The Most Important Service Other Cloud Providers Don't Offer

When businesses seek IT solutions, it is important for them to understand what differentiates cloud service providers from IT technical support service providers. Cloud services offer servers to run business applications. Prior to cloud services, businesses had to buy and maintain their own hardware. This is how they work:

Cloud Computing As A Public Utility

From Wikipedia:

The most common analogy to explain cloud computing is that of public utilities such as electricity, gas, and water. Just as centralized and standardized utilities free individuals from the difficulties of generating electricity or pumping water, cloud computing frees users from certain hardware and software installation and maintenance tasks through the use of simpler hardware that accesses a vast network of computing resources (processors, hard drives, etc.). The sharing of resources reduces the cost to individuals.

But there is a catch, the cloud provides the hardware, but you still have to manage your software solutions. Even though the cloud turns the hardware component of IT into a commodity, the software component of IT, like all of the applications your business uses, still require installation, support, maintenance, and upgrades. Cloud services like Rackspace and Amazon provide you the hardware, but for everything else, an IT service provider is needed.

IT Service Providers

In order to use the infrastructure of a data center, IT Service Providers such as DynaSis install and maintain cloud application services, or "Software as a Service (SaaS)." SaaS enables the delivery of software applications over the Internet. Using a central data center (the cloud) that is connected to the Internet, IT service activities can be managed from central locations rather than at each customer's site. The cloud eliminates the need to install and run the application on the customer's own computers thus simplifying maintenance and support.

Through the combination of cloud services and an IT service provider, you receive the full IT package. IT service providers can implement business solutions that utilize cloud infrastructures giving customers a laundry list of advantages.