After speaking with hundreds of software start-ups, here’s Bob Rizika, CEO of ProfitBricks USA advice and
top 5 list for start-up software executives of why the Cloud is
perfectly suited to be the IT “launch pad” for start-ups:
5. Quickly Start-up – Getting started developing and testing
prototypes and beta releases in either bootstrapped or VC funding models
is now easier and requires less capital expenditures than ever. Then,
assuming that the software rocks, your PR push works, and the stars
properly align, your venture may grow rapidly within the first few
weeks.
4. Scale Simply and Easily – To meet this growing demand, you
will quickly need to add additional servers, compute power, and storage.
If you architected your application based on software industry best
practices, it will be really easy to for you maintain a rapid growth
pace. Cloud Computing providers offer you the option to scale-out by
adding more machines or scale-up with larger instances to the next
possible configuration level or package. Some Cloud Computing providers
are more flexible and allow every server to be a different configuration
and some even enable vertical scaling without restarting. Scaling your
IT infrastructure up or out has never been easier. For the first time
ever, start-ups like yours now have access to millions of CPU cores and
petabytes of data storage – something only enterprises and their
enterprise applications could access.
3. Efficient Cost Structure – Cloud Computing allows your
start-up to be more efficient with its budget. You will only pay for
what you use – without any upfront commitment and without contract
lock-in. During peak usage periods, you may consume more resources and
fewer resources during non-peak times. Combined with the attributes like
zero CAPEX and elasticity, this becomes a key factor to consider when
evaluating a potential move to the Cloud.
2. More flexibility – Deployment environment is no longer a
limiting factor when selecting the right development stack. The Cloud
Computing market is very competitive and start-ups have a variety of
offerings from which you can select the service that best fits your
specific needs. Start-up organizations typically build applications on
variety of operating systems, application platforms, frameworks and
languages. Cloud Computing’s infrastructure-as-a-service model (IaaS) is
flexible enough to accommodate all of them.
1. Do what you do best – The biggest advantage Cloud Computing
enables for start-up organizations is giving them more time to spend on
developing the application and building the business. You no longer
need to budget for servers, network gear, and storage units. In
addition, Cloud Computing requires fewer experts on your operations
team, which also helps to keep your focus on the product, not the back
office.
Cloud computing allows start-up organizations to run as efficiently
and effectively as possible. Take advantage of its power for your
business.