by shifting away from a “big bang” approach to project management when practical and instead focusing on achieving meaningful milestones across the project’s development life. We have the deep bench of personnel needed to keep projects moving ahead at the optimal speed.
- Transparent Project Management: At Fingent, we always keep our clients in the loop. We’ll routinely provide you with updates regarding the status of your cloud-native development project. We pride ourselves on setting firm deadlines and adhering to them.
If you’re ready to achieve business modernization and make your organization a standout player in your industry, take advantage of Fingent’s cloud-native services. Contact us to discuss your latest project.
Technology trust is a good thing. Traditional approaches focused on establishing a strong perimeter to keep the bad guys out are no longer enough. In today’s digital world, Zero Trust Security is an approach that is essential for every business that has an online presence. Zero trust is a holistic and strategic approach to security that verifies every person and device that is granted access and confirms who and what they say they are. This blog explains why there is an increasing need for app security and 7 reasons why businesses need the Zero Trust Security paradigm.
Is There an Increased Need for App Security?
Cloud environments host business-critical applications and data, making them vulnerable to attack by hackers who would like to steal, destroy, or hold hostage sensitive data for personal gain. Though the security strategy is not perfect, Zero Trust reduces the attack surface and limits the impact and severity of the attack.
Functionalities in an application increase its vulnerability to an attack and the frequency of the attacks also increases. Identifying vulnerabilities and security threats early on can save a lot of time and money for businesses. App security lowers the number of vulnerabilities, increases efficiency, and improves the speed of detection and time-to-fix.
Watch now: How InfinCE – an infinite cloud platform, is empowering industries with secured next-gen cloud technology!
7 Reasons Why Businesses Need Zero Trust Security
Zero Trust limits the scope of damage if credentials are compromised, or if the firewall is breached. This paradigm secures remote work better than conventional methods. It improves productivity and organizational agility. Here are additional reasons to consider:
1. Increased Cyberattacks
When organizations rely on a single sign-on (SS)) verification method, ensuring people are who they say are may become difficult and risky. To avoid this security gap, SSO should be balanced with other technologies like Multi-factor Authentication (MFA).
In the last few years, MFA has become easier and smarter. While SSO and MFA together create a tight web of security around an organization, they fail to provide a smooth end-user experience.
That is where Zero Trust Security comes in. Zero Trust is based on the assumption that “nothing” and “nobody” are to be trusted. Using AI and ML in Zero Trust models, organizations can start to learn the normal behavior of their employees. These enable organizations to detect any deviation from their regular pattern and block an employee’s access until he is being verified.
2. Cybersecurity Workforce Outpace Supply
The success of Zero Trust depends on continual monitoring and analytics. When you use automation to evaluate access requests you can judge those requests based on the key identifiers and then automatically grant access. The IT department need not be involved in approving each access request, but look into it only when the automated system flags requests as suspicious.
How can this be of significant benefit? According to Cybersecurity Workforce Study, 2021, 60% of the participants reported that the shortage of cybersecurity staffing is placing their organization at risk. Despite the influx of 70,000 professionals into the cybersecurity workforce, global demand for cybersecurity professionals continues to outpace supply. So, if you can safely automate, you can reduce human resources, and your existing team can devote their time to innovation and improvement.
3. Heightened Security Measure Require More Security Teams
The Zero Trust optimizes your existing security team because it uses a centralized monitoring system. With it, your team can easily generate reliable data and gain insights. As a result, you can maintain a more secure environment even with reduced security staff.
4. Cloud Environment Require Shared Cybersecurity Responsibility
Businesses are moving their critical applications and workloads to the public or hybrid cloud. Given that, cybersecurity leaders must reconsider the security measures they have in place. The cloud environment requires a shared responsibility model. In the Zero Trust model, certain security aspects are provided by the cloud vendor, and others are cared for by the enterprise.
Read more: Why Is Cloud Security Important What Are The Best Practices to Ensure Cloud Security
5. Network Is No Longer a Secured Enterprise Network
Work From Home has necessitated intense use of the cloud. This means the internet network is no more secure. The conventional security measures and visibility solutions are no longer practical or robust enough. Zero Trust rests on the foundation of the “always-verify” principle. It offers complete visibility both in data centers and the cloud.
