A Complete Overview of Cloud Computing Services

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Originating in the late 90s, cloud computing today has revolutionized how individuals interact with technology, and the way businesses operate. It is not just about utilizing an online storage space to store pictures or videos. Instead, people now have more control over their personal information and assets.

Similarly, cloud computing offers organizations a more flexible, robust, and scalable way to meet their computing needs. Businesses can now access technology-related services on the internet and, in doing so, have become more agile and efficient in using and managing information as well as applications. Thanks to cloud computing, they can easily scale up or down their use of a particular service.

So, what exactly is cloud computing, and what benefits do you get from using it? Let’s discuss this in detail.

Defining Cloud Computing

First things first, cloud computing refers to delivering computing services over the internet. These services include storage, databases, servers, networking, analytics, software applications, and intelligence. In leveraging them, organizations can access computational assets whenever needed without the hassle of purchasing and maintaining an on-premises IT infrastructure.

But that’s not it. This is a versatile domain and differs in terms of its types and services. A single type of cloud might not be the right solution for everyone, considering their varied business needs.

What’s the main difference? Well, let’s start with deployment models first.

Types of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has three different types of deployment modes. Here’s an overview of all of them.

Public Cloud

To begin with, in a public cloud deployment model, third-party cloud service providers deliver computing services, such as servers or storage over the internet. They own these services and are responsible for managing both the hardware and the software sides in addition to supporting infrastructures.

Public clouds are usually sold on demand, and consumers only pay for the services they consume. A few examples of public cloud service providers include Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud Platform.

Private Cloud

Moving forward, a private cloud deployment model includes computing resources exclusively used by a particular organization or a business. It allows a company to build and maintain its own cloud infrastructure since the services are hosted privately. 

In this case, it offers services to internal users through the cloud located at the company’s own data center. What’s more, you not only get to experience the flexibility and convenience of cloud service but can easily manage control and security of the data center as well. Two of the major examples of a private cloud include OpenStack and VMware.

Hybrid Cloud

As for a hybrid cloud deployment model, it combines private and public clouds, leveraging technologies that allow sharing of applications and data between both. In this case, your business becomes more flexible while having multiple deployment options.

How? Well, it is simple. Sensitive applications can run over private clouds, whereas public clouds can be used to handle increased workloads. What’s more, a hybrid cloud optimizes your infrastructure and security as well.

Now that we’ve covered deployment models let’s move on to cloud computing services.

Cloud Computing Services

Cloud computing services fall into four major categories, sometimes referred to as cloud computing stack. Below appended is an explanation of each.

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)

IaaS or Infrastructure as a service is the most basic cloud computing service. What it basically does is allow you to migrate your workloads to a virtual machine via leveraging technologies such as a virtual server instance, APIs, or storage. For example Amazon Web Services.

Platform as a service (PaaS)

Platform as a service or PaaS, on the other hand, provides users with an environment where they can develop, test, and manage applications. Simply put, it enables developers to easily create web or mobile applications without the hassle of setting up or managing server infrastructures, storage, and databases.

Server less computing

Moving forwards, let’s just say that server less computing is an extension of PaaS. Why? Because it focuses on building application functionality without the hassle of managing servers and infrastructures.

Additionally, you need not worry about handling the setup, capacity planning, and server management since the cloud service providers are there to do it for you. Moreover, these services are highly scalable consuming resources when a specific function triggers.

Software as a service (SaaS)

Lastly, Software as a service or SaaS services in cloud computing technology deals with providing software applications over the internet. These can either be on-demand or on a subscription basis.

Users can access these applications through a web browser using a computer or a smart device such as a phone or a tablet. Moreover, in SaaS, cloud service providers host, manage, and maintain the software applications and infrastructures.

With that said, let us look at the advantages .

Benefits of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing today has evolved significantly compared to the past couple of years and offers meaningful benefits to businesses regardless of their size. Some reasons businesses prefer cloud computing are listed below..

Cost-Effectiveness

First and foremost, cloud computing is a game changer when it comes to saving costs. Opting into this services mean you will be saving costs of purchasing hardware and software as well as running on-site data centers. In addition, you will save the costs of electricity and the IT resources required to manage data centers. All you need to do here is pay for the services you consume.

Speed & Flexibility

Furthermore, since most cloud computing services are either self-service or on-demand, users can provision a significant number of computing resources, such as server time or network storage, in minutes. As a result, it takes the pressure off capacity planning, making organizations more flexible and productive.

Enhanced Scalability

Moreover, considering that you get to utilize the right amount of IT resources when needed, it ultimately enhances the scalability of your organization.

Increased Productivity

Another benefit cloud computing offers is increased productivity. Since data centers require a significant amount of time when it comes to setting up hardware or patching software, not to mention the IT resources required for managing other tasks, your overall productivity eventually decreases. But, the scenario completely changes with cloud services as all these tasks are carried out by the cloud service providers. Therefore, you can utilize your resources productively to achieve business goals.

Enhanced Performance

Moreover, since the hardware on which the cloud services are hosted gets frequently updated, it eventually offers reduced network latency for applications, resulting in enhanced performance.

Reliability

Furthermore, cloud computing offers reliability since users have the option to mirror their data on various redundant sites on the CPS’s network.

Enhanced Security

Lastly, using a cloud computing service eventually offers you optimal security. CSPs offer comprehensive policies along with top-of-the-line technologies that ensure that your data, applications, or infrastructure remains secure from cyber threats.

You may be wondering, with all of these advantages, what are the potential applications of cloud computing services? Well, here are a few of them.

Cloud Computing Use Cases

Below appended are some of the examples illustrating what we can do presently utilizing these services.

Developing Cloud-based Applications

Native cloud technologies, including but not limited to Kubernetes, or microservices architecture, has made it quite easier for developers to create, deploy, and scale cloud-based applications.

Testing and Building Applications

Cloud infrastructures have made it possible for developers to significantly reduce development costs and time. They can now easily build and test applications while being able to scale them up or down per their requirements.

Data Management

Cloud computing services have made it possible for organizations to effectively manage their data at lowered costs and at a massive scale. You can easily store or back up your data to an offsite cloud storage system and can access it whenever needed from anywhere using any device.

Enriched Data Analysis

Using a cloud computing service, you can efficiently distribute data among various teams across the network. This, in turn, allows you to uncover some valuable insights that are crucial for making informed decisions.

Integrate Intelligence

Cloud computing lets you engage customers with intelligent models that offer valuable insights based on collected data.

Conclusion

Cloud computing offers numerous benefits to organizations in addition to increasing their productivity. Utilizing these services, they can easily scale up or down their use of a particular service and, most importantly, help them utilize their resources in a well-organized way.

What’s more, these are cost-effective and pretty much offer every solution required to build, deploy or test a particular web or mobile application. All you need to do is, choose the service that best fits your business needs, and you are good to go.