New technological developments such as cloud computing and virtualization are prying small- and medium-sized businesses away from traditional client-server architecture. In contention now lie Containers, a technology influenced by cloud computing that offers a less complex alternative to virtualization.

Thanks to economies of scale, cloud computing resources are cheaper and more stable than those on a local area network, but the cloud is still made up of servers that require expert configuration. Serverless computing is one way to reduce management burdens.

The Google Cloud Platform can do virtually any business computing task you need it to. From pre-written machine learning modules to high-end data analysis, it’s limited only by the internet connection you use to access it. But now, even that is being improved upon.

It’s nearly impossible to discuss virtualization without bringing up Amazon Web Services (AWS). It was one of the first big names in user-friendly virtualization services and it’s only gotten better over the years. With its latest release, AWS is providing customers with some serious computing power.

Who would have guessed that clouds could be so complex? Yet in a day and age of seemingly continuous technological advances, “cloud” computing has become one of the more intricate and interesting approaches to managing IT resources for businesses.

From hosting websites, email, applications and online file storage, the cloud has become a popular alternative to traditional IT services among businesses. In fact, it is almost impossible to find a company’s data center that does not employ cloud-based services of some kind.