Adobe Offers High-Quality Design Features with Creative Suite 6 Delivered Through the Cloud

Cloud computing offers companies the option of transferring their IT operations into an on-demand environment, where they can develop, deploy and manage applications, and pay only for the time and capacity that they need. Many top hosting providers now offer cloud services, and Adobe (News - Alert) – the premier design company – has focused on the benefits the cloud has for customers.

When it comes to creative solutions, the three primary factors when deciding whether to use cloud computing, and which provider to choose, are reliability, availability and scalability.

Now Adobe has announced the latest version of its software package for designers and Web developers. To offer these services via the cloud, Adobe is identifying a key parameter for its business. Essentially for small companies, the cloud provides a low upfront cost with the ability to scale up as needed. A medium-sized company benefits from immediate access to computing resources that would typically require significant upfront capital and staff to support, as well as a global reach and redundancy that economically may not be otherwise attainable.

For large companies, cloud computing provides important redundancy and solution scalability. When a custom environment becomes necessary, customers can transfer from a public cloud solution to either a dedicated hosting environment or a private cloud. Adobe sees the advantages in all of these models.

Adobe’s Creative Suite 6 will be available on a monthly subscription basis as part of Adobe's Creative Cloud offering. Subscriptions will start at $50 a month for those who sign up for a year. Subscribers will be able to download programs such as Photoshop, InDesign or Illustrator, store their work online and share files with others. Customers can still buy the programs separately. Prices for CS6 range from $275 for the cheapest upgrade to $2,599 for the full "Master Collection."

A primary goal of cloud computing is to reduce the cost of computing resources, while increasing system flexibility and scaling. For designers or design-based companies who need short-term server access, cloud computing offers a means of access without signing a long-term agreement. Those with consistent and ongoing requirements can still avoid investment in expensive servers, or the need to hire multiple systems administrators to keep their IT efforts running at optimum efficiency.

Now with Adobe’s latest cloud offering, customers can access the software design features they need. Scott Morris, a senior marketing director at Adobe, compared the new pricing policy to the company's decision nearly a decade ago to start selling its design-software products in one package. The result then was higher sales, and Adobe hopes to replicate that success with its new revenue model.