6. Everyone Need Not Have Elevated Security Privileges
In this digital-first age, users who access an enterprises’ applications and infrastructure are not just employees or customers. Vendors who are servicing a system, suppliers, or partners could also be accessing privileged data.
None of these non-employees need such access. What more, not all employees need access to every application, infrastructure, or business data. A well-executed Zero Trust strategy enables businesses to precisely control access based on key dimensions of trust.
7. Work From Home Increases Security Risks
In the post-pandemic era, Work From Home (WFH) has become the new normal. Location-based security technologies like the company’s headquarters are no longer relevant. Unsecured wi-fi networks and devices increase security risks. Assuming that their employee’s WFH setups and environments are not as secure as the office, businesses must depend on the overreaching system like a Zero Trust framework.
Work devices are traditionally managed, patched, and kept up-to-date with security tools and policies, not so with BYOD (Bring Your Own Devices). Some employees may forget basic cyber hygiene skills. The Zero Trust Security can control the potential for a security breach as it enforces access controls at every point within the network.
Watch now: Shifting to a remote work environment? Learn why InfinCE makes the best remote work companion!
Adopt Zero Trust Security
Zero Trust Security paradigm ensures each request undergoes evaluation based on micro-segmentation of user types, location, and other identifying parameters. Only after such intense scrutiny does it determine when to trust, what to grant access to, and how long that access should be enabled.
Zero Trust Security returns immediate gains through risk reduction and security control. But there is more. It improves visibility, increases productivity, makes better use of your IT resources, and facilities compliance. In a nutshell, Zero Trust Security helps your organization build strength and resilience.
Decision-makers and security leaders of an enterprise should consider leveraging robust layers of defense through the Zero Trust model. Zero Trust Security tightens controls over access to information through network perimeters and the implementation of strict authentication measures.
Security experts at Fingent are working with the Zero Trust model and have honed their skills in providing bulletproof security for our clients’ systems and networks. Give us a call and see how we can help you.
Applications are at the front and center of business strategy today. Software-driven business transformation requires new apps that can be developed and delivered faster. Organizations need a new platform to support these changes – one that can deliver high-quality apps.
Globally, cloud platforms are redefining the way enterprises scale their businesses. Enterprises are under tremendous pressure to develop and deploy applications faster and more efficiently. Cloud-native applications help tech-savvy enterprises stay ahead of the competition.
Today, cloud-native application development has emerged as an innovative concept. It has altered the way software applications are developed, shipped, and managed. This article discusses in detail what cloud-native application development is. It will also explain how cloud-native application development is empowering app delivery.
What Is Cloud-Native Application Development?
A cloud-native application is designed for cloud computing architecture. These applications are built and hosted in the cloud. Cloud-native application development is an approach that exploits the flexibility, scalability, and resilience of cloud computing. It includes various tools and techniques used by software developers to build applications for the public cloud.
Cloud-native takes full advantage of the cloud computing model. Therefore, it efficiently combines architecture and technology that enable the design, development, and operation of workloads in the cloud. Cloud-native application development empowers you to gain a competitive advantage by quickly bringing ideas to market.
Cloud-native applications have shorter application lifecycles and are highly resilient, manageable, and observable. They speed up the development of new applications, optimize existing ones while connecting all of them.
Cloud-native application development is mostly based on microservices. Microservices are discrete and reusable components that can be used in any cloud environment. It is a multidimensional approach. It represents a cycle where complete focus is on the journey rather than the destination. Hence, it is all about building new applications and modernizing the existing ones on the principles of the cloud.
Read more: A Comprehensive Guide To Modern Cloud Application Development
What Is Cloud-Native Architecture and How It Empowers App Delivery?
Cloud-native follows five architectural features. These features are microservices, APIs (application programming interfaces, containers, backing services, modern design. These help businesses ship products faster, implement their customer’s needs, create value quicker, and aid collaboration between developers and IT specialists. Let’s consider each of them:
1. Microservices
It becomes easier to scale when a monolithic application is broken into many smaller pieces. These pieces are called microservices. Each of these microservices is designed to be autonomous, independent, and self-contained.
