The COVID-19 pandemic has radically changed the way of life in societies throughout the world. The major factors contributing to this lifestyle change are social distancing and isolation restrictions.
When people are forced to work remotely and many show a preference for online shopping, technologies that enable remote connections are no longer a creature comfort, but a necessity. Cloud computing, in particular, has been an enabler of remote connectivity, ensuring that many businesses and people are able to continue working, shopping, studying, and communicating with their families and friends.
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The impact of COVID-19 on the cloud computing industry
The cloud computing industry has been vital to keeping people working, informed, connected, and entertained during the current COVID-19 crisis. The suddenly increased reliance on Internet services simply wouldn’t have been possible without cloud hosting. Two major areas that cloud hosting has had to adapt to these demands are remote work and entertainment.
Productivity, away from the desk
With social distancing restrictions in place, many organizations chose to move to remote work. For some organizations, particularly those already on cloud services, this was a relatively easy move. For others, it may have required hasty migrations or temporary solutions.
Luckily, many cloud services were able to scale to meet these sudden demands. For example, Microsoft’s virtual desktop service, which relies on databases in Azure, increased by 300 percent, and its team collaboration product saw an increase of 775 percent in some areas.
Keeping everyone entertained
With the world in the lockdown, many have turned to streaming services, such as Netflix, YouTube, and Twitch to keep themselves occupied. These services have allowed people to distract themselves, connect with the world via social media, and entertain others.
Netflix alone gained 16 million new users during this period. In fact, Netflix and many other streaming services, such as Hulu and YouTube, had to begin limiting the streaming quality of their videos to ensure continued service. This was at least partially because some ISPs were not able to keep up with consumer demand and this was putting a strain on their bandwidth.
How Cloud Computing Is Helping Our Society During COVID-19
By working to ensure the availability of services, cloud computing providers have managed to help keep society and individual communities operational despite COVID-19.
Helping eCommerce scale
eCommerce has been a huge boon for companies and citizens stuck at home. The ability to order groceries, meals, household supplies, and pharmacy items has made it possible for people to safely isolate. At the same time, companies have been able to continue reaching customers despite closing / restricting access to brick and mortar stores. The scalability of cloud hosting has enabled businesses to serve sudden spikes in traffic, often with minimal delays.
Keeping the world well-connected
The connectivity granted by cloud computing services has also been a major contributor to seeing people through the current crisis. Video conferencing services such as Skype, Zoom, and Google Meet have all helped families, friends, and co-workers stay in contact remotely. These platforms have also enabled students to keep attending classes as well as helped people “hang out” in social groups.
Related read: Best video conferencing software
Cloud services, such as news sites, forums, and mobile apps have also helped people stay connected. The scalability and global availability of cloud data have helped ensure that citizens stay informed with real-time updates about current restrictions and events.
Guaranteeing business continuity
Cloud services typically include built-in features for disaster recovery, data backup, and management of business continuity. These features have made it significantly easier for businesses to ensure continued operations despite dramatic workload changes.
These services have also made it easier for some organizations to shift on-premise workloads to the cloud. For these companies, the option to fail workloads over to the cloud has made migration much simpler and faster than traditional methods. This fast migration has enabled them to continue operations remotely with minimal disruption of service.
Can the cloud help find a cure for COVID-19?
The usefulness of cloud computing has been made apparent in previous health crises and researchers are leveraging these services during the COVID-19 pandemic as well. In 2014, cloud computing played a key role in research on West Africa’s Ebola crisis. In cooperation with IBM, health officials from Sierra Leone’s Open Government Initiative (OGI) were able to identify areas in need and model the disease spread for preventative action.
In 2009, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) started using cloud tech to manage influenza outbreaks. Since then, the organization has gathered data from the National Influenza Reference Centers (NIRCs) across the country and aggregated it in the cloud. This data, which contains information about viral strains and spread, is used to enable cooperation between CDC researchers and to promote faster development of vaccines.
This methodology has been invaluable to managing flu outbreaks and early on, researchers thought the system might also be helpful in managing the spread of COVID-19. Although this wasn’t the case, the core approach of leveraging cloud-based research is sound. The difference is the scale and distribution of access that is needed.
To help with these deficits, several leading cloud companies have donated resources or made resources more available to researchers. For example, IBM provided free access to several cloud-based AI resources to scientists and medical professionals working on possible drug treatments.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) donated $20 million worth of cloud computing credits in its AWS Diagnostic Development Initiative. The initiative was created to help subsidize the development of diagnostic tools and research related to COVID-19 testing.
Oracle is another company that has contributed to research efforts towards the development of a vaccine. They used their cloud platform knowledge and resources to incorporate data on COVID-19 drug testing into their existing Oracle Clinical Trials Systems and to develop the COVID-19 Therapeutic Learning System. This system is designed as a repository for the administration of COVID-19 treatments.
These resources were donated to the U.S. government and were made freely available to researchers around the world. Australian researchers, among others, are taking advantage of this data and are making progress towards the creation of a vaccine.
Bottomline
During these complicated pandemic times, cloud computing enables societies to preserve continuity in business and private life. Many businesses, including digital-first eCommerce and brick and mortar offices, leverage cloud computing to scale their operations. Cloud flexibility ensures organizations can provide continuous services even during peak times.
The ability to communicate via video conferencing has been a particular benefit to societies during COVID-19. Many of these services are powered by cloud infrastructure. Cloud vendors offer not only storage, but also AI and supercomputer resources, which help further research. There are also vendors contributing funds to research, which might, hopefully, help find a cure for COVID-19.
