Author: EES

Cloud computing applications have been the need of the hour due to their brilliant services that are also wide-ranging. Regardless of the company type, cloud computing applications have offered several benefits. Moreover, the horizon of cloud uses surpassed business use as it is best for even personal use.

Apart from online businesses, one of the major sectors is the banking industry benefiting the most from cloud technology.

Why Does Banking Need Cloud Computing Applications?

There is not one but many reasons for opting for cloud computing applications, even in the banking sector. Expanding the approach and access, the cloud computing applications in banking let the bankers get in close connection directly with the customers. Using a digital platform supports customer relations by allowing them to contact you anywhere and anytime without any limits. Therefore, we can conclude that cloud computing is one of the most feasible techniques for organizing, integrating, and executing your operations and services.

We all know how the internet has made our lives easier. Similarly, it has made banking easier through easy and quick, safe, secure data storage, management, and accessibility. It is a two-way path where both the bankers and the consumers can enjoy unlimited perks. By providing a multi-channel relationship, satisfying customers has become easier.

We can all agree that the banking industry is bizarrely sluggish in accepting cloud computing applications. Still, they have genuine reasons for reliability, regulatory and security threats.

If we sum up, the introduction of cloud computing applications inside banks helps the team emphasize the user-centric model and digitalize the trading & wealth.

Well, hold up!

Because you must know that cloud computing applications in banking are beneficial for storing massive data and updating, transferring, and recovering data effortlessly, Cloud computing technology upsurges the turnover of banks through assimilating profitable cloud solutions. Therefore, the safest way to ensure that you address all of the banking industry’s ever-growing data input stresses is to bring top-quality cloud services to immediate use.

Some of the essential benefits of cloud computing applications in banking are:

• The bankers can effortlessly audit processes due to incredible transparency
• Information is delivered in real-time
• Offers top-quality security controls to the banks
• Easy control over Data encryption
• Unrestricted access to all the information from any part of the world
• All data can be backed up with no trouble
• It gives you full control over choosing who to grant the access and not

Popular Cloud Services

• Internal tools
• Business platforms (CRM and HR systems)
• Customer-facing tools

Best Options to Pick for the Banking Industry

• Amazon Web Services
• Google Virtual Cloud
• Microsoft Azure
• Aliyun
• IBM Bluemix
• Visa, MasterCard (for the card and mobile payment processing)
• Fiserv (for Core banking)
• Jack Henry & Associates
• Oracle Human Capital Management (HCM)
• SAP/SuccessFactors (for Human Resources and talent management)

Applications

• Cloud computing technology helps the finance sector increase the efficiency of operations. Digitized infrastructure assists the banks in providing the most appropriate service in a way the customer demands.
• Using cloud computing technology is definitely an extra advantage to the banking industry. However, no matter how secure you make data centers, they will go through terrorist and cyber-attacks. So to keep yourself safe, you need to start investing in authentic cloud computing applications where every bit of information stays safe from hackers.
• For better outcomes, hybrid cloud computing servers can be equipped for the banking sector. The popular examples are Amazon web services and Microsoft’s Azure. They are designed to provide end-end protection through unbreakable encryption—best for maintaining customer confidentiality and its integrity.
• Helps make secure transactions and online payments at an amazing speed. Besides, clearing payments seems comparatively easier through cloud computing.
• Using software will help the banks and other financial institutions to offer maximum security to the data. And, yes, better support for the users. It is advised to use Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship (CRM) software. The key benefit is its ability to enable the remote retrieval of information by customers.

Benefits of Cloud Computing Services in Banking

• Cost-effective
• Feasibility
• Reliability
• Productivity

Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides the tools for a broad range of applications, AWS is a scalable cloud computing platform for maximum stability and performance. AWS needs to safeguard your systems and information’s confidentiality, integrity, and availability and preserve your trust and security.

AWS can automate manual safety chores to concentrate on the growth and innovation of your company. Moreover, you pay for the services you utilize. All clients benefit from AWS as the only commercial club scrutinized and recognized as secure enough for top secrete workloads with its services and accompanying supply chain.

