The value of cloud-based technology

When we hear cloud-based technology described words like “new” and “modern” often make their way into the conversation.

These are statements of fact; cloud technology is new – but new doesn’t prove any inherent value. What makes cloud technology better than legacy alternatives?  

Highlighting the value of cloud-based technology should sound more like “acceleration, flexibility, and stability.”

Working in cloud computing platforms like AWS allows teams to provision new resources more quickly than ever. It takes a matter of minutes to add new hardware to your environment. In the past lead time to provision new hardware was weeks or months. It often involved a Project Manager to coordinate with the vendor, place the purchase order, and track progress. Several engineers were involved in the configuration, and several more in the maintenance of hardware. AWS allows lean teams to provision resources on-demand accelerating project life-cycles. 

When developing a cloud-based strategy, we don’t always know what our future needs will be. In this regard, AWS is flexible. AWS offers tools for a wide variety of users – everyone from a small-time blogger to a Fortune 100 company can something that fits their needs. AWS has numerous options for each networking solution one may be looking for. For example, when choosing database options, one can choose between DynamoDB, Redshift and Aurora, just to name a few. Additionally, most of these tools are scalable. As that blogger grows their website, their AWS resources can grow with them, without needing to refactor or rethink their underlying infrastructure. This ease of scalability really highlights the flexibility, and value, of running cloud services with AWS. 

Most importantly, we want our cloud-based technology to be stable! By moving on-premises infrastructure to AWS, it may feel like we are losing stability as we “send it to the cloud”. The reality is, replacing on-premises systems with AWS’ “infrastructure as code” model removes points of failure. AWS has an uptime guarantee of 99.99%. Additionally, AWS’ resources have several features to make them even more reliable – things like load balancing and scalable servers can be pre-planned with AWS’ tools. These are all great things to mention when talking to others about the value of cloud-based technology. 

Proposing a cloud project to a team can be a daunting task. Many people can get caught up in the buzzwords surrounding technology. People can be intimidated by its newness. For these reasons, focusing on the specific value add for your users and internal teams will align stakeholders and place value at the center of transformation.  

Acceleration is a word that should excite your whole project team – because AWS has templates and automation for many of its features, cloud projects can be developed at a rapid, but also controlled pace. Flexibility allows unlimited potential for growth, innovation, and growing your cloud infrastructure to fit new use cases. Stability is something that should be the base requirement for any software, however, AWS has many specific tools to ensure that stability, so that your team can focus on other important aspects of your work.