Survival in the “digital arena”: Cloud, Mobile and CDN

It is often said that the modern technology environment resembles a “digital arena”, where only those who can adjust and re-invent themselves will survive. This is further enhanced by the latest trends that impose a need for even greater speed and a continuous transition from traditional ERP systems to SaaS-based solutions. On the other hand, Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) have become one of the most effective ways to improve connection speeds and user experience both for desktop and mobile users -and especially for the latter. So, let us take a more thorough look at these developments and their consequences.

Most businesses, regardless of their size, are using cloud-based solutions due to their significant and apparent advantages: lower cost, greater speed and easy customization based on the customers’ requirements. Actually, these platforms are especially suitable for small businesses, since they enable them to promote their services directly through the cloud instead of relying on on-premise IT infrastructure. Finally, this global trend for SaaS-based solutions also entails drastic changes in the roles of IT professionals, who are no longer the solution owners and operators, but rather those who control and monitor the cloud-based system and intervene whenever necessary.

For businesses possessing an interface that is also used by their customers, speed is the key to success, as well as an important differentiator now that the global audience is shifting from desktop to mobile devices. In other words, the fastest your website is, the higher it will appear in mobile search results. This is yet another factor that often plays a significant role in business success. Solutions such as CDNs can prove extremely useful as they can improve loading time up to 50% by distributing static content to a range of datacenters all around the world. A large volume of non-dynamic data is stored in these sites globally. When a user attempts to access a website, cached data are fetched from a nearby server, thus reducing the time waiting for loading to complete. CDNs offer speed improvements regardless of the user’s location and therefore, are extremely useful both for small businesses and international organizations. Similarly to the ERP and CRM market, the CDN market is also rapidly expanding and, given the trend of businesses outsourcing their application delivery in order to achieve even greater loading rates for their websites, it is expected that the CDN market will grow even bigger.

The fact that mobile traffic has exceeded the desktop one (in terms of web traffic and access to applications) raises concerns for modern businesses, since a constantly increasing number of users are accessing online resources for smartphones and tablets. To a certain degree, the hybrid form of large-scale IT solutions, such as ERP, owes much to this mobile “revolution”. Businesses that want to attract an even bigger mobile audience will have to improve their web interface. Actually, it must be noted that when it comes to mobile computing, a responsive site is quicker than an adaptive one. It should also be pointed out that mobile users access sites and apps from different devices and platforms. This obviously leads to a fragmentation of mobile traffic that requires a flexible working environment with higher site loading rates, for optimal user experience.