The following description of AWS security processes should give you basic knowledge of the AWS capabilities to secure your data.

AWS Shared Responsibility Model

The AWS architecture was designed to be one of today’s most adaptable and safe cloud computing systems. It is meant to provide a highly scalable and dependable platform for clients to deploy apps and data swiftly and securely.

This infrastructure is created and managed according to best practices and standards for security and considers the unique demands of the cloud. To guarantee that the underlying infrastructure is monitored and secured 24×7, AWS utilizes redundant layer controls, constant validation, testing, and a significant level of automation. In each new data center or service, AWS guarantees that these controls are duplicated.

The data center and architecture created to meet the requirements of our most security-sensitive clients is used for all AWS customers. So, you have a durable and secure infrastructure without the capital spending and operating overhead of a typical data center.

AWS Security Tools Overview

AWS offers its customers a range of security methods. First and foremost, the organization provides comprehensive coverage and infrastructure protection. Secondly, different safety procedures have been included for each AWS service. A short overview of the various tools is provided below.

1. AWS Config: This inventory of resources allows customers to check and report changes to their settings on their configuration history.
2. Key Management Service: Edit and manage data protection keys for various services. You may also encrypt your data using this service if, for example, you wish to preserve better security in Amazon cloud storage.
3. CloudTrail: This program tracks the use and access of your account and notifies you about any changes, as does its name.
   Identify and Access Manager creates various users and groups that access AWS clouds. You may use it for all instances to establish your passwords, key codes, MFA, and IAM. In addition, reports and warnings will be supplied if they are changed.
4. A trusted consultant is an advice service that shows how you may adjust performance, improve safety, and maximize usage expenses.
5. CloudWatch: Controls the utilization of Amazon infrastructure resources and apps.

Can We Rely on Default Security Settings?

AWS may not be sufficient, even if it has excellent standard safety specifications. Users should be aware that these settings typically need to be customized for more secure, sensitive information.

Many Amazon cloud violations arise through overuse, obsolete, and robbery. AWS Identity and Access Management Tools are therefore essential. This allows you to create unique, accessible users and groups.

Although AWS does have excellent default safety settings, they may not be sufficient. Users should know that they may often need to change such settings for increased protection, sensitive data.

Much of the Amazon cloud security breaches arise through misuses, obsolete access credentials, and stolen access. The adoption of AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions is therefore crucial. Through this, individual users and groups with a special permit may be established.

The open S3 seals, which have too much access by too many, are another vital source of breaches. These are rich hacking paths. Closing the buckets using AWS help (e.g., AWS Policy Generator and Block Public Access). For both read and write access, setlists of access controls. To secure your data, utilize encryption.

Further insight is accessible through the whitepaper developed by the Amazon team about AWS security processes. This article describes how frequently Amazon cloud security problems may be mitigated and how different security procedures may be more closely reviewed.

Finally, do not forget that members of your IT staff may earn Amazon cloud security certifications. It provides a range of training programs, including security, advanced networking, DevOps engineering, and cloud development (from 6 to 2 months). They cover several vertical areas.

The ongoing digital transformation is making left a massive impact on personal lives, it has affected professional lives particularly the healthcare industry, too. And, one of the most essential and beneficial practices that have been introduced lately is CLOUD COMPUTING in the health sector.

It is no surprise; healthcare is a place where a tremendous amount of sensitive information is kept including patients’ medicinal and financial details. And, yes, the research, as well. For easy access and lessening the workload, preserving a quick and protected database is really the greatest task.

COVID and Cloud Computing Demands

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the working and daily operations held in healthcare facilities have been affected greatly.

The huge volume of healthcare professionals that are shifted to “work from home OR remote work” are attending conferences and doing collaboration online which is stressing back-end network support services beyond imagination. The increased need for remote work has greatly emphasized the need for infusing the use of public cloud infrastructure.

Undoubtedly, cloud computing in the health sector seems like a flexible solution letting the medical facilities control remotely accessible systems keeping the massive data secure. Besides, the increased cases of COVID-19 demand an excessive amount of data to be stored, secured and shared.