This approach is advantageous as each microservice can be deployed, upgraded, scaled, and restarted: without impacting the end-user. Microservices are independent and so you can eliminate dependencies and coordination efforts. The teams can work parallelly, thereby increasing velocity. Microservices enable elasticity-a key attribute of cloud computing.
2. Containers
Containers are crucial for packaging and running cloud-native applications. Microservices are grouped into container images and deployed onto a host operating system as they are faster and lighter.
Containerization allows the bundling of a cloud-native application into a single unit. This unit may contain libraries, configuration files, or other components that the application needs. The containerization process makes it easy to test, move, and deploy the applications.
Because of its agile nature, you can start or stop a container at a moment’s notice and remove any defective instances. Container system guarantees consistency and increases application portability across cloud systems.
3. Backing services
Cloud-native systems depend on ancillary resources. These resources include data stores, message brokers, monitoring, and identity services. These are called backing services. You could develop them in-house or simply select from a rich assortment of managed backing services offered by vendors. The latter is a better option as it can significantly save you time and labor.
As backing services can be bound dynamically to a microservice, it acts as an attached resource but decoupled from the application and remains interchangeable. In a nutshell, backing services can be attached to and detached from a microservice using a configuration management tool.
4. Application programming interfaces (APIs)
Microservices need an intrinsic mechanism to talk to each other. Plus, Client-facing microservices need to accept and respond to user requests. Application programming interfaces are those software connectors that can send and receive data, metadata, and service requests.
In cloud-native applications, RESTful APIs manage communication between microservices. Furthermore, APIs expose functionality that other software can use. It is a good practice to avoid touching the underlying code. As a best practice, APIs make it is easy to extend or customize applications without disturbing the underlying code.
5. Modern design
Despite having a wide variety of tools and techniques, one cannot avoid all challenges that arise in application development. So, IT teams must develop customized application monitoring and management methods. These methods must suit the organizations’ cloud model and IT infrastructure.
Watch: How InfinCE – A Digital Workplace Orchestration Platform, Can Help you Seamlessly Experience Infinite Cloud For Your Enterprise!
Why Is Cloud-Native Important Now?
Cloud-native is a cost-effective way that brings ideas to market quickly. Here are a few characteristics that make cloud-native critical for business growth:
- Auto-scalability: Cloud-native applications can scale services automatically and independently and do not require daily management.
- Elasticity: These applications and services can scale in-out and up-down as the demand changes ensuring efficient usage of resources.
- Speed of deployment: Businesses receive faster feedback and delivery when continuous delivery and deployment are used. It results in faster shipping of applications.
- Resilience: These services can survive outages and failures and remain online as disaster recovery mechanisms are available in the cloud.
- Cost-effective: As these applications are cloud-based, computing and storage resources can scale as needed. Thus, eliminating the need for overprovisioning. Businesses can use containers to maximize the number of microservices run on the host. It saves time, resources, and money.
- Easy to manage: As cloud-native applications use automation, developers can track all microservices and components as they are updated. The team can focus on a specific microservice without worrying about how it will interact with the other services.
- Visibility: It is easy for the teams to study applications and learn how they function together, as a microservice architecture isolates services.
Read more: Cloud Migration Strategy: 7 Steps To Accomplish A Flawless Transitions
Key Takeaways
Cloud-native application development is here to stay. Businesses will continue to use cloud-native technologies for agility and efficiency benefits. Most importantly, it is a cost-effective way to architect new applications. Businesses must consider the tradeoff between cost, effort, and time involved in moving to a cloud-native architecture.
The transition towards a cloud-based digital-first organization can be hassle-free when you have the right partner to guide you through it. At Fingent, our developers have the experience and know-how to do it right for you.
Give us a call and let’s get talking!
The COVID-19 pandemic has created an imbalance between the supply and demand of the goods thereby disrupting the supply chain globally. That said, it has also amplified the need for technology tools to manage the supply chain challenges as the possibility of lockdowns in the future can’t be overlooked.
