7 advantages of cloud computing you might not have realized

During the last few decades computing power was democratized thanks to the advancements in cloud computing, which has become a cornerstone to important businesses across many industries.

No one wants to return to a reality in which digital infrastructure was only viable to those who could afford to host workloads in their on-premise instances. With cloud resources, cutting-edge technology is finally accessible.

Below, you will find 7 advantages that come with cloud computing that you might have never stopped to think about.

Cost Savings

One of the most significant advantages of using cloud resources is that you no longer need to invest in your own private digital infrastructure, which would otherwise involve costly hardware like servers, cables, and the energy to power them all. 

The cloud operates as part of a larger digital ecosystem, where different companies specialize in different parts of the infrastructure—some focus on building and maintaining data centers, while others specialize in server technology. 

This division of labor keeps the cloud running efficiently, benefiting everyone who relies on it.

Costs become even more predictable when you opt for dedicated servers, which offer consistent performance at fixed prices, making it easier to plan and manage your budget.

The companies that gain the most from this ecosystem are those that need robust digital infrastructure to handle heavier workloads and deliver a seamless experience to their users.

Scalability

There is also the matter of how quick it is to scale your resources in a cloud computing environment. If you believe that there is more traffic incoming, you just raise your resources accordingly.

When it comes to owning your digital infrastructure, scaling would mean buying more physical servers yourself, as well as finding enough space and power for expansion.

In cloud computing, there are no such worries. You can scale your resources up and down according to your demand.

Think of large e-commerce websites with seasonal traffic spikes and online games that are just being released. Cloud Computing makes it easy to address these fluctuations and helps you ensure the best possible customer experience, even during high-demand periods.

Additionally, businesses that host their infrastructure in cloud environments will benefit from a much faster time to market when expanding geographically.

Top-tier cloud providers, like Latitude.sh, have servers available for deployment across different cities, covering the majority of the larger global markets.

By hosting its production servers in the cloud, your company can scale to new locations at a much faster rate.

Operational Efficiency

As we mentioned in the first section of this article, the division of labor is one of the main factors that make a cloud computing environment run efficiently enough that overall costs are reduced.

This can only happen because each company in the ecosystem is focused solely on its core business and anything that goes beyond it is handled by a specialized partner.

The same can be true for your own business. 

When the digital infrastructure is handled by a cloud provider, your team does not have to carry all the burden that comes with purchasing, maintaining, and upgrading servers.

Beyond the servers themselves, there are the network engineering aspects of the infrastructure that need to be handled properly to ensure a reliable, secure, and fast connection to the hardware hosting your workloads.

Procuring, shipping, installing, troubleshooting, and upgrading the compute and network hardware are tasks that require high-skilled labor that not only are hard to find but also expensive to maintain.

In order to increase the operational efficiency of your business, you should focus on your product and let cloud computing providers, like Latitude.sh, worry about managing the brick-and-mortar aspects of your digital infrastructure.

Business Continuity and Privacy

The concept that owning your servers is the only way to safeguard your digital infrastructure and guarantee you access to the server's content in case of an issue, couldn't be more obsolete.

This can be easily overlooked by most people, but all major cloud providers have built-in disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity features in place to support companies in case of extreme events.

It may sound like something that is too unlikely to happen, but it is better to be safe than sorry. Once you face data loss and system failure, the regret will be quite intense.

Top cloud providers offer automatic backup options, redundant storage, and multi-region failover capabilities, ensuring that data is safe even in the event of hardware failure or natural disasters.

Cloud-based disaster recovery solutions are not just about data storage—they provide comprehensive recovery for entire systems, applications, and networks.

Furthermore, you can rest assured that what you do with the servers you host online is not accessible by the cloud computing companies themselves or anyone else, so if privacy is a crucial factor for the workloads you are running, hosting them in the cloud won't be an issue.

At Latitude.sh, every time a server is decommissioned by a user, it's automatically reset to factory settings and all of its content is wiped, so your data won't be accessed by anyone who uses the same hardware in the future.

Access to Cutting-Edge Technologies

Still in line with our first topic, cloud technology often opens the door to way more powerful technologies that would otherwise be out of reach for most users.

Be it for blockchains (Web3), machine learning (ML), data analytics, or automation tools, cloud computing is what makes it actually viable and accessible.

In the (not-so-good) old days, implementing these technologies required significant capital, technical expertise, and infrastructure, but cloud services make them accessible on-demand and as soon as they are launched.

By making these technologies affordable and easy to implement, cloud computing helps level the playing field for small and medium enterprises, allowing them to compete with larger, resource-rich corporations.

Furthermore, cloud platforms are continually evolving, regularly introducing new features and services. This gives entrepreneurs access to the latest technologies without having to invest in R&D or worry about hardware obsolescence.

Enhanced Collaboration and Remote Work

As more businesses shift toward remote work and hybrid models, cloud computing becomes even more important for productivity to stay strong.

Cloud services enable employees to run their workloads and manage the infra from anywhere, facilitating real-time collaboration regardless of location. 

Most of the tools people use every day are already cloud-based, like Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and Slack, and they are particularly useful when it comes to remote work.

How many times have you seen different people editing the same spreadsheet or the same document in real time? That's only possible thanks to cloud computing.

The same can be true for your own services. When running your environments in instances on the cloud, it ensures your DevOps team can take care of them regardless of where they are based or where the server is placed. Basically, when it comes to attracting and retaining top talent, offering flexible working conditions and top-tier resources is key, which can only be achieved through a reliable cloud provider.

Environmental Sustainability

Sustainability is an important aspect of all businesses and so it has been for the past decades, becoming more important each passing year.

When it comes to on-premise servers in the traditional sense of expression, the amount of energy needed for their operation contributes to a larger carbon footprint at the place where they are hosted.

In other words, if each individual company had its own servers and digital infrastructure, the amount of energy spent by them would be much larger and less efficient than what it is today.

Cloud computing, on the other hand, offers the energy efficiency of large-scale data centers, where resources are pooled and optimized to reduce as much waste as possible. 

There is also the matter that, in traditional infrastructure, servers must be replaced every few years, which leads to physical waste as well.

This environmental benefit is a key factor that more businesses are recognizing as sustainability becomes a competitive advantage.

You can join the world of Cloud Computing right now. Ready to get started? Create a free account and deploy a server in less than 10 seconds.