But due to heavy load, the slow speed sharing and updating of the data has put a lot of burden on healthcare specialists. With the use of the cloud, a broad range of virtues can be enjoyed by the professionals including elastic and virtually limitless scalability, maximum availability and all-time accessibility to data, and the looked-for IT financial shift from capital to effective disbursements.

In these difficult times of pandemic, the facilities using robust IT structure based on cloud computing have been able to provide a satisfactory customer experience while managing the up-surge load of data and patients hassle-free. Cloud computing in the health sector could offer a fast, safe, and profitable solution for data storage and backup.

Cloud-based Infrastructure Helping to Discover a Vaccine for Coronavirus

You would not believe how amazing the cloud-based infrastructures helped and still helping medical researchers and healthcare experts all around the globe to create a successful vaccine against coronavirus. Cloud-used platforms have made collaboration easier letting all the professionals work together. It is found to have a major role in testing medicines and conceivable antibodies for COVID-19. For example,

IBM Corporation has brilliantly supported the healthcare sector by expanding the availability and easy accessibility to cloud-based AI research assets

Oracle has made a great contribution in making coronavirus antibody by creating a speedy and effective cloud infrastructure for scientific groundworks and clinical trials

Cloud Data Service Companies that Support Healthcare

• NetApp – A Hybrid cloud data services company
• Medsphere – A healthcare IT services company
• ClearData – A cloud computing HIPAA compliant
• Nintex – For providing automation services to healthcare experts
• Medable – A medical-grade platform
• Carecloud – A leading healthcare technology company

Benefits of Cloud Computing in the Healthcare Sector During a Pandemic

Collaboration

Due to the increased preference for value-based care payment approaches, sufficient and speedy coordination is required between institutions and experts. A dependable cloud platform can help you centralize all of the stored data allowing easy and quick access anywhere, anytime.

Management of Servers

One of the most underrated advantages of cloud computing in the health sector is management. Having a cloud infrastructure that is watched and managed by skilled IT professionals is a big plus. How? Because then healthcare providers will get more time to be able to pay attention to important healthcare services and discoveries instead of managing data that is not their domain.

Scalability

The best feature about cloud computing in healthcare uses is its ability to be upgraded or downgraded depending on the use or need of the time. Offering the flexibility of managing data storage, you can better manage the patient inflow.

All you will be paying is for what you use. During COVID-19, the features are upscaled making more space for storage and enhancing speed.

Data Storage

Keeping medical information as electronic records seems like a better, secure, and easy option. Cloud computing in the health sector not only offers assistance in securing data but also in managing patient portals, and looking into mobile apps along with saving you from spending additional expenses of handling physical servers.

Fast Speed

The COVID-19 has accelerated the patient numbers and managing such a massive collection of data requires speed. Faster availability to cloud servers helps in quick data uploading and sharing. And, yes, the recovery, too.

Fast-speed cloud computing structures are a lot more time-efficient. Faster the speed, easier and quicker the exchange of data and communication!

Access to New Telehealth Capabilities

In the modern era, multiple healthcare experts have turned to telehealth. It helps them connect with patients more efficiently and from remote areas. And, we all know how important social distancing is in this pandemic. It also benefits the patient as they could effortlessly access telehealth services by scheduling as well as paying for a visit.

Patient Security and Care with Backup

Chief cloud computing organizations including Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have been trying to certify that all data centers are HIPAA compliant for offering safer storage and enhanced security. Having physical data centers are prone to challenges but cloud computing can help securely manage data.

If anything happens, then remote cloud placements can be backed up. Besides, you can upscale them frequently to keep the data safe from malware attacks or hijacking.

Even if you are in the IT field, you may have some confusion about “cloud storage” and “cloud computing” because they are pretty interchangeable. Believing that both services are similar, sorry to break it to you, this is far from the truth!

We are not saying cloud computing and storage have no similarities, obviously, they do, BUT they tend to have completely different meanings. Being diverse concepts, they are interconnected in multiple ways. We can say they are somewhat related as they are derived from the equivalent source that is ‘cloud’.

