To launch a project on your infrastructure, you need to connect and configure the equipment and constantly maintain and administer the infrastructure. All this requires the hiring of additional specialists.For example, system administrators are needed to connect, configure and maintain equipment. And their number grows as your infrastructure grows.
Much of the administration and infrastructure management can be outsourced to a cloud provider and requires a minimum of staff. For this, there is a separate service for complete outsourcing of administration. The provider’s employees monitor the operation of the infrastructure, monitor security, and set up backup.
Many companies delegate the management and administration of infrastructure to providers. Here are the real stories:
- Russia – Land of Opportunities is a non-profit organization that supports social and educational initiatives. Now NGOs have several sites for different projects and competitions, and they need to be maintained.
- The NPO management wanted to ensure the stable operation of the sites with minimal investment. Therefore, delegated the management and infrastructure administration to a cloud provider. Everything is arranged like this: when a website is needed for a new social project, NPOs determine the resources, workload, and budget. Then the provider and his partners implement the project, and the NGO accepts the job. After the project is created, the provider’s experts manage it entirely, providing technical support and promptly eliminating errors.
- At Burger King, the number of application downloads increased dramatically on “Black Friday,” where customers can look forward to significant discounts. Earlier on days like this, the company’s own IT infrastructure could barely withstand the load and sometimes malfunctioned.
- Stable work required transferring power to the cloud, but the Burger King team did not have the necessary experience – previously, the company worked only on its hardware. To not dive into a new sphere from scratch, the restaurant decided to attract a partner – a cloud provider; he was given the administration of the infrastructure and ensured the application’s stability.
- As a result, the loading time of the menu in the application has been reduced by four times, orders from customers are taken twice as fast, and the application works flawlessly under increased loads.
Clouds Allow You To Get The Required Capacity As The Project Overgrows
At the start of a new project, it is not clear how many people will want to use your application. Perhaps it will quickly become successful, and the workload will increase dramatically.
For example, Instagram became popular right after its launch in 2010: by the end of the first day, the application was used by 25,000 people, by the end of the first week – 100,000. At the same time, we launched the application on only one server, and the team had to rent server space urgently.
On a traditional infrastructure, instant growth is impossible – you need to wait for equipment deliveries, connect and configure it. In the cloud, such problems do not arise: it grows with the project. At any time, you can connect an additional virtual machine, add another database, or expand storage capacity.
For example, on the day of the sale, many customers visit the application, and the load grows. The cloud provides additional capacity to the project. By the evening, the sale ends – other resources are turned off. At the same time, you pay only for the used capacity and do not incur unnecessary expenses.
The solution is beneficial for companies whose demand changes seasonally or depends on sales. Check out some examples:
- Westwing Russia is a shopping club and online store with household goods. By moving to the cloud, the store has successfully survived Black Friday. The company admits that it would not work on its infrastructure: if unreserved equipment fails, it will take at least three hours to find and install it.
- Tendertech is an online service that issues bank guarantees for participation in tenders. The company operates in the B2B field, so the system is loaded only during working hours: in the morning, the company’s clients come to work – there is a load; in the evening, they go home – there is no load. In such a situation, the logical solution was autoscale, which can be obtained in Kubernetes in the cloud. Additional capacities are allocated to the application in the cloud during business hours, and they are automatically turned off at night.
- At Burger King, digital channels account for up to 40% of revenue, with orders exploding at peak times.
- Previously, on Black Friday, the company’s own IT infrastructure could hardly withstand the increased load and sometimes crashed. Solved the problem after migrating to the cloud, where you can quickly allocate the required amount of resources.
Also Read: Cloud Server: What It Means And What Advantages It Can Give To Your Company
