Mobile Commerce on Hybrid Cloud on the Rise

A perfect storm is currently brewing for mobile commerce. Numerous factors are contributing to this excellent commercial situation for the technology. The first and most obvious one is the usual popularity of the established mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. The vast popularity of the iPhone has greatly contributed to the former, while it has been reported that tablet computing is the fastest growing form of technology in history.

Additionally, increasingly sophisticated mobile networks are ensuring that mobile content is ever more engaging and absorbing. The instigation of 4G networks, and their popularisation across the planet, will help mobile app creators conceive even more enjoyable content for consumers.

New Devices Drive Mobile Growth

And the next few years will see ever more devices being connected to the net on a mobile basis. The smartwatch is already a buzzword in tech circles, and products such as Google Glass will soon become the norm as the technology associated with them it becomes more accessible and affordable. Watches, eyewear and other wearables, are about to emerge as new points of sale on a large scale.

Already in 2014, Mobile commerce account is the $57 billion of worldwide business. But this figure is set to grow exponentially in the coming years. By 2017, mobile is poised to represent nearly a third of all digital sales at $115 billion, on the back of the rise of the sort of technology that is now being developed.

Increasingly, shoppers and computer users Will be moving away from rigid desktop platforms to my accessible mobile devices, smart TVs, wearable devices, And possibly even eventually implantable devices. Thus, It is obvious that e-commerce operations will want to take advantage of this huge potential market. But there are still significant barriers and issues relating to achieving this, and not all e-commerce proprietors are necessarily aware of the solutions.

Barriers to Going Mobile

Some of the barriers to e-commerce companies going mobile include choosing the appropriate mobile-enabled platform for e-commerce in the first place; the necessity of performance upgrades for mobile-related software; and performance-related delays in getting the operation online and to market.

Older platforms often aren’t equipped for mobile e-commerce, meaning that some retailers tare forced to cobble together disparate solutions which negatively impact customer experience. Implementing and putting in place the perfect mobile experience often requires a platform switch or upgrade; which can be extremely time consuming and logistically complex given the multitude of elements included in a replatforming project.

Failing to implement the correct mobile strategy can result in sites taking an inordinate amount of time to load. It is not merely an inconvenience; it is likely to be the factor which most impacts upon the success or otherwise of the business. Performance is the most critical factor to mobile success, and enhanced performance is fundamentally driven by platform and infrastructure choices.

This is why many e-commerce entrepreneurs and companies are turning to the cloud as a mobile solution. The keys to mobile commerce success have been shown to be responsive design – which adapts visually to the endpoint device – optimised site structure – which takes on board concepts such as lean coding, compression, caching – and the reduction of third-party apps. Each of these together can lead to faster performance, but focusing on a hybrid cloud approach to leverage existing legacy apps with cloud-based resources helps reduce speed to market and allows for enhanced scale and reliability after launch.

The Benefits of the Hybrid Cloud

Hybrid cloud is an increasingly popular technology, which promises to be huge in computing in the coming years. Hybrid cloud enables a business to engage with the cloud in a very flexible way in that it merges public and private cloud resources, essentially enabling one to enjoy the best of both worlds.

Utilising hybrid cloud technology for mobile e-commerce enables businesses to more readily support scale and delivery. Additionally, the flexibility offered by the hybrid cloud and shows that applications can be run in a way which is both more cost effective and better for hardware running considerations. Hybrid cloud effectively enables retailers to decrease upfront spending and ongoing maintenance costs, while putting a speedier and more efficient system in place.

Hybrid clouds also enables more efficient management of resources, enabling traffic spiking within Mobile e-commerce to be dealt with in real time. While linking into the public cloud for autoscaling can be an expensive way of dealing with the issue, the hybrid cloud’s approach to on-demand resources saves both time and money. Suddenly it is possible to run workloads for the highest possible performance, and the lowest total cost.

This technology is already becoming a standard, with approximately 75% of large enterprises expected to have deployed hybrid in some capacity by 2017. It is particularly well suited to mobile e-commerce as it supports high concurrency of devices, meaning that more people, with more devices, and more device types, can access your site than has ever been previously possible.

Additionally, with its sophisticated resource management, hybrid cloud enables super-fast load speeds and split-second processing, regardless of location or device. It delivers a great return on IT investment by enabling you to more suitably utilise your resources, and even cut down on labour costs.

Hybrid cloud is a must for mobile e-commerce, and the sooner you explore its opportunities, the better for your business.