Streaming pandemic outbreak: How is the cloud handling it?
The whole world is suffering from the corona outbreak, as is the tech sector. Most of the employees are still working from home as the world is not yet ready for normal lifestyle. As most people are sitting at home, the number of people using streaming services has increased a lot lately. 16 million new subscriptions have appeared on Netflix, which is more than double the number the streaming company had forecast.
Amazon hired 100,000 new warehouse workers to meet growing demand. There was an explosion in video call and Facebook message traffic, and a 40% increase in Microsoft software for online collaboration in one week. The real question here is whether or not the cloud could handle the exponentially growing demand for bandwidth.
In many places, streaming video quality was lowered on Netflix and YouTube to relieve pressure on the internet network in that region.
The transmission outbreak
If this kind of pandemic had happened a decade ago, it wouldn’t have been possible for businesses to work from home and difficult for people to spend time without playing online games and streaming movies. Some of the online services that are making things work around the world are Netflix, Zoom, Slack, Dropbox and more. People are finding the Internet-driven alternative of services much more useful and efficient.
It is thanks to technology that we can maintain social distance, as it keeps us connected with our loved ones and co-workers. We have to get what we need without going out, and that’s really blowing up the cloud servers with traffic. The education of children, the work from home of adults, everything is going well thanks to online services. Even accountants who were working on the desktop version of QuickBooks have switched to QuickBooks Hosting during the outbreak, so that work is not hampered in any way.
Cloud: need of the hour
While Netflix, Zoom, Whatsapp, and any of the social media sites or apps are at the forefront of the online revolution, the real thing behind it all is the cloud. Amazon services, Microsoft services, Google services, all of these services are running in the cloud under heavy load during this period, and that shows how powerful and important cloud technology is.
Cloud computing is one of the few industries that is not affected by the economic collapse during the pandemic. The demand for cloud service is not going to drop even after covid as people have realized the potential of virtual classrooms and remote work. Companies that had switched to the cloud before the outbreak have a significant advantage here. Switching to the cloud saves a lot of cost as you get rid of internal IT infrastructure and most of the maintenance is done through the hosting provider. With demand, the cloud can also be easily scaled up and down with advanced features intact. This kind of flexibility is what is increasing the demand for clouds right now.
conclusion
People are becoming dependent on the cloud more than anything right now. Through virtual activity sessions, the world is being able to run with social distancing. Different companies are trying their best to handle the cloud explosion as it is a necessity right now for the world to function. Platforms are becoming much more efficient at managing traffic, so we don’t miss out on virtual socializing, streaming, and remote work.