Cloud computing provides significant cost savings for software development. However, if this is the sole reason developers are making the move, they’re missing the multiple other strategic benefits of the cloud that make the transition really worthwhile. Software developers can experience greater flexibility in deploying and managing applications in a cloud environment. Cloud computing creates a virtual environment for project management and software builds, complete with automated testing. This modern environment provides improved agility, increased performance, and faster time to market for software development.
Virtual Resources
Within the cloud environment, developers have access to a practically unlimited amount of resources, including testing and staging servers. These virtual servers enhance the speed of software testing and delivery, and ultimately increase productivity as development teams can test concepts faster and easier than ever. The unlimited resources are also extremely scalable, allowing the team to spin resources up and down as needed. This is extremely efficient when compared to traditional, physical environments where developers have to wait for provisioning of servers and databases, and have limited resources.
Time to Market
Software development in the cloud also speeds up time to market, as developers can release new, high-quality software quickly and efficiently. This makes it a lot easier to keep up with the competition and consumer demands. Cloud computing minimizes the time it takes to provision new environments, release new features, discover bugs, and deploy fixes. These are tasks that used to drain time.
Security
Security is always top-of-mind when it comes to using new technology. It’s no different with software development. Maintaining data integrity is crucial during the testing and production stages. Fortunately, cloud infrastructure can provide the proper security measures and data recovery plans. Of course, it always depends on the provider you use for the cloud environment. RapidScale offers high-end infrastructure with multiple layers of government-grade network and physical security. Cloud technology is our business and core competency. We know it best, so we know how to keep your software development environment absolutely secure.
Cost Efficiency
And now for the cost savings. This is a popular benefit of cloud computing, and for good reason. The cloud provides great cost efficiency for software developers, who can experience a pay-as-you-go model. You pay as you use the resources, and when you’re not working on development, you can pause your use of the resources so you don’t overpay. The overall efficiency of the cloud environment also inevitably leads to savings. For example, developers can experience effective testing, with the ability to test multiple features of the software at once by isolating sections of the code. Multiple people can work on different parts of it at once. This not only leads to wider, deeper testing of new software before releasing it, but it also leads to greater efficiency and speed of development.
Consumer Benefits
So let’s think about the consumers. When you provide cloud-based applications, customers can access the software via the Internet on a pay-as-you-go basis – similar to how you access the cloud resources to build the software in the first place. Most people already use some form of cloud software every single day without even realizing it. That’s how prevalent this is today! This simple model leads to countless benefits for businesses and consumers alike. It’s so beneficial that IDC predicts the cloud software market will surpass $112.8 billion by 2019.
Cloud software is increasingly important today. It is responsible for how we store, modify and access computing resources on both the consumer and business sides. Cloud computing has made pooled computing resources a mainstream technology that is so popular because of its flexibility, cost efficiency and other benefits. It’s important to consider the cloud for software development not only for the cost benefits, but also for how the environment will enable greater agility, security, scalability, productivity, and a competitive edge.
Learn about RapidScale’s Cloud for Software solution here!
