Transformational Benefits of Using the Cloud for Big Data Analytics

There are many business benefits and compelling use cases of Cloud Computing for Big Data solutions and particularly for Big Data processing, storage, and analytics. Speed to market for Big Data solutions is crucial for competitive advantage in business. The cloud service model is ideal to meet this critical business challenge and requirement.

Big Data can be sent to Cloud-based data lakes with breakneck speed. The analytics engines in the Cloud infrastructure can be made in the required power thanks to the elasticity and scalability of the Cloud services model. Increasing resources in traditional infrastructure model, as opposed to Cloud services, can be slower and more costly.

Cost is an inevitable business factor for enterprises. Cloud computing pay as you go and on-demand characteristics can make the solutions more economically viable by reducing total cost of ownership. Use of Cloud services based on consumption is sharing financial risk with an outsourcing organisation.

In terms of cost, also the Cloud service model can help reduce management overhead of the infrastructure resources. Infrastructure support costs can be very high. For example, supporting traditional infrastructure system require many professionals supporting the operations, procurement of the hardware, software and other components for different purposes can increase the cost substantially for an organisation. The cost incurred by those employees and upfront hardware and software costs is reduced by using Cloud services for complex Big Data solutions.

By using Cloud service model, creating a proof of concept or pilots for Big Data solution can be performed in much shorter times without upfront investment for required hardware, software, and other infrastructure components. This is especially more important for smaller and start-up companies with limited IT budget. This is a desirable business proposition for the entrepreneur and start-up companies.

Using Cloud-based Big Data services, the analytics processes can be completed in faster speed with reliable service levels providing speed to market for the business. This can enable new revenue streams for the data in motion which could be much more difficult in traditional settings in relatively shorter timeframes with established SLAs.

For the complex Big Data solutions, the use of Cloud services can provide a cultural shift. This positive cultural shift can yield more productivity for the solution team. The team can collaborate better and be more innovative as they don’t have to worry about a myriad of in-house infrastructure issues.

Access to Cloud services can be tailored based on the user’s profiles and can be taken from their desks or any location they may prefer working from using any device they may need. Through the use of proof of concepts and easy to use sandbox environments in Cloud services, they can be more experiential, innovative and uplifting for improving their solutions.

For those who may be interested in digital transformations using the magic of integrated Cloud, IoT and Big Data solutions, I pointed out compelling benefits, business and architectural considerations for using Cloud services for Big Data Analytics in my recent book titled "Architecting Big Data Solutions Integrated with IoT & Cloud".