With the increasing demand for autonomous solutions, it is not surprising to see companies investing in supply chain technologies. According to Gartner, by 2023, 50% of the global eCommerce companies will invest in the real-time supply chain, AI, and advanced analytics solutions.
Challenges in the Supply Chain
1. Labor and material shortages
2020-21 witnessed several layoffs and quarantine putting the market in flux globally. Leaders not only face delegation woes but also find staffing key positions within procurement and supply chain ops problematic. Leaders will have to rely on technologies and automation to create cohesion and shift focus to smaller more concentrated procurement teams.
According to the Institute of Supply Chain Management report, every key commodity is either scarce or up in price leading to shortages and complexities to supply chain management. In other words, the material shortage will continue and companies can expect persistent problems through 2022.
2. Rising freight costs
In 2021, trucking and intermodal transport shot to new highs while spot prices doubled across the board: van (+18%), reefer (+25%), flatbed (+27%). Additionally, sea freight price and air freight price skyrocketed as well making it difficult to move freight in any capacity.
Thus, fluctuation in freight price will remain one of the biggest challenges the supply chain industry will have to face in coming years.
3. Port congestion
In the last two years, there have been wait times for ships headed into ports across the world. In October 2021, over 50 container ships were amassed outside Los Angeles and Long Beach to unload cargo from China. That said, gridlock especially at overseas ports creates delays as ships look to obtain cargo. So, bottlenecks at both ends cause additional lead time for import-export operations ultimately disrupting the domestic supply chains.
While port congestion isn’t a new problem, according to The National Customers Brokers & Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA), 2022 could see historic wait times and supply chain bottlenecks.
4. Problems related to demand forecasting
While the global shutdown in 2020 skewed supplier data to a great extent, 2021 saw some recovery making the data relatively unreliable as a standard for future forecasting. This has resulted in no proper benchmark for supply chain leaders to follow.
As the unprecedented demand grows, meeting it remains a challenge. So, supply chain leaders will have to rely on trending data to predict the year considering the previous benchmarks for everything from inventory to budget and pricing.
Read more: Logistics Management Software – Everything You Need To Know!
While this adjustment is completely different for those who rely on the last two to three years trailing data to estimate demand forecasting, it is a challenge that requires forethought.
Here are five technologies that will help advance your business in 2024:
1. Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
According to Deloitte, RPA will see strong growth in the next five years specifically in the supply chain operations that include lower-value, potentially dangerous, or high-risk tasks. Robotic technology applications include trains and trucks, automated vehicles like drones, last-mile deliveries, and storage and retrieval systems (ASRS).
The use of RPA can achieve the following objectives:
- Improve productivity and efficiency
- Reduce re-work and risk rates
- Increase employee safety
- Perform repetitive and mundane tasks so humans can work more useful tasks
- Increase revenue by improving order fulfillment and delivery speed
New pricing structures are helping companies consider investing in automation. That said, the RaaS (Robotic and a Service)-type model allows providers to lease units through a monthly service contract instead of customers paying a huge capital up-front.
2. Cloud computing and AI
As supply chains generate big data, cloud-based AI can be used to turn that data into insights. Cloud computing along with AI has transformed the way the supply chain operates and in near future its abilities will only grow in complexity.
Cloud and AI systems can use past trends and market indicators to achieve the following processes;
- Powering automation process
- Informing supplier selection
- Providing real-time information on shipments
- Analyzing carrier performance
- Streamlining supplier onboarding and automating supplier management
- Anticipating trends in operational issues
- Augmenting customer support
Read more: How to accelerate your business growth with Robotic Process Automation
3. IoT
Asset tracking through IoT will help save time and money and assist data-driven decision-making.
Through GPS tracking of shipments and monitoring parcel conditions, IoT devices have improved quality management in the supply chain. RFID chips, mobile sensors, and smart devices can track and authenticate products, humidity, light levels, measure temperature, handling, movement, speed, and other environmental factors of shipments.
