Cloud computing was once at the forefront of emerging data center technology. But now, it’s the backbone of digital businesses worldwide. “The cloud” is no longer just a corporate buzzword — it powers everything from mobile apps to billion-dollar enterprises. However, cloud computing also has inherent complexities that can hinder innovation. To combat this, companies like AWS, Azure, and Google cloud are constantly improving accessibility and simplicity in cloud technologies, making these tools available to more people. It’s important to remember that companies didn’t move to the cloud simply because they “felt like it.” They did it because it was cheaper, easier, and more reliable.
Benefits of Cloud Computing
The benefits of cloud computing services. Here are a few of them:
• Accessibility: With an internet connection, users can access cloud-based applications and data from anywhere, providing flexibility and enabling remote work.
• Cost-effectiveness: Cloud computing reduces the need for upfront hardware and software investments, as users can pay for services on a subscription or pay-as-you-go basis.
• Scalability: Cloud services can easily scale up or down based on demand, allowing businesses to adjust resources as needed without investing in and managing physical infrastructure.
• Security: Reputable cloud providers implement robust security measures to protect data from unauthorized access, and they often have dedicated teams focused on ensuring data privacy and security.
• Reliability: Cloud providers often offer high reliability and uptime, with redundant systems and data backups to ensure continuity.
• Updates and Maintenance: Cloud service providers handle system updates, maintenance, and security patches, freeing users from these tasks.
Cloud-as-a-Utility
Think of the cloud as a giant PC that you can use but that someone else owns and runs. Commercial cloud services like AWS and Azure are built by Big Tech, so they’re big, fast, and secure. You may have noticed about a decade ago that your favorite apps (e.g., Office, Adobe, etc.) moved from boxed software to a subscription-based model. That is, they became a software-as-a-service or “SaaS.” The change was part of a move to cloud hosting of apps by many tech companies. Instead of selling you a CD ROM or downloadable app, you simply bought a monthly or annual plan. You then download the app to your PC or phone. These companies were now using cloud services, meaning most of the computation work was located there rather than on your PC. Today, this is almost exclusively how apps are sold, stored, and operated.
For many companies today (including the building industry), cloud service works like a computational “utility” that they pay for, much like their electric and gas services. It’s a type of infrastructure like an electric grid. Cloud service providers do the computation work; you pay them to do it. But why did this move to remote computational work happen? Answer: the benefits, of course.
Types of Cloud Computing
Public Cloud
Public Cloud, is a type of hosting in which cloud services are delivered over a network for public use. Customers do not have any control over the location of the infrastructure. The cost is shared by all users and is either free or in the form of a license policy like pay per user. Public clouds are great for organizations that require managing the host application and the various applications users use.
Private Cloud
A private Cloud is a cloud infrastructure that is solely used by one organization. It gives organizations greater control over security and data safeguarded by a firewall and managed internally. Private clouds are great for organizations that have high-security demands, high management demands, and uptime requirements.
Hybrid Cloud
Hybrid Cloud uses both private and public clouds but can remain separate entities. Resources are managed and can be provided either internally or by external providers.A hybrid cloud is great for scalability, flexibility, and security. An example of this is an organization that can use the public cloud to interact with customers while keeping their data secured through a private cloud.
Cloud Service
Cloud service models focus on providing some type of offering to their clients:
Software as a Service: is a type of cloud that offers an application to customers or organizations through a web browser.
• The data for the app runs on a server on the network, not through an app on the user’s computer.
• Software is usually sold via subscription
• Examples of SaaS are Salesforce, Google Docs, Office 365, Basecamp, etc.
Infrastructure as a Service: Cloud Infrastructure as a Service, provides the hardware and usually virtualized OS to their customers.
• Software is charged only for the computing power that is utilized, usually, CPU hours used a month.
• Examples of IaaS are Amazon EC2, Rackspace, Google Compute Engine, etc.
Platform as a Service: Cloud Platform as a Service provides networked computers running in a hosted environment, and also adds support for the development environment.
• PaaS offerings generally support a specific program language or development environment.
• Deploying your app in this environment, you can take advantage of dynamic scalability, and automated database backups without the need to specifically code for it.
• PaaS is billed as an additional cost on top of the IaaS charges.
• Examples of PaaS are Google App Engine, Cloud Foundry, Engine Yard Etc.
Conclusion
To cut the long story short most of us don’t buy generators to power our homes; instead, we pay the electric company. Why? Generators are expensive. We must buy fuel to run them. If they break, we must repair them. We even need to guard them against theft. Rather than do all this work, we offload it to the electric company. Cloud Storage is very similar to that analogy instead it is centered as a mode of computer data storage in which digital data is stored on servers in off-site locations. The servers are maintained by a third-party provider who is responsible for hosting, managing, and securing data stored on its infrastructure.
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