What Are Industry Clouds, And What Are They Good For?
Avi Meir
Cloud Use CasesCloud Computing
14 Sep 2022
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Cloud computing has become immensely popular in the business world in recent years. It has enabled businesses to transform their processes and operate more efficiently. In the past, the IT industry used cloud technology for software development and testing, data storage and backup, disaster recovery, and more.
However, over time, cloud service providers developed different industry-specific cloud solutions to cater to the needs of various industries. Today, many industries use industry cloud solutions, including education, healthcare, insurance, automotive, manufacturing, and media.
But what does “industry cloud mean? An industry cloud platform is a cloud service tailored to meet a specific industry’s requirements. Read on if you want to learn about industry clouds and how Ridge’s highly customizable cloud can be adapted to each industry. See how it works!
What Is An Industry Cloud?
Industry clouds are cloud solutions and services customized for a specific industry’s key use cases. For example, automotive cloud solutions are designed for connected vehicles, electric vehicles, and autonomous cars.
Similarly, the cloud for financial services helps address the compliance and security needs of the industry. Industry cloud solutions include custom data models, APIs, tools, applications, and workflows for a specific industry.
An industry cloud solution works like any other traditional cloud service: provided over the internet and allows the users access from anywhere. The main purpose of industry clouds is to provide cloud solutions that are tailored to one industry.
It is easier for industries to operate in the clouds that are specifically built to cater to their needs. The customization is partially already done for them, and they can benefit from the specific services for their industry. At the same time, any organization can use general cloud computing services regardless of the industry it operates in.
In the past, many industries hesitated to adopt the cloud, especially the public cloud. One of their many reasons being that it didn’t offer custom solutions tailored to the industry’s needs, and it would be very costly to develop a customized cloud for themselves. However, with the rise of industry-specific services, more companies are more willing to migrate to the cloud.
Companies who utilize industry cloud technology can still operate within a hybrid cloud environment, which is a combination of public and private cloud solutions.
Types Of Industry Clouds
A wide range of industry clouds exist for different industries. Below are some of the most popular industry clouds:
Healthcare Cloud
Cloud-based healthcare solutions have gained immense popularity after the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts predict that the global cloud technology market for the healthcare industry will reach around $25.54 billion by 2024.
E-health means providing healthcare services online. Cloud computing is the driving force behind E-health and telemedicine by enabling healthcare professionals to share patient data in real-time and collaborate from anywhere. With cloud computing solutions for E-health, patients all over the world can consult with their clinicians at the touch of a button. Additionally, telemedicine also uses cloud technology as an ICT infrastructure for better doctor-patient and doctor-doctor communication.
Real-Time Diagnosis
With the help of cloud technology, smartphones can now monitor diabetes, heart rate, and blood pressure. These cloud-based systems are helpful in real-time diagnosis. For instance, patients can instantly and securely share their data with healthcare professionals and get the right advice at the right time.
The need for personalized medicine is increasing as the traditional approach of giving the same dose of medicine to different patients is becoming ineffective. Cloud computing solutions, along with other technologies like AI and NLP, help provide personalized treatment. It especially helps with the Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS). CDSS utilizes medical professionals’ knowledge to help make diagnosis and prescription decisions.
Healthcare Information Systems
Healthcare services use management information systems for improving patient care, managing human resources, billing, etc. Healthcare cloud solutions help develop, test, and deploy these systems.
Digital Libraries
Libraries are a critical source of knowledge for medical students, practitioners, and researchers. Cloud storage solutions for digital libraries provide massive file storage space. Cloud-based libraries enable instant access to useful information from anywhere.
Cloud Solutions For The Pharmaceutical Industry
Drug Discovery
Cloud computing in the pharmaceutical industry is especially helpful in drug discovery. Drug discovery means inventing new medicines for different diseases. This long and complicated process involves discovering different compounds from billions of chemical structures and requires vast computing resources. Cloud computing services, especially Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), are helpful in drug discovery.
A smart vehicle is any vehicle that can connect to nearby devices and vehicles over the internet. These vehicles can communicate with each other to share critical information regarding safety and mobility. Connected vehicles typically use IoT technology and produce a massive amount of data. For instance, these vehicles produce data regarding their surroundings, other vehicles, etc. This large amount of data needs large data storage, which smart automotive industry cloud technology can help support with specialized databases, for example.
Electric Vehicles
An electric vehicle uses electric motors to operate as opposed to an internal combustion engine in traditional vehicles that require fuel. These vehicles need smart charging stations with sensors and computer processors that collect a large amount of data to optimize energy distribution and consumption. Automotive cloud storage solutions are designed to store such a large amount of data.