Additionally, IoT facilitates new fleet management solutions development which helps improve workflows and customer satisfaction. Also, IoT in the future will reduce the total cost of ownership and make the entire supply chain industry more connected, driven by legislation and customer demand.
Adoption of IoT will also improve security and decrease the probability of piracy, disruption of refrigeration, and container damage.
4. Blockchain
Emerging technology in the supply chain industry, blockchain’s decentralized digital ledger can help improve transparency for customers. This will enable them to track the whole journey of a product before arrival. Additionally, blockchain can increase transparency in audits and improve security by revealing any attempted fraud. Blockchain can help increase the level of trust and make digital payments more secure.
Blockchain systems can also save time and money due to better coordination of documents and eliminate the need for physical paperwork.
5. Transportation Management System (TMS)
All of the above-mentioned technologies need to be organized and managed from a single point. That is where TMS applications complications come into the picture.
TMS is used to manage carriers, and help convert paper-based documentation into a digital format. It will reduce freight costs, track deliveries in real-time, and increase transparency which will eventually improve customer service. Simply put, TMS will help make all the separate elements work as a single system.
TL Nika Logistics is a prime example of successful TMS adoption.
Final thoughts!
There’s no denying that technological innovation is propelling supply chain management solutions. If you are looking to embark on this technical journey, Fingent custom software development experts is the right partner for you. We understand the latest advancements in supply chain technology and help organizations adopt these emerging solutions while gradually replacing legacy systems to help navigate better in this competitive business landscape.
Connect with us today!
Everyone in the manufacturing world faces the fear of going bust if they do not adopt digital transformation. That is a given and yet we can all agree that digital transformation doesn’t happen overnight.
Currently, enterprises encounter several challenges on their digital transformation journey. One among them is to learn to create and use data through a product life cycle that creates flexible manufacturing processes. Such processes can respond instantly to changes in demand at a low cost to the firm without damage to the environment.
Are you a manufacturer with global aspirations? Do you need to accelerate lead times and product customization? If so, then you may encounter these common business challenges:
- Need for critical infrastructure in remote locations.
- Need for tailored and full-custom design with high quality and ruggedness that fit your specific requirements.
- Need for a simplified supply chain that enables you to get to market quicker and realize faster time to revenue.
- Need to maximize efficiency in the supply chain and ultimately reduce lead time.
- Need to ensure product longevity by providing the same time-zone technical support. And to provide personal support services with the ability to decrease lead times.
Technologies such as 5G, edge computing, and cloud have been pushed further into the limelight especially over the past year, in the wake of the pandemic. As enterprises react to the changing world, these technologies are now emerging at the forefront as a necessary component of network infrastructure.
Read more: Take a Look at How 5G is Reinventing the Way We Work
How Do 5G, Cloud, And Edge Computing Unlock Enterprise Opportunities?
5G, cloud, and edge computing have become major areas of interest and investment at the enterprise level. They provide real-time insights, analytics, and business benefits that can be used once mission-critical latency issues are resolved.
5G, Edge Compute, and Cloud technologies are an emerging set of solutions. When orchestrated together these can enable a spectrum of benefits that are contingent on industry, maturity, and technology. These are complementary technologies that work together for most use cases.
What unlocks the enterprise opportunities is to marry new and existing technologies to create machinery that is as proactive and predictive as the best workers. Edge computing, cloud, and 5G connectivity can be combined to supercharge real-time decision-making and improve quality assurance throughout the supply line.
How would you like it if you can predict the future? Or if you could see the possible problems and correct them before they happen? 5G, edge computing, and cloud promise to give you that ability! These technologies are in a symbiotic relationship.
Cloud contains unlimited resources. Powered by 5G, AI models can continuously update and adapt to situations within the enterprise. This virtuous feedback loop delivers real-time results. Plus, it delivers ongoing improvements over time, as the entire system across the enterprise learns and improves from prior experiences.
This can greatly improve the productivity of your employees. Also, it can save costs tremendously as it can reduce downtime. Here are some specific ways in which 5G, edge computing, and the cloud can benefit the industry.
