How does cloud tools reduce the cost of enterprise software development?

We've all heard how migrating to the cloud will save money on the business. First, it delivers applications through the cloud, followed by platforms and infrastructure. But in the internal software development http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/13476.html "> Business process is what?" How does cloud computing work, not just hosting things to affect the cost of enterprise software development? More importantly, as the cloud makes those processes more efficient, can it really save money in a quantifiable way?

Understanding the Possibilities

Before answering these questions, first understand what it means to do software development in the cloud. This does not mean that the enterprise has to move all aspects of development to the cloud infrastructure or platform. In fact, it is not even necessary to host the final application in the cloud, if that is not the ideal environment. Mark Driver, vice president of Gartner Research, points out that there are four major software development categories to consider in the migration:

1. Source Code Control

2. Defect management (problem tracking)

3. Continuous integration

4. Collaboration

The effort to develop applications in the cloud is usually partial or incremental rather than total. Companies that move their development processes completely into the cloud may choose a single solution, or choose a multiple-source cloud approach. It is a self-help style of cloud spending that is likely to continue in the near future-at least not as a hindrance to the cost savings of some software development.

The nasty little secret of TCO

Before an enterprise can say whether to move development to the cloud will save money, they have to be honest about how much they are spending. Accurately estimating total cost of ownership (TCO) is risky and fraught with uncertainty. Mark Driver said he had no qualms about the difficulty of this guessing game, "it's an old question." Measuring TCO, especially for software development, is as scientific as the black Arts. Those who think otherwise are largely deceiving themselves. ”

Historically, he notes, actual development costs have been obscured by the budget, hidden in other budgets, and so on. Many companies just don't have the experience of analyzing their own TCO. Estimates are generally based on the assumption that this may be a serious flaw. When organizations begin to turn to cloud-based products such as software as Services (SaaS), it may be their first awareness of how much they spend on their applications. This could be another unpleasant surprise.

Where to find the cloud savings

Ignoring current consumption practices, in some ways, many organizations can and do see the performance gains and cost savings of cloud-based development. Here are some:

-Easy to achieve goals are typically hosted in the server process and tools. Moving these aspects of software development to the cloud infrastructure does not adversely affect development, and it maintains maintenance and product support resources.

-A business with a remote development team may see faster and higher-quality work through a cloud-hosted collaboration platform. Access reliability in the cloud may be better than the local (vendor-dependent tracking records and service-level agreements, or SLAs).

-resilience and consumption based costs mean that new development projects can be posted in a lighter budget. There is no need to allocate huge sums of money for end-to-end test resources to permanently expand server functionality, which is only occasionally used. This means that companies can take on more risk in selecting projects and experience more ROI on the idea of pursuing innovation.

-Finally, cloud vendors may provide tools and operational support to reduce the burden on internal IT staff. For example, finding organizations that develop mobile applications may face obstacles to testing and certification in a huge, expanding, and potentially device profile. Cloud vendors with expertise in this area may provide a pre-configured, pre-packaged test suite and certified mobile utility.

Finally, there are really many effective, quantifiable ways in which organizations can save money and use the cloud more efficiently.

(Responsible editor: Schpeppen)