One of the main reasons why cloud computing is aggressively being developed is the enterprise or the business setting. Many businesses, large and small, have come to realize the potential of cloud computing in terms of easing business transactions without having to spend too much on additional infrastructure, manpower and even time. There mere fact that transactions in almost any form could be done online has made cloud computing a good answer to different business problems.
Most businesses will just resort to local installation of applications in their gadgets. Some would resort to simplified data transfer transactions such as email or online messaging system (chat). But oftentimes, these transactions are not enough especially when you have a business system that requires extensive interaction with a specific application. This could be easily installed in a local gadget but this could easily cause complication.
For example, a salesman is on the road trying to seal the business deal. But before everything could be agreed on, the salesman has to use certain applications. This will not be possible if the application will not work on the local gadget. But if the salesman uses an online application through cloud computing, not only will they be able to show considerable data but real time interaction with upper management.
Number One Challenge: Data Manipulation
One of the biggest concerns of businesses when they opt to migrate to cloud computing is on how they could transfer the massive data they accumulated online. Although the services available in the industry today could very well handle type and required storage capacity of data, getting them right for the first time is very difficult.
Cloud computing is not just data transferred online which could be extracted anytime. They have to go through certain processes, access management and how to properly dispose those data by requests. All of these have to be considered with optimal security in mind.
These can’t necessarily be executed at will by any businesses. They are left at the mercy of the cloud computing provider to ensure everything is according to expectation, especially security. For that reason, businesses have to make sure they work with a reputable cloud computing provider to ensure everything is according to certain processes.
Balancing and Scaling
Developers would have to make sure they are building an application, especially when launched online, could be easily management and have the capacity to hold massive loads. This is a must for business applications as massive data requests will happen. If they are not controlled, certain functions of the application will not work.
Although the server will be able to handle data requests, the application itself will not have the ability to control the data. This situation might lead to certain security concerns such as data leaks.
Businesses have to choose a provider that will give them the capability of balancing loads. Some providers even have auto-scaling function wherein the load is automatically balanced whenever the load is getting heavier due to massive requests.
Monitoring Capabilities
The challenges for the enterprise could be easily handled if the application and the data centers with server farms could be actively monitored. The monitoring system should be consistent and should have the capability to provide monitoring 24/7 without any falter.
Any form of latency should be actively monitored. Monitoring should not only be based on the application running with the data centers. Monitoring should be actively provided for the hardware. The local environment and active CPU capability found in the data center should be considered.
Security
It goes without saying that the biggest concern any business have in cloud computing is security. Without security, the application will be highly vulnerable to different form of attacks.
From simple attack on certain application to hardware security on different data centers, these security measures have to be implemented without any flaw. A single attack could easily destroy everything. That means no matter what security measure they implement, one flaw in security could potentially destroy everything.
The key in proper implementation of security in the enterprise is consistency. It should be present at all time and should receive more than enough resources to make sure security is in place. Businesses have to check every security measure implemented in cloud computing to ensure success in their operation.