Read more: How 5G Will Boost Enterprise Investment In Cloud
Cloud For Responsive Resilience
In the past when enterprises needed to deploy applications using their equipment, they had to ensure that their server, memory, and processing power were equipped to run the application efficiently. Any misjudgment could have a cascading effect throughout the enterprise. However, the cloud provides infinite opportunities.
What enterprise opportunities does this provide? It provides what all enterprises need more than ever: increased speed, resilience, and flexibility.
Bringing cloud intelligence to their IT networks can be very beneficial in performing preventive maintenance, making decisions in real-time, and keeping data more secure. It allows for automated decision-making while saving bandwidth costs.
By leveraging cloud capabilities, enterprises can reduce overall costs. They can benefit from automated one-click deployment and realize higher value from data. This contributes to resilience. Resilience is more important to enterprises that are struggling during major disruptions like the pandemic.
Read more: Why It’s Time to Embrace Cloud and Mobility Trends To Recession-Proof Your Business?
5G Can Help Process Information Across The Enterprise
5G technology enables enterprise connectivity, remains powerful, and is constantly updated. 5G enables all the machines and modules to function at the same speed, reliability, and security as we expect from our phones. In other words, it prevents loss of time due to hanging or buffering associated with the mobile networks.
5G will deliver multiple benefits to those who adopt it:
- Provides ultra-reliability and security. It is far more efficient than any wireless mechanism.
- Since 5G eliminates the need for wired connectivity, it enables a high-speed environment with higher flexibility and lower latency.
- Provides the ability to handle mass customization and personalization.
- 5G augments IoT capacity to support device density and data volume
- Improves productivity as it reduces failure rates.
Read more: Top Business Drivers that Boost Legacy Cloud Migration
Edge Computing Can Help Deploy Technology With Unhindered Network Performance
Edge computing can reduce pressure on data centers and service provider networks. Plus, it preserves bandwidth and brings real-time processing close to users and their devices. Here are specific ways in which edge computing can prove advantageous:
- Maintain competitive edge: Edge computing can provide the ability to use data from various machines, processes, and systems to adapt the manufacturing processes in real-time. It can support precision monitoring of the production line. This enables swift operational responsiveness to unforeseen events. Additionally, it can gather data from connected systems and devices in real-time. Hence, manufactures can now analyze data at the point of creation leading to faster and more informed decision-making within the enterprise.
- Helps seize the opportunities that data and performance-intensive technologies present: Edge computing can empower employees and streamline workflows. It can enable smarter supply chains and improve employee safety and productivity.
- Documents at fingertips: Edge computing can provide workers easy access to documents, new workflow instructions, real-time videos and images, and new product updates. This can increase greater efficiency despite social distancing protocols in the current scenario.
Gain a Competitive Edge with Next-Gen Technologies
With IoT deployment on the rise, enterprises are increasingly adopting 5G, cloud, and edge computing. These technologies provide a competitive advantage by reducing unexpected downtime issues. Hence, the enterprises enjoy improved overall efficiency.
The convergence of these technologies can increase agility and resilience. These technologies can be leveraged to establish enhanced productivity, customer satisfaction, and increased ROI. Hence, 5G, cloud, and edge computing technologies must form an important part of any post-pandemic strategies. You must be eager to get started on gaining that competitive edge. Let’s get talking and make that happen!
Digital transformation was already happening across every industry, but the pandemic has accelerated the pace. Unfortunately, while many organizations have embraced the reality of rapid change, some of the companies have been slow to adopt new technologies.
Looking specifically at cloud solutions, companies that migrate some or all of their digital assets to the cloud can achieve transformational results. It is helping companies to innovate faster, modernize outdated infrastructure, get better insights from their data, scale globally, and restructure the existing business models to create better customer experiences.
Cloud migration allows easy access to data and applications from anywhere, making business functions smoother and simple to operate. This blog will help you understand why you need cloud migration now and the drivers that boost legacy cloud migration.
Why should you consider migration to the cloud?
Cloud migration can improve the performance and competitiveness of your organization. Often, system performance is poor, and maintenance costs are high. Any incompatibility with new technologies can cause problems when altering these systems as they cannot keep up to date at the same speed at which your business needs to innovate and scale. Additionally, lack of vendor support and regular updates for old systems can compromise the data security, making application migration to the cloud imperative.
