When your company is considering either an initial implementation of cloud-based services or increasing and enhancing a cloud platform already in place, the key factors in decision making often relate to money and capabilities. There’s no question that the field of data science is booming with almost every company either having at least one data scientist on staff or working with consultants on a consistent basis. This rise in predictive analytics and advanced machine learning techniques has gone hand in hand with the importance of cloud-first business strategies.
Considering capabilities, we all know that cloud computing allows for remote access to data from anywhere in the world along with strong security for the private information your company collects from its employees and customers. Plus, the speed and agility it offers with respect to analytics are unparalleled when working with outdated localized data storage centers.
For example, consider a common task in data science specific to machine learning – determining whether or not a new customer is likely to become a repeat customer. Without going too far into detail, the data analyst needs fast access to vast amounts of data on previous customers. If everything is still stored on-site, they’ll either need to come in person (which is challenging with some consultant based relationships) or you have to share it in a less efficient method than if it was already in a cloud environment. When executed in the cloud, this process is quick and easy and results in less of those elusive “billable hours” charged to your company when it needs questions answered. Having agile access to data for analysis reduces wasted time and resources, allowing your company to move forward without producing as much digital and physical waste on-site.
Now that we have covered the enhanced capabilities of cloud-based data, let’s talk about how it can improve energy efficiency and how a lower energy demand affects your bottom line. What do servers run on? Electricity, a bill that we all pay, whether it’s for our businesses or our homes. Personally, I shut my lights and laptop off to reduce consumption when I’m not using them but chances are that you are not powering down all of your servers after dinner.
This technology increases electricity consumption twenty-four hours a day, three hundred sixty-five days a year – despite not being accessed every second of the day. There are service providers that devote themselves to providing cloud-based data storage solutions and modeling their costs based on analysis of what companies would typically spend if operating their own servers. Guess what? Your business will definitely save on its bottom line, not only saving money directly but also reducing its carbon footprint. You will no longer have to occupy the physical space with servers and will reduce energy consumption saving what was used to keep a data center up and running.