Top benefits of cloud computing Cloud computing is a big shift from the traditional way businesses think about IT resources. Here are seven common reasons organizations are turning to cloud computing services: Cost Cloud computing eliminates the capital expense of buying hardware and software and setting up and running on-site datacenters—the racks of servers, the round-the-clock electricity for power and cooling, and the IT experts for managing the infrastructure. It adds up fast. Speed Most cloud computing services are provided self service and on demand, so even vast amounts of computing resources can be provisioned in minutes, typically with just a few mouse clicks, giving businesses a lot of flexibility and taking the pressure off capacity planning. Global scale The benefits of cloud computing services include the ability to scale elastically. In cloud speak, that means delivering the right amount of IT resources—for example, more or less computing power, storage, bandwidth—right when they’re needed, and from the right geographic location. Productivity On-site datacenters typically require a lot of “racking and stacking”—hardware setup, software patching, and other time-consuming IT management chores. Cloud computing removes the need for many of these tasks, so IT teams can spend time on achieving more important business goals. Performance The biggest cloud computing services run on a worldwide network of secure datacenters, which are regularly upgraded to the latest generation of fast and efficient computing hardware. This offers several benefits over a single corporate datacenter, including reduced network latency for applications and greater economies of scale. Reliability Cloud computing makes data backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity easier and less expensive because data can be mirrored at multiple redundant sites on the cloud provider’s network. Security Many cloud providers offer a broad set of policies, technologies, and controls that strengthen your security posture overall, helping protect your data, apps, and infrastructure from potential threats.

You’re probably already practicing basic online and mobile safety, but consider taking these credit card-specific measures as well: Know your merchant. When shopping online, look for sites with “https” in their web addresses (the “s” stands for “secured”) and the green lock icon; make sure the URL includes the correct company’s name, rather than a close-but-not-correct version; and, even on a secured site, share your information only if you know how it will be used. Type for each transaction. Never allow your credit card number to be stored on an online shopping site. Add a layer. Consider using an online payment system or mobile payment service like PayPal, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay or Android Pay to keep your credit card number out of the hands of merchants, so that if a merchant is hacked, it can’t leak your account number. Watch out for public Wi-Fi. Don’t shop or conduct financial transactions, including checking your accounts, using public Wi-Fi. Because it’s a public network, your information can easily be viewed by anyone.