SCALABILITY, PERFORMANCE AND COST BENEFITS OF THE CLOUD?

The word 'cloud' is overused these days - and that's before you've even looked at the Irish weather! We don't want to blind you with complex technical terms and statistics, although we're only too happy to talk technical if that's what you want. We’d prefer to focus on the actual business benefits that can be achieved by integrating cloud solutions into your business.

But first, what is Windows Azure? It is a platform upon which software applications can be built to run in the cloud. Rather than running software directly on a PC, or hosting an application on an on-premises server, the software sits in a highly-secure data centre and is accessed over the internet. The video below goes into more detail on this.

So, what are the benefits of building or moving systems to the cloud?

• Scalability:
  Azure offers instant, infinite scalability – scale your systems from being able to handle 100 users to 100 million users in minutes.
• Performance:
  The speed and performance of Azure-based applications is comparable only to systems that would cost millions to build and operate independently.
• Cost:
  All Azure services are Pay-As-You-Go, meaning you only ever pay for the services you are actually consuming at any time. Pricing is extremely competitive.
• Security:
  Your data is protected by the highest standards of security at every level, with geodistribution replicating your data at different physical locations.
• Flexibility:
  Azure is one of the most open platforms available – applications written in .NET, PHP, Ruby, Java and others are fully compatible and supported.
• Support:
  Reliability and support are critical elements to any business system. Microsoft provides a 99.9% Service Level Agreement (SLA) to give peace of mind 24x7x365.

In early 2012 Microsoft invited Eirtight to join the Azure Circle - an invitation-only group for the handful of companies that have a proven track record of building exceptional software solutions on the Windows Azure cloud platform. If you'd like to take a simple, no-nonsense approach to exploring how the cloud can work for your business, talk to us today - we promise not to mention the weather!