Cloud Computing to the Rescue amidst COVID-19 Pandemic

By Cloud Computing Outlook | Monday, September 21, 2020

Video conferencing, remote project collaboration, e-commerce, education, gaming, and video streaming have all been able to meet a spectacular and unplanned demand in ways that would not have been possible a decade ago, thanks to cloud computing

Fremont, CA: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted business across all sectors. With governments imposing work from home and urging citizens to stay indoors, the functioning of every company has taken a significant hit. Office closures and social distancing have led to a surge of users in collaboration, shopping, and entertainment solutions as the entire world converts personal interactions to virtual ones. The biggest challenge, however, has been for online applications. The challenging time demands reliable and securely scalable technologies to ensure continuity in business functions. All these have been made possible primarily due to cloud computing and its highly scalable and flexible infrastructure.

The remarkable aspect has been the smooth transition from offices to homes. The cloud-based features have allowed millions around the world to continue being productive and fight boredom. Video conferencing, remote project collaboration, e-commerce, education, gaming, and video streaming have all been able to meet a spectacular and unplanned demand in ways that would not have been possible a decade ago, thanks to cloud computing.

At the forefront, various application vendors like Zoom Video, Slack, and Netflix run the show. But the real stars are behind the scene operators like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and other cloud service providers. These service providers support the web scaled companies and have been an integral part of enabling these companies to accommodate a world in crisis. In addition, AWS also hosts its parent company's, Amazon, highly in-demand applications like the world's largest e-commerce service to Prime Video streaming service to the Twitch gaming platform. "We have taken measures to prepare, and we are confident we will be able to meet customer demands for capacity in response to COVID-19," stated an AWS spokesperson.

While businesses and consumers may appreciate the resiliency demonstrated by front-end applications like Zoom, Skype, and Slack, the importance of back-end infrastructure from AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud cannot be emphasized enough. These cloud platforms are now vital to keep these services running smoothly. And it’s not just the hyperscalers that are rising to the challenge of a stunning, and potentially transformative moment in the history of technology.

At the same time, smaller public cloud providers, like New York City-based Digital Ocean, have seen early indications of usage that will continue rising considerably, especially from its customers offering video streaming and gaming products.