As evident it is, both are internet services designed to meet separate purposes. The purpose of cloud storage is to provide hard disk storage, whereas cloud computing is made to fulfill computing needs.

If you are also one of those who are planning to shift their business to the cloud, you are making a sensible choice. But, hold up! First, you must know the difference between cloud computing vs cloud storage. Or else, you may fail to pick a suitable option.

What is Cloud Storage or Cloud Storage Services?

Highly simple yet most functional cloud technology that includes famous names of Google Drive and OneDrive.

Their purpose? There is only ONE: Saving data on the cloud!

Well, cloud storage goes beyond saving as it stores and lets you have a safe backup of your data. An efficient backup system, indeed it is! Saving you from the tension of spending money on hardware, cloud-based information storage is a cost-effective choice and more secure, too. You will get petabytes of space for storage depending on the service provider you choose. The other features include impressive redundancy and backups.

Examples of Cloud Storage

• Google Drive
• DropBox
• iCloud
• OneDrive Personal Storage
• Photo uploads to social media

For Business:

• Data Servers
• Website Hosting
• Virtual Desktop Hosting

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing means enabling cloud computers to achieve specific computational responsibilities that are completed not only based on providing storage but also several simple applications. It works more than just saving your data and having a backup. It is designed for fulfilling high-end processing-intensive jobs from several fields or niches.

Examples of Cloud Computing

• Google Docs App
• Photo Viewer App
• iChat
• Outlook Online
• Social Media Apps

For Business:

• Remote Data Analytics
• Website Content
• Management System
• Remote Desktop Access
• Remote Application
• Usage

Cloud Storage vs Cloud Computing: Differences

The user cannot make any changes to the stored data except to host it in cloud storage. Although, data can be accessed online anytime, anywhere. But, in cloud computing, the user can do things he/she desires to with the saved data and bring transformation.

Where Cloud computing must possess advanced processing power, the Cloud storage should be able to provide massive or as much as required storage raw space to the users. But why? Cloud storage is based on a few aspects such as uploading, saving, and sharing data. While cloud computing lets you work on your stored data taking your business to a higher level.

For business, Cloud computing is particularly chosen as it completes high-end tasks. But for individual use, Cloud storage can be helpful enough. Well, cloud storage seems to be helpful for both professional and personal usage.

One of the significant differences is their active and passive approach. Cloud storage is passive, and Cloud computing is active. Being a more complicated service, cloud computing brings a vast range of remote services

For Cloud storage, you don’t necessitate excessive computational hardware. All you need is hard drive space and advanced software to help you handle the data. Cloud computing demands much more! The key demand is to have the leading processing power.

Similarities Between Cloud Storage and Computing

• Both cloud technologies are supervised by the third party (owned and controlled by other companies)
• They are not available for free. To use the services, you need to pay. And, choosing the best provider is totally dependent on the business or personal needs.
• You can scale up or down the computing or storage services features as per the business or personal needs. It means you will be paying for what you use and when you use it!
• Neither will work without internet connectivity. The user must have instant access to the internet for retrieving data.
• Both are cheaper options as saving you from substantial up-front expense
• No matter what option you choose, both will offer a secure platform away from external damage, like natural disasters or hardware failures. Consider them the “off-site backup”.

You would be shocked to know how many computers, digital, and technological worlds have taken over the individuals’ working and learning styles as well as companies in this pandemic. Where COVID-19 has affected the businesses, it has benefited several brands through easy and quick dealing. But, how? Keeping the social distance, how brands have been successful to maintain the deal effortlessly? The answer is “cloud computing”. And that is made possible due to cloud computing cost-effectiveness.

By the end of 2021, it is estimated that the internet workload of approx. 94% will be transferred to the cloud. Yes, you can take a moment to realize the importance of the cloud in our daily lives. World-famous companies prefer choosing a hybrid strategy to work and deal within communities.