Autonomous Cars
An autonomous car is a self-driving car that collects data from its surroundings to drive without human intervention. These cars have a plethora of computer memory on board and require massive storage and computing resources. For this reason, cloud providers have built automotive cloud solutions that provide enough storage space and enhance the functionality of these cars.
As the demand for online retail has increased dramatically in recent years, cloud solutions tailored for the retail industry are the need of the hour. Online retailers need to show personalized products to different customers to increase conversion rates and profit. Cloud for retail offers tools for data cleansing and manipulation that can combine multiple data sources for personalized product recommendations. Industry cloud for retail also helps businesses set up A/B testing scenarios, validate performance, and more.
Inventory Management
Retail businesses that have multiple stores at different locations often find it challenging to track and monitor their inventory. However, with retail cloud solutions, it’s possible to collect real-time data and track inventory in real-time. Cloud for retail also eliminates the need for businesses with multiple stores to manually sync their inventories from different stores.
Remote Warehouse Management
With retail cloud solutions, companies can manage their warehouse capacity remotely from anywhere, track the real-time stock volume at any inventory, and even access delivery centers’ locations.
Price Management
The price of a product greatly impacts customers’ decisions on whether to buy that product. Hence, sellers must keep their prices competitive by tracking the prices of other retailers and analyzing the historical sales trends. Today, there are retail cloud solutions that can gather data from multiple sources and prepare it for pricing analysis. Retail cloud hosting solutions that can automatically update online prices are also available.
In today’s world, people want quick access to digital entertainment like videos, TV shows and movies. As a result, media and entertainment companies worldwide use specialized cloud technology to deliver streaming media to their clients. Cloud for media allows companies to operate efficiently and ensure fast digital content delivery. With cloud solutions, media companies can provide over-the-top (OTT) streaming services. OTT streaming means delivering digital content to customers over the internet. If you want to learn more about media cloud, check out our article on cloud computing in the media and entertainment industry.
Ridge has built a highly customizable cloud platform. Ridge allows for customers to deploy their industry specific applications regardless of their underlying infrastructure, and in any location. Many of these industries with specific cloud requirements are in need of hyper-low latency and IoT device support. Ridge’s Edge solution and globally distributed data center network is utmostly capable of supporting these applications and demands. Although Ridge does not currently support any specific industry clouds, its ever-growing application marketplace supports databases and more. Ridge works to support their clients within each industry, want to see how it works?
Industry Cloud Benefits
Since an industry cloud is customized for a specific industry, the benefits of industry clouds are different for different industries. Here are some of the benefits of industry-specific cloud solutions:
Better Data Security and Privacy
Data security and privacy are the top priorities of most businesses, especially those operating in the financial and healthcare industries. Industry-specific cloud solutions designed for financial and healthcare services can help meet industry-specific regulatory compliances, such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) in the case of the healthcare industry.
Cost-Savings
This is probably the biggest benefit of industry clouds, as well as clouds in general. With cloud technology, businesses operating in any industry don’t have to buy and maintain expensive hardware and equipment. For example, when healthcare companies use a cloud solution provider, they don’t have to bear costs related to maintenance of upgrading records, space utilization, etc. Additionally, companies don’t need to “reinvent the wheel” when building their cloud architecture. By using industry cloud applications, they can save valuable development time an budget.
High Storage Space
Industry-specific cloud solutions are designed to meet the storage needs of a specific industry. For example, the automotive industry involves the use of IoT technology, which produces lots of data. Hence, automotive cloud storage industry solutions are designed to store and process such data. Similarly, media services need a large amount of storage, computing, and networking resources, which a media cloud service provider can provide.
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
What does industry cloud mean?
An industry cloud isn’t a new type of cloud. Rather, it’s a custom cloud solution tailored to the needs of a specific industry. These clouds help solve industry-specific issues. For example, industry clouds for financial and healthcare companies help these companies meet their specific needs related to data privacy and sharing. Industry clouds are mostly public clouds where more than one organization can use cloud services and resources simultaneously.
What are the different types of industry clouds?
There are many different types of cloud solutions built especially for various industries. Some of the most common industry clouds include:
Automotive cloud solutions
Healthcare cloud solutions
Cloud for financial services, such as banks and insurance companies
Cloud computing solution for the pharmaceutical industry
Media and entertainment cloud
Retail cloud
What are the advantages of industry-specific cloud solutions?
The benefits of industry clouds are different for different industries, depending on the industry-specific service. Automotive industry cloud solutions that support the continuous data flow and provide uninterrupted network service help enhance the autonomous driving experience. In addition to industry-specific benefits, industry clouds also offer the benefits of a general cloud, such as scalability, flexibility, cost reductions, disaster recovery, improved security, and more.
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