Most of the people believe that cloud computing is primarily associated with infrastructure (storage, servers, etc.) and its availability as-a-service, though evidences prove that it can be both software and hardware as-a-service. The truth is that it may be anything that is IT and available in the form of a service. In other words, it can be PaaS (platform-as-a-service), IaaS (infrastructure-as-a-service), SaaS (software-as-a-service), DaaS (data-as-a-service), BPaaS (business process as-a-service), security as-a-service, desktop as-a-service or, storage as-a-service.

Cloud IT services bear the capability of substituting the manual and traditional methods of downloading, installing and configuring development software with a process that is based on an automated work flow and enabled through an Unified Web Portal that offers complete development environments on demand and in the form of a service to software developers. This results in stability and efficiency. These can also integrate architecture deposits, besides the several quality and project management tools and procedures. These tools and processes comprise tracking charts, tools and reporting dashboards through the same unified web portal so as to provide well-rounded development or, test environments as-a-service.

Cloud services offer a compelling option to the traditional ESB (enterprise service bus) and EAI (enterprise application integration) architecture patterns with the help of a “Cloud Integration Gateway” that can even combine on-premises applications with SaaS platforms or applications and SaaS applications to other SaaS applications in the cloud, through a common orchestration layer.

Cloud IT services provide you newer options on tackling data with ability in order to tap sources of data that help to offer analytic , business intelligence and data warehousing in the form of a service. They also offer low-cost options for high performance computing. They bring in automation to provide improved and better efficiency and cost savings on infrastructure management and application maintenance. These offer innovative alternatives to work together with social networking and micro blogging developed out of a conventional theme of identity, content management and enterprise portals.

Indeed, cloud consulting is the last state when evolving the architecture of a business enterprise. It traverses the many areas of IT architectures. It is successfully taking service orientation of infrastructure and applications to the next level. Therefore, it is much beyond infrastructure and we should realize what all it can offer to maximize business success.

Albion Global is an IT solutions company that has been offering a whole range of IT services to its clients for over a decade. These include infrastructure build services, cloud services, IT consulting services, managed services and remote infrastructure management services.