The primary cause behind encountering such a massive drift is the cost-saving feature of clouds. Migrating to the cloud is absolutely a budget-friendly choice as it brings multiple financial advantages. A few of the most noticeable benefits include:

• No need for significant upfront capital investment
• Decreased costs for software also giving the features to upgrade
• No more stress of spending a tonne of money on hardware and IT maintenance
• Tax Benefits

How much does cloud computing cost?

The most important question that comes to our mind while buying any cloud services is “How much is the cloud?”. Well, it depends on the company and its needs.

You are welcomed to select any cloud service provider depending on what level of efficient procedures you want. Always remember one thing: The most expensive service is definitely not going to be the finest.

First, you must strategize, so you don’t regret it later. Some of the main factors are:

• What “cloud” type you need to buy (public, private, or hybrid)
• The amount of data you will be saving, for instance, will it be just personal data or entire IT infrastructure
• The reason for shifting to the cloud service (disaster recovery or short on office space)

Let’s get into details…

Want to keep your data backup in the cloud? You will be spending somewhere between $0.15 per GB to a few thousand dollars every month. No matter what cloud storage solution you are picking for use, the budget will lie from $5 to $25 per user every month. The usual flat rate range is $2 to $50 per month. So, now you have an idea about cloud computing costs.

Basically, the price varies on significant demands and high-grade specs. Buying a cloud service for a business will definitely require more money than a cloud service bought for personal usage.

Using the Calculators

How can you calculate the cloud cost effortlessly? Well, there are many options such as spreadsheets and by using book-keeping tools. BUT, the most durable, efficient, and safety guaranteed pick is the “calculators” designed by the “cloud service providers”.

Several famous companies have made their calculators that will guide you to count your total cost of ownership. This is the easiest way of getting an idea about the cost of cloud computing services. Here are the most popular and ideally rated options:

• AWS (Amazon Web Services) Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Calculator
• Google Cloud Platform Pricing Calculator
• Microsoft Azure: Microsoft Azure Pricing Calculator
• IBM Bluemix: IBM Cloud Pricing Sheet
• Interoute: Interoute Pricing
• Rackspace: Rackspace Cloud Calculator
• Red Hat: Red Hat Infrastructure ROI TCO Calculator
• CenturyLink Cloud: CenturyLink Cloud Price Estimator
• VMware vCloud: VMware vCloud Air Pricing Calculator
• Profit Bricks: ProfitBricks Virtual Data Center Calculator

Main costs for an IaaS subscription

We all know how people are inclined towards using IaaS, and for those who don’t know or are currently using, their cost of subscription relies solely on two specs: compute (about 60%) and bandwidth (max. 20%).

Google GCP Cloud Pricing & Cost

Well, it can be the best option in terms of cloud computing cost as it has a very sensible costing strategy. Based on a pay-as-you-go, you are not obliged to pay any activation or termination fee. The key appeal is its “per second billing” feature letting you pay for the specs you are using. Besides, you can save up to 75-80% by making the features stop in the background when not needed.

Oh, yes! You will also be getting discounts on sustained and long-term use. Having extensive use of the cloud makes you eligible to enjoy up to 30% over the on-demand price range. Need more discounts? Get ready to enjoy a committed-use discount of up to 57% without any lock-in.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud Pricing & Cost

The three categories for AWS cloud pricing are:

• Pay as you Go – In this service, you will be paying for the features that you are currently using
• Reserved Capacity – The most typical type of cloud service chosen by business people. As the name reflects, it helps you reserve the storage or compute ahead of time so you can use them whenever needed in the future by slashing the cost. The reason for recommending this option is its ability to save almost 75% on the demanding cost.
• Volume-based Discounts – Totally dependent on the number of sales and quantity of use. The higher the use, the lesser you pay for every GB per month. For using a maximum of 50TB, all you will be paying is 0.023 GB per month. And if you get the chance to use more than 500TB, the cost will be reduced to 0.021 GB per month.

Number of costs unrelated to the actual price of using the service

1. Starting the virtual machines or background apps and then forgetting to shut the ongoing processes down when not needed
2. Exit fees
3. Over-provisioning or under-provisioning
4. Non-cloud services
5. Support costs to track down issues
6. Get too much or too little or use the wrong kind of storage