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E-Commerce and Cloud Computing are the latest buzzwords in the IT industry today. The notions are gaining popularity due to the cost benefits they offer. Organizations can save infrastructure costs by using cloud computing and e-commerce enables traders to do business without buying or renting out a shop. At the moment, many eCommerce companies are moving to the cloud as it provides optimistic opportunities to such firms.
What is Cloud?
Cloud computing as a network of computers creating a service-oriented architecture and facilitating an access to shared configurable resources that can be provisioned, scaled up or down, with minimal efforts. These resources can vary from networks, servers, to data storage, business critical applications and services.
Cloud Computing helps users to access and store programs and data over internet. According to Wikipedia, about 67% of the web users in India are using cloud computing services. Cloud computing encompasses a wide spectrum of technologies and configuration choices. It enables user to leverage benefits of hosted solutions. There are three components of cloud computing – application, storage, and connectivity. Each component performs a different function and offers multiple benefits for businesses across the globe.
Why migrate to the Cloud?
One of the major challenges faced by eCommerce pioneers is to plan huge website traffic spikes during busy periods. The company’s technical experts needs to ensure that its IT environment is capable of supporting hasty increase in database calls and website visits; besides providing a secured system to new projects within the scrutinized budget. This is one of the significant reasons why cloud computing is a buzz among e-commerce businesses. It achieves such objectives without running applications in the company’s own environment.
Security: This is the most important barriers for the migration of eCommerce businesses to the cloud. Most of the companies have lately reported database and website hacking. This can be checked by moving to a safe and secured cloud hosting based environment. In cloud-based hosting, data and information is stored in a concentrated way. This reduces the chances of data theft and leakage. In addition, monitoring the data is relatively easier on the cloud as it is stored in the data centers.
Supply Chain Management: Supply chain management is considered as an important part of a business. Maintaining healthy horizontal and vertical relations with associates across the supply chain is critical for business sustainability. Small sized and middle sized e-businesses are mostly hindered by the capital, lack of technical support, and decision making abilities. This hinders their performance across the entire value chain network. Cloud computing provides these businesses a decision making business model on a BI level. This facilitates companies to leverage from the structured data and information. Also, data center facility provided by the cloud computing firms offer better infrastructure to e-businesses to develop business intelligence.
Scalability: It is extremely crucial for eCommerce retailers to scale their abilities according to the business requirements. The businesses may need to cut bandwidths during slower period, while increasing it during peak periods. Moving to cloud resolves this issue too. Cloud-based hosting provides flexibility to organizations to scale their business operations, according to the traffic spikes.
Network Downtime: Cloud hosting guarantees 99.99% network uptime, which is essential for eCommerce businesses as their business is highly affected by even one minute of network downtime.
In a nutshell, the advantages of cloud computing are evidently visible in the e-commerce business. By moving to a cloud hosting platform, an eCommerce site can optimize its business by ensuring guaranteed uptime availability of its website. Moreover, variations in product prices as well as upselling and cross selling improvements can be completed in real time to address changing market dynamics of a company.
