What Does A Cloud Based Solution Mean?

Martin McNicoll, author and CEO of GURUS Solutions (North America’s largest NetSuite Cloud ERP Services Provider), answers the question “What Does A Cloud-based Solution Mean?” by delving deep into the uses and benefits of Cloud technology.

Watch this 2 minute video to learn what it means to store your data in the Cloud and use cloud based business systems for your company.

Summary

In recent years, cloud technologies (from Shopify to AWS, cloud ERP, CRM) have evolved to become the new industry norm. It seems to many experts that the days of on-premise systems are long past, especially with the growing demand for SAAS (software as a service) platforms that take away the manual maintenance requirements of building your system architecture. 

With buzzwords like “private cloud” and “platform as a service (PAAS)” echoing across the market these days, you might be asking yourself: But what exactly is a cloud based solution? 

Well, let’s break it down below:

Martin's book "Scale Up Your Business with Cloud Technology: A Practical Guide to Building a Future-Proof Enterprise" is available on Amazon.

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Video Transcript

Hi everybody, my name is Martin McNicoll, CEO of GURUS Solutions, and today I'll answer the question, “What does a cloud-based solution mean?” In this video, I’ll focus on business solutions, and exclude platforms and infrastructure providers.

According to Wikipedia, the Cloud (or ‘cloud computing’) is a “model for enabling on-demand access to a shared pool of configurable applications and services which can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort.” 

But what does that mean?
 
In concrete terms, there are a few characteristics that define a true Cloud-based solution:

• It transfers information through the internet and is accessed via a browser.
• It allows companies to avoid up-front infrastructure costs, like purchasing servers and software licenses. 
• But most importantly, It enables organizations to focus on their core business instead of spending time and money on computer infrastructure.

Now be careful! If your provider talks to you about servers and a version of the software, they’re only offering to take care of a traditional application, this is not a true Cloud solution.

Cloud computing relies on sharing resources to achieve economies of scale. It's like electricity in your home, you don't need a power plant in your backyard, you just need to connect to one that’s hosted elsewhere.  

Cloud computing allows enterprises to get their applications up and running faster, with more flexibility and less maintenance, 

And lastly, Cloud providers use a "pay as you go" model. 

Cloud computing is truly the way the majority of the applications will be consumed in the future.

If you want to go deeper into the world of cloud technologies, you can find out everything you need to know about cloud computing services, cloud storage, popular cloud based services, why businesses are leveraging the cloud for disaster recovery and remote work enablement, and much more both in my book and by checking out some of the resources below.