The Cloud. We read about it all the time, we talk about it in slightly reverent tones, and we’ve more than likely got more than a bit of stuff stored in it. But do we actually know what it is? And do we understand how cloud-based solutions can help us in both our business and personal lives?

The Cloud isn’t a physical location. We might think of it as a slightly nebulous place “somewhere up there in cyberspace,” but it is, in fact, an interlinked mesh of computing resources – such as applications, servers and networks. Surprisingly, the term isn’t new. People were talking about “Cloud computing” way back in the 1960s when pioneering technology innovators used a symbol of a cloud to represent the newest, as yet unnamed development on which they were working – and which we today call the Internet.

But here’s the thing:

We don’t really have to understand everything there is to know about the Cloud, or where all the hardware and software attached to it actually is. The beauty of the system is that someone else worries about that kind of thing for us. All we have to do is take full advantage of the cloud computing services they provide.

After all, it’s like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos says, “You don’t generate your own electricity. Why generate your own computing?”

Cloud-Based Solutions For Your Business

The cloud is an instrumental part of most businesses. In fact, around 70 percent of all organisations use it for one or more applications and their related data.

“Cloud services are definitely shaking up the industry,” says Sig Nag, research vice president at Gartner, a respected information technology research and consultancy company. “We know of no vendor or service provider today whose business model offerings and revenue growth are not influenced by the increasing adoption of cloud-first strategies in organizations. What we see now is only the beginning, though. Through 2022, we project the market size and growth of the cloud services industry to be nearly three times the growth of overall IT services.”

So, what does that mean for you? What cloud-based solutions can you use to promote the productivity and profitability of your company?

Internet of Things

British technology pioneer Kevin Ashton first coined the phrase ‘Internet of Things’ in 1999, but incredibly, the concept goes back a lot further – to 1926, in fact! Back then, inventor and futurist Nikola Tesla said, “When wireless is perfectly applied, the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain. All things will be particles of a real and rhythmic whole. The instruments through which we shall be able to do this will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket.”

Did anyone else just get a chill?

The catalyst for the recent Internet of Things (IoT) revolution has been the explosive growth of wireless communication over the past few years. Today, we are able to interact with physical devices in ways we couldn’t even have dreamed about half a decade ago. The line between our physical and digital world is becoming increasingly blurred, and the resulting breakthroughs in technology are forever changing the way we live, connect and do business. And it’s fuelling the demand for cloud computing even more.

It’s a very big deal!

Data Centre In A Box

Think about a typical company today. Thanks to the huge advancements in technology, many employees can work from anywhere. Office space has become fluid, and geographical limitations no longer exist. And, with a hyper-converged infrastructure, it’s easier than ever for SMEs to set up remote offices.

Hyper-convergence is a single vendor solution that takes the remote out of remote working. Essentially, it combines all the relevant infrastructure a highly scalable, data-centred building block.

A data centre in a box is pretty much what it says on the tin – a data centre in a container, comprising server racks, power and cooling facilities, storage, displays and network/Internet capabilities. Because it’s already prepackaged and configured, a data centre in a box is easy to transport and uses less electrical power than a standard data centre – making it ideal for remote locations where resources might be limited.

Wireless Connectivity

Wireless connectivity is how we connect devices such as computers, printers, scanners, servers and cameras to each other without physical connectivity, such as wires or cabling. More and more, wireless connectivity is replacing traditional cabling, but this can be a double-edged sword. The more devices that connect to a network, the more the available bandwidth is strained. This is why future-proof wireless network access must be a priority for all businesses.

Your Ideal Cloud-Based Solutions Provider

As you can see, migrating your business’ services and applications into a hosted environment makes you far more competitive in today’s ever-connected world. At Strategic Asset Management Solutions, we deliver a wide range of Cloud-based computing services, including storage, servers, databases, networking and software.