What is Distributed Cloud Computing?

When you are running a small to medium sized business, it is likely that you get a lot of advice as to how to streamline and optimize your operation. While often that advice may be unsolicited – and inaccurate for your situation – one area you may want to explore is how you approach your IT and network solutions.

Unless you are an IT person yourself, it is nearly impossible to keep up with the ever-evolving technology advancements. Trying to keep up with the hardware, software, storage and security innovations is seemingly an insurmountable task when you have all the other areas of the business to manage. One of the newest buzzwords is distributed cloud computing. Do you need this service?

The purpose of this blog is simply to define certain terms as they relate to distributed cloud computing, so that you can make a determination if you should investigate further.

Cloud and Distributed Cloud Computing Defined

Cloud computing is defined as the on-demand availability of computer resources and data storage which does not require active management by the end user. The term is typically utilized to characterize data centers which are made available to multiple organizations over the internet. The massive cloud structures which are common today most often provide distributed functions over multiple locations from a central location. Cloud computing depends on resource sharing to attain continuity, coherence and economies of scale.

Cloud computing enables organizations to reduce or avoid entirely normal up-front IT infrastructure costs. It also allows companies to get operational more quickly, with increased manageability and less maintenance, freeing up IT teams to more effectively meet constantly changing IT demands.

In the IT world, “distributed” is defined as a resource which is shared among diverse systems, which may also be  in different locations. The distributed cloud is the application of cloud computing technologies to connect data and functions  which are located in different physical locations.  As more tools and innovations become useful for central management, distributed cloud architectures are expected to develop  quickly and become the norm for many organizations.

Why Does the Cloud Make Sense for You?

You may not realize that you use the cloud everyday, but social media and email platforms use the cloud technologies extensively. Consider this in regards your social media accounts. You keep a profile of information which you can manipulate, add to or delete from. However, the data is not located in your home, but on a remote server shared with thousands of other individual users.

Applying this method to your business, you can house your information and data on an offsite server which is managed and protected by a third party provider. Distributed cloud computing from a managed services provider (MSP) is beneficial for many reasons.

• The MSP has deep expertise, dedicated to making sure that technology advancements are implemented,
• The MSP monitors continually for cyber threats and criminal activity.
• Your company can share the cost of hardware and software upgrades with other organizations.
• Your company does not pay for more infrastructure than it actually needs.
• Distributed computing (data in multiple remote locations) inherently provides a disaster recovery mechanism, and prevents your organization from losing data should the facility be destroyed.

Although it sounds complex, we can make it easy. The team at Alliance IT is dedicated to providing Sarasota small to medium sized businesses with the most comprehensive technology solutions in the most efficient way possible. We provide the knowledge, the technology, the networks, the economies of scale, and the cyber protection that your organization may not normally be able to access and exploit.

If you are wondering if distributed cloud computing is right for your organization, call us today. We are happy to help you to determine the benefits for yourself.