Read more: Cloud Migration Strategy: 7 Steps to Accomplish a Flawless Transition
Common challenges associated with cloud migration
Cloud migration can be complex and risky, and many organizations face challenges during the transition.
1. Poor strategy and planning
Many organizations migrate to the cloud without proper planning or a good strategy. For a successful cloud implementation, organizations must plan well. As every application and dataset has different requirements, they will need a different approach to cloud migration. So, enterprises must have a valid business case for every workload it migrates to the cloud.
2. Vendor lock-in
This is a common problem faced by organizations that adopt cloud technology. While cloud providers offer many services, these services sometimes cannot be extended to other cloud platforms. Many organizations that start using cloud services often find it difficult to switch providers if the existing provider does not suit their requirements.
3. Data security and compliance
Data security and compliance are major obstacles to cloud migration. Cloud services often use a shared responsibility model in which they take the responsibility of securing the infrastructure while the organization takes responsibility for security data and workloads. It means you are responsible for configuring the security measures correctly and ensuring that all services and applications have proper security controls.
4. Cost Management
Many companies don’t have clear KPIs to understand what they plan to spend or save after migration, making it difficult to know if the migration was successful from the cost point of view. Additionally, as the cloud environment is dynamic, the costs can change as new services are adopted, and application usage grows.
Read more: A Comprehensive Guide To Modern Cloud Application Development
What are the drivers that encourage cloud migration?
1. Hassle-free digital transformation
With recent advances in cloud computing, leaders can digitize their core functionalities such as SAP, CRM, data analytics, and more. From innovating to improving productivity to unlocking new sources of revenue, the cloud provides endless opportunities to enterprises that migrate away from legacy systems.
2. Accelerate growth
Whether it is organic expansion, mergers, or acquisitions, technology is accelerating organizational growth. Organizations leveraging the cloud can integrate new acquisitions seamlessly with the existing platforms and also scale rapidly using auto-scaling functionality and flexible data management services.
3. Better Security
Data security is turning significant. By migrating to the cloud, enterprises can update their IT infrastructure according to the latest practices and protect their applications from malicious hacking attempts.
While many leaders mistakenly think that the cloud itself makes an organization secure, in reality, it empowers groups to implement governance, strict security policies, and compliance guardrails needed for their operations.
4. Improve business agility
To stay ahead of your competitors, you must be agile. It means you need to have access to flexible and on-demand IT resources. With the cloud, over 99% of resources are available on-demand. Also, enterprises don’t have to wait endlessly for any hardware component and installation. They can lease valuable capabilities from their cloud providers and get to the market faster.
5. Reduce costs
Yet another reason for businesses to migrate to the cloud is to reduce IT costs. You can easily find the right-size resources in the cloud according to your business needs and cut unnecessary costs. Also, companies can adjust capacity needs whenever the need arises and eliminate unnecessary hardware.
6. Merge data centers
With cloud computing, companies do not have to manage their own on-premises data centers. Instead, they can outsource back-end responsibilities to their cloud providers and use their resources for higher-value activities. Additionally, companies can consolidate their operations and distribute cloud services whenever needed, improving efficiency.
7. Leverage modern technologies
Migrating to the cloud allows businesses to leverage new technologies. For example, companies can take advantage of AI and machine learning which are not feasible on-premises. They can also take advantage of complex cloud-native technologies such as Kubernetes containers and data lakes easily.
Read more: 6 Reasons Why The FinTech Industry Should Embrace Legacy Cloud Migration
Conclusion
To avail of the migration benefits, you must successfully move your on-premises IT infrastructure to the cloud. As a cloud expert, we help understand the challenges and help you make a smooth transition without disrupting your current operations.
At Fingent, we offer a single control plane for the performance and security products to ensure seamless legacy cloud migration. In addition, we enable easy integration with public, private, or hybrid cloud. So connect with our experts today, and know, how we can help you take your business to new heights with seamless cloud migrations.
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!