{"id":851,"date":"2020-12-22T06:37:20","date_gmt":"2020-12-22T06:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chiralsystems.com\/?post_type=blog_post&p=851"},"modified":"2021-01-07T04:39:05","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T04:39:05","slug":"practice-made-perfect-time-to-embrace-the-cloud","status":"publish","type":"blog_post","link":"https:\/\/www.chiralsystems.com\/?blog_post=practice-made-perfect-time-to-embrace-the-cloud","title":{"rendered":"Practice Made Perfect: Time to Embrace the Cloud"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Cloud computing sounds complicated, but it isn\u2019t.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The term refers to applications that are run in vast remote data centres (as opposed to directly on your own computer, or a server situated in your office), and are accessed via the Internet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In your day-to-day life, you\u2019ve probably used some cloud services without even realising. You may choose to store your precious family photos on Dropbox, or use Google Docs to perform basic office tasks. But for small-to-medium businesses, it\u2019s an entirely different kettle of fish. Over the past decade, many have opted to shift their mission-critical systems to public cloud systems in order to find new efficiencies and work smarter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cost Efficiency<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

When businesses embrace the cloud, one of the biggest motivations is to save money. Running applications and servers from their own facilities (commonly referred to as \u201con-premises\u201d or \u201con-prem\u201d) has inevitable costs, both in terms of hardware and maintenance. They need to buy the equipment, and then ensure it runs smoothly, either by paying for a service package or recruiting new IT staff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cloud computing services, like Amazon\u2019s AWS and Microsoft\u2019s Azure, use a completely different pricing model where customers are charged based on their usage. This is typically measured in computing power used, as well as the amount of data stored and transferred. There are no upfront hardware costs, and the service provider is responsible for much of the day-to-day housekeeping. In many cases, this proves cheaper than running services \u201con-prem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Scalability<\/strong> <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

This also relates to scalability. If you use your own in-house server infrastructure, you\u2019ll know how hard it is to adapt to changes. Adding new capacity is an expensive and lengthy process, and has to be planned long in advance. If demand suddenly drops, you can\u2019t easily scale back to save costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cloud services are different. Since the infrastructure is already there, adding new storage and compute power to your application is a doddle, and can be accomplished in the time it takes to brew a cup of tea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Flexibility<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Access is another key advantage of the cloud. The default approach to cloud development is to make a service accessible to all devices, anywhere. It doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re working from home or the office, if you have an internet connection, you can get things done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a bit trickier when talking about locally-hosted apps. If you want to use them beyond the confines of your home network, you\u2019re stuck with two options: either you can link them to the wider internet, or allow your employees to \u201cphone home\u201d to your network using a VPN. Both take time, effort, and ongoing upkeep. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reliability<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re dependent on an application hosted locally and something goes wrong, your business will swiftly grind to a halt. You may find yourself unable to serve customers, or hastily trying to find workarounds that allow you to keep working without interruption. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The infrastructure that runs cloud systems is designed with redundancy in mind. There\u2019s no single point of failure. If one component stops working, the system automatically compensates. You can also choose to host your application in multiple locations around the globe. If a power or network outage affects one data centre, or if there\u2019s a natural disaster, the other locations can take over in a matter of minutes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Ultimately, the cloud has three selling points: cost efficiency, flexibility, and reliability.”<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Ultimately, the cloud has three selling points: cost efficiency, flexibility, and reliability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cloud systems are inevitably cheaper because you only pay for what you use, and you don\u2019t need to make any real upfront investments. They\u2019re efficient because they require less direct maintenance, and allow you to make changes on the fly. They\u2019re invariably more reliable, simply because they\u2019re designed that way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who switch from their costly and inelegant on-premises systems seldom change their mind. There\u2019s a reason why the amount spent on public cloud services like AWS and Azure quintupled in the years between 2010 and 2019, growing from $77 billion to $411 billion. It works.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This is exactly why Chiral Systems has opted to build its powerful practice management software using the world\u2019s leading cloud systems. We know our customers demand reliability, iron-tight security, and the ability to work using whatever devices they feel most comfortable with. It\u2019s this flexibility that allows our product to scale to your own ambitions. 
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To find out how we can help your dental business grow, click here<\/a> to request a demo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cloud computing sounds complicated, but it isn\u2019t. In your day-to-day life, you\u2019ve probably used some cloud services without even realising. You may choose to store your precious family photos on Dropbox, or use Google Docs to perform basic office tasks. But for small-to-medium businesses, it\u2019s an entirely different kettle of fish. Ultimately, the cloud has three selling points: cost efficiency, flexibility, and reliability. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"blog-category":[],"class_list":["post-851","blog_post","type-blog_post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chiralsystems.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/blog_post\/851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chiralsystems.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/blog_post"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chiralsystems.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/blog_post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chiralsystems.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chiralsystems.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chiralsystems.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chiralsystems.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chiralsystems.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=851"},{"taxonomy":"blog-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chiralsystems.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fblog-category&post=851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}