Case Study to Show Flexibility of Public Cloud Technology
Public cloud technology provides unparalleled flexibility and speed when compared with traditional servers. Period.
The dream of every new start-up is to grow and expand business operations over years or even months. However, due to favorable business environments, some new companies suddenly find themselves expanding at such an alarming rate as to necessitate an increase in server capacity, storage usage, and improved security systems.
Samba Tech is a typical example of why companies should adopt cloud technology to withstand sudden growth spurts. Samba Tech was founded in 2008 as an online video delivery, exploring the untapped market in Brazil. Within three years of operations serving international media companies like Viacom, Bloomberg, and ESPN as a platform for delivering online video content to Latin American viewers, Samba’s revenue rose by a whopping 200 percent to about $2.8 million.
Predictably, Samba began to face the serious threat to its business operations due to sudden increase in storage, server, security, and IT management requirements. The company initially had no plan to handle its IT systems. In fact it had started life with a local hosting service containing limited storage capacity, limited servers and poor IT management procedures. These eventually led to poor video quality and dissatisfied customer services.
By the time Samba management opted for public cloud, it was the only thing they could do to prevent collapse. Cloud not only provided flexibility in scaling up and down the amount of storage usage, server capacity and the introduction of enhanced IT security systems. It also helped Samba deal with a sudden hike in IT infrastructure requirements, especially additional processing power. For instance, when there were popular sporting events on ESPN or new marketing campaigns on other channels, the adoption of public cloud afforded Samba the unique opportunity of scaling up its IT systems to meet new requirements at a faster rate and affordable cost.
And here is the final summation from Samba Chief Technology Officer, Fernando Campos: “It’s difficult to foresee when we will need additional capacity, but while traditional servers can take weeks to deploy, public cloud servers take less than 30 seconds. If the cloud technology wasn’t available, we couldn’t have grown as fast as we have.”
This case study reveals two important facts about running any company:
- - Huge growth may be unexpected and structurally demanding;
- - There will be a hike in IT infrastructure requirement that may hinder smooth running of the company’s business operations.
But should companies copy the Samba model, waiting until unexpected growth and expansion make their businesses virtually inoperable before adopting the public cloud technology? Samba’s top brass thinks not. Strategic managers should be able to safeguard the operations of their companies by migrating IT structures to the cloud in anticipation for future growth. Public cloud technology not only provides great opportunities for companies to expand, but also reduces overhead costs in line with the cost-efficiency mantra gaining currency in the corporate world.
Flexibility is an important factor in businesses that aspire to significantly grow in the short term. Cloud hosting helps in this department as it provides automatic scaling of necessary resources. Find out more about GMO cloud’s auto-scaling features and see how it can aid company objectives of growth.
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About the Guest Author:
Jerry Olasakinju, a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) degree holder, is a passionate researcher and writer whose interest in everything computing is unparalleled. He blogs about his literary works at http://jerryolasakinju.blogspot.jp/
