Digitally Transform your Business with Cloud-Based eCommerce Platform
What is a Cloud eCommerce Platform?
The nature of eCommerce requires businesses to be agile and proactive when changes in demand and customer expectations occur. Cloud-based eCommerce software can effectively meet these requirements, because of its high performance, flexible, and scalable infrastructure.
Cloud-based eCommerce entails hosting your online store’s files and data on multiple servers that are connected and function as one. Consequently, you can harness the power of digital commerce without the need to invest in servers and maintain expensive on-site infrastructure.
With cloud eCommerce, all your hosting, security, upgrades, and maintenance needs are taken care of by the cloud-based eCommerce platform team, enabling you to benefit through greater scalability and improved productivity.
Why Choose an eCommerce Solution Based in the Cloud?
Cloud computing has become the go-to solution for eCommerce businesses worldwide due to its scalable nature and cost-effectiveness when compared to on-premise hosting.
The power of cloud hosting comes from its ability to utilize the computing capacity of several machines. You can benefit from network capacity and storage that might be too expensive or not available when hosting on-premise.
By managing and processing data in the cloud, cloud-based eCommerce software offers a more scalable approach to online sales. This means organizations can free up resources to focus on priorities like cost-savings, scalability, and revenue growth.
Benefits of Cloud-Based eCommerce Solutions
Scalability
By hosting an eCommerce website in the cloud, your store is never down for maintenance, repair, or update implementation. Connected cloud servers keep the platform up and running 24/7, so you can expand globally, and rest assured that every online store in every location is always fully supported.
High-Availability
Interruptions in the work of an eCommerce app can be the worst nightmare for business stakeholders. Cloud-based eCommerce software ensures uninterrupted operations with minimum downtime due to high availability built into such solutions. High availability maximizes system uptime, and even if unforeseen downtime happens, it guarantees that your online store will recover from it in the shortest time possible.
A lower total cost of ownership
Cloud eCommerce software offers a lower cost of ownership than on-premise solutions, because you don’t need to allocate resources for more servers or secure the funds to build a bigger infrastructure. Additionally, cloud-based solutions help reduce the costs associated with human resources, particularly in maintenance and IT. Instead of hiring IT teams devoted to keeping the system running, you rely on your vendor to maintain and upgrade the application and troubleshoot system issues.
Speed
Website loading speed is another factor that affects the success of your eCommerce store. Visitors are more inclined to leave if it takes too long to load its inventory or search results. Cloud hosting is the ideal way to ensure a consistently good loading speed, as it provides more bandwidth, more storage space and boosts your processing power. Improved website performance can assist you in attracting more customers and confidently handling surges in activity.
Improved back-up and security
Cloud eCommerce platforms provide one of the best options for physical security and data security thanks to their built-in redundancy. This means that any potential system failure will not lead to data loss or disruption of operations for one or more days as it would with on-site hosting. Another benefit of cloud solutions is that it doesn’t burden you with outdated legacy systems that cannot deliver the required performance. With cloud hosting, software and hardware always remain current.
Faster deployment
On-premise deployment of eCommerce solutions can’t beat the time-to-market of a hosted eCommerce platform. Getting your eCommerce store online quickly means it will be available to prospects and customers as soon as possible. Compare that with costly delays and potential downtime that you might encounter if you decide to go after the self-hosted route.
Regulatory compliance
Vendors providing cloud eCommerce software must comply with all data privacy and security regulations as they’re issued. This leaves you assured your solution is PCI-DSS (payment data security), GDPR (privacy policy), and SOC (system integrity and confidentiality) compliant. Advanced vendors also comply with HIPAA and HITECH regulations, which are essential for eCommerce websites that operate in the healthcare industry.
Support for multiple locations
By hosting an eCommerce website in the cloud, your store is never down for maintenance, repair, or update implementation. Connected cloud servers keep the platform up and running 24/7, so you can expand globally, and rest assured that every online store in every location is always fully supported.
Types of Cloud eCommerce Service
There are three main types of cloud-based eCommerce software services, each with its own specific features and functionalities. It is crucial to understand each delivery method’s pros and cons to select one that aligns with your overall goals and digital commerce strategy. Whether you need cloud-based software for storage options (SaaS), a platform that supports customized applications and integration (PaaS), or greater control over your eCommerce infrastructure without having to physically maintain it (IaaS), there is a cloud service for you.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
SaaS is one of the most commonly utilized options for small to medium businesses in the cloud eCommerce market. In SaaS, the eCommerce application is delivered to the company through the internet and doesn’t require any installations on the client side.
SaaS eCommerce is typically sold on a subscription basis and the vendor manages all potential technical matters such as updates, maintenance, and support, leading to streamlined business operations.
Popular examples of SaaS eCommerce software include BigCommerce and Shopify, which are designed mostly for B2C companies but can also be adjusted for B2B use cases through extensions and add-ons.
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
PaaS is for the more advanced companies that require extensive customization for their ordering portal, site, and back-end system. Developers receive access to a framework, such as Symfony, which they use to build upon and create customized applications.
