Vendors such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) provide highly configurable systems that can be used to replicate many of the same functions that used to be configured on physical servers. Those vendors also provide many related services they can be enabled and configured on an “as needed” basis. The benefits of such systems are:
- Security (cloud providers employ legions of security professionals to protect their data centers);
- Scalability (system administrators can log on to their administrative dashboard and add additional capacity which is usually available in minutes);
- Redundancy (essential systems can be copied with a few mouse clicks);
- Minimize capital expenses (IT professionals can “spin up” servers without the need to purchase protect hardware).