What is the cloud?

The cloud means different things to different people. The right solution for your business can depend on what kind of business you're in, your future plans, and your existing I.T. investments. I can review your business needs and I.T. priorities and work with you to identify the strategy that's right for you.

To oversimplify, the cloud is about providing a more flexible replacement for servers. No more closet full of hardware spinning away in your office, no hefty upfront hardware purchase and replacement costs.

It can also be about providing a more flexible replacement for your applications and databases.

Some businesses run on older software which may require connecting to, or walking to a specific desktop or server to interact with it. A more modern SaaS solution (which could also be called a "cloud" solution) may provide easier sharing of data with different team members, accessing the data from different locations, on different platforms (such as on an iPad, or on mobile) and with the potential for API "mash-ups" like Zapier.

Cloud is becoming the new default for businesses large and small. "Traditional servers" can be referred to as "on-prem", or on premises servers. Years ago, all servers could be considered on-prem servers.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Cloud is an umbrella term, it's possible to more precisely categorize cloud solutions in three different categories .

IaaS -- Infrastructure as a Service. examples: Amazon EC2, OpenStack

Think of this is cloud "level one". Physical servers are replaced with virtual ones, possibly running the exact same software, in the same configuration as before, but hosted by a cloud provider (such as Amazon or Microsoft Azure). Instead of managing a stack of physical servers in a closet, you manage virtual servers.

This brings a number of advantages, but also has some drawbacks. Just like with physical servers, you are responsible for configuring, administering, and updating the virtual servers, providing for a security framework, and a backup plan.

Virtual servers in the cloud are often billed per hour (as an example for those with entry level needs, one server: 3¢/hour = $21.60 per month) .

PaaS -- Platform as a Service -- Heroku, Google App Engine, Twilio

If you run a website, a typical way to set things up mirrors that of the pre-cloud world, spin up a virtual machine/instance (see IaaS), install PHP, Ruby on Rails, etc. on your server, and upload your code. There's some drawbacks here, much like the old way, you're responsible for organizing your own redundancy, backups, and scaling. If you have more traffic, or transactions than your server can handle, it does not automatically scale up to handle increased demand, unless you organize a solution on your own to do so.

Platforms like Heroku abstract things a bit. You upload your PHP or Ruby, etc. code directly to the platform, and the platform automatically determines out the most optimal way to run the code as requests come in. You don't have to set up virtual machines (spin up, spin down, configure, update, backup etc.) yourself, the PaaS provider handles all these details for you behind the scenes.

This can be cheaper, as you only pay when transactions are running. No paying for "standby hours" when no one's there, or having to manually to react with additional capacity in response to a sudden spike in popularity.

Pay exactly per transaction (example: 50¢ per 1000 transactions). Can provide a lower cost for applications with uneven use throughout the day or week. You only pay for actual transactions, your application can be available 24x7x365 without the cost for hours on standby. 1/4th the usual amount of traffic, 1/4th the cost. 4x the usual amount of traffic, 4x the cost.

SaaS -- Software as a Service. examples: Salesforce, Dropbox, Oracle NetSuite, Microsoft OneDrive, Google G Suite

Think of this as cloud "level three". The reins are fully handed over to the SaaS provider. You generally don't need to plan for scale, failover, backups, updates, and most aspects of the security framework. The SaaS provider is your airline, and you are the trusting passenger.

Pro: In many cases, the SaaS provider has an economy of scale that allows them to invest heavily in security, availability, redundancy, etc. that far exceed what could be cost-effectively implemented at the small and medium business level. Large operators often have in their employ a team of the best industry experts in usability, security, redundancy, etc., and are able to spread large development costs over thousands or even millions of customers. Small business can gain access to tools which are often more refined and more usable than custom-designed software that was once only readily available to the largest businesses.

SaaS solutions also often have great usability. Services like Dropbox have apps for all platforms (PC, Mac, iPhone, Android, iPad, etc.) with heavy investments in slick and intuitive user interfaces. Your end users may already have experience using SaaS applications on a personal basis or from a previous employer, usually little training is required.

Con: Can be expensive. Dropbox can cost $25 per end user per month ($2,500/month if you have 100 users). In contrast, an "old-way" basic on premises file server may be set up for a one time cost as little as $3,000.

It's not unusual after adopting a few SaaS services organization-wide (such as Office 365, and Dropbox, and Slack, etc.) for the bill to add up to $100 or even several hundred per user in recurring subscription expense per month.