With PaaS, the organization or a third-party provider can manage all servers, storage, and networking, while the developers handle the management of applications. Using PaaS eCommerce offers numerous benefits, including scalability, cost-efficiency, faster development, and customization of features.
OroCommerce is one of the most established PaaS eCommerce solutions, offering a range of B2B-specific features out of the box. Thanks to its B2B focus and open-source nature, OroCommerce is easy to customize for complex B2B scenarios and pricing models.
Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS)
The IaaS eCommerce cloud service model offers on-demand, self-service access to computing, storage, and networking resources in the cloud. Compared to SaaS or PaaS, IaaS eCommerce owners manage aspects such as applications, runtime, and data, while IaaS providers take care of the servers, hard drives, networking, virtualization, and storage.
With IaaS, businesses can purchase computing resources on an as-needed basis instead of having to buy the hardware outright. A well-known example of an IaaS provider is Google Cloud, which allows companies operating an eCommerce store to rent servers for web-based computing and storage.
Why Choose OroCloud
Security
Whether you’re running a personal store or an enterprise commerce platform, we’ve got all your security needs covered. Implement a reliable, future-proof cloud-based eCommerce solution with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) IaaS layer for OroCloud. Backed by GCP’s rock-solid infrastructure, OroCloud is able to provide secure connections to any applications that run through Oro’s eCommerce cloud, while keeping you safe from DDoS attacks.
Scalability
OroCloud has optimized GCP for its cloud-based platform that scales on demand to fit any custom software and business use case. You will never be limited to how much data your system can support since OroCloud is designed to be a future-proof solution without affecting performance or availability.
High-Availability
With Oro’s cloud-hosted infrastructure, you can run your business globally without being tied to on-site equipment, maintenance, software or hardware updates, and the downtime that comes with it. Through GCP, Google is continuously investing in expanding their global infrastructure. For our OroCloud customers, this means high-quality service, speed, and website stability regardless of the amount of data, traffic and bandwidth usage in your enterprise eCommerce platform.
PCI-DSS Certified
Any eCommerce business that accepts payments online must be PCI DSS certified so that your customers’ payment data is protected and secure. By using OroCloud as your cloud-based B2B commerce software, we’ve already taken care of the necessary requirements to ensure that our cloud infrastructure is PCI compliant. However, if you are using an on-premise solution, then we recommend you review and implement the necessary PCI requirements independently.
GDPR Compliant
Oro is committed to providing “security by design and by default” to all our cloud-based eCommerce platforms and environments. With this in mind, we take thorough steps to comply with the latest security standards and maintain a GDPR compliant reserved privacy policy for our services. In addition, OroCloud has developed safeguards through encryptions with GCP to give you peace of mind that your data and your customer’s data are safe and encrypted. You can read more about being a cloud-based eCommerce software data controller in the OroCloud GDPR Guide.
Hosting Uptime
OroCloud services are included with all Enterprise Licenses using our open-source eCommerce platform. While you are welcome to use a cloud service or on-premise solution of your choice, Oro’s cloud-hosted solution gives you access to round-the-clock support from our team of dedicated technical engineers. You can count on us to constantly monitor, prevent, and fix any technical issues your application may have.
OroCloud Services Include
Highest Security Standards
OroCloud network is segmented and isolated from any unauthorized external access. It is equipped with reliable Firewalls and DDos-attack protection tools.
Onboarding
OroCloud’s self-help guides and Oro’s Customer Support team will guide and ensure your path from license purchase to live deployment is smooth and seamless.
Monitoring Tools & Incident
OroCloud supports top-end monitoring tools including Blackfire, Quanta, Stackdriver and NewRelic. Oro's dedicated 24/7 SWAT-team is proactively alerted when incidents arise and can begin troubleshooting immediately.
Maintenance
The OroCloud application maintenance tool helps run and control complex maintenance operations.
Support
OroCloud’s customer support desk is available 24x7x365. The Oro Support team replies to submitted requests within 4 - 24 business hours depending on the urgency/severity of the issue.
Questions and Answers
What is a cloud-based eCommerce platform?
A cloud-based eCommerce solution is an online selling platform in which data, files, and infrastructure are hosted outside of a company, using off-site servers from a third-party provider. Access to the platform and its data is provided through the Internet.
What are the benefits of cloud computing in eCommerce?
Digital commerce can benefit from cloud computing in multiple ways. First of all, cloud computing provides scalability to accommodate any eCommerce growth needs. Secondly, cloud eCommerce is cheaper to operate than an on-premise hosted solution. Finally, cloud computing generally has higher availability, which means minimal downtime for your online store.
Is cloud computing the same as eCommerce?
No, eCommerce is a sales transaction of goods and services taking place online. On the other hand, cloud computing describes the delivery of on-demand computing services – from applications to storage and processing power.
What are the implications of cloud computing for eCommerce?
Cloud-based сommerce software is the future of eCommerce business. Its popularity grew in response to the ongoing digital transformation effort to replace or update old IT systems and drive digital innovation.
The flexibility of cloud technology enables digital commerce companies to better respond to market opportunities and challenges. It provides the resources to expand and operate globally. Most importantly, cloud computing supports advanced data-driven business models, like unified commerce, enabling companies to provide radically new experiences for their customers.