ADVANTAGES OF CLOUD COMPUTING
by Contributor
(Apr. 13, 2020) — According to the Gartner analyst Daryl Plummer, “business leaders everywhere are bypassing IT departments to get applications from the cloud and paying for them like they would a magazine subscription.” It seems that lots of businesses have already realized how convenient, cost-efficient, and profitable cloud services can be and made the first step towards taking their operations to the next level. Maybe it’s about time you also learned more about cloud computing and started reaping benefits from it? Maybe you’ve been doing some thinking lately, but found yourself unable to choose from the variety of cloud services and their types? Beating your brains out trying to figure out the difference between IaaS and PaaS? Or got stuck while implementing your new SaaS business model? Don’t get frustrated. Today’s article will help you make the right decision by explaining the differences between the different types of cloud services and help your out of any digital predicament.
What’s Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing is a process of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data rather than a local server or a personal computer. A cloud service is any service available on demand via the Internet from a cloud computing server, instead of from the company’s on-premise server. The CEO of Microsoft explained, “In the past, there was hardware, software, and platforms on top of which there were applications.” Now they’re getting conflated. That is all going to get disrupted by the move to the cloud.” An example of cloud computing is an online email account. We log into an email remotely through the browser storage. But your account doesn’t exist on the computer. It lives in the email provider’s cloud. The main use for cloud is sharing and storing data. Cloud storage enables users to access and download data on any chosen device, such as a laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Cloud storage users can also edit documents simultaneously with other users, making it easier to work away from the office. Aren’t these benefits enough for you to consider moving from your outdated, on-premise business model to something fresher and more viable?
And now let’s dive into the different cloud services.
What are the Types of Cloud Services?
The public cloud is owned and operated by a third-party cloud service provider that anyone can utilize. The private cloud is exclusively built and used for one business or company. The hybrid cloud, in its turn, uses a combination of at least one private and one public cloud. This type of cloud can be on-premise or virtual.
What are the Types of Deployment Services?
Based on the deployment model, we can classify cloud as infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), or a software as a service (SaaS).
IaaS is a type of deployment service that provides hardware capacities as needed by users to run their own software services. The most outstanding examples include Amazon, FlexiScale, and Rackspace.
PaaS allows third parties to build apps without buying hardware and maintaining software. Examples of the PaaS companies are Elastic Beanstalk, Google App Engine, and OpenShift.
Finally, SaaS enables users to use an app without installing it on the computer or other device. The noteworthy examples of the SaaS companies are Servicenow, Dropbox, and Salesforce.
Some years ago, a former federal CIO of the United States emphasized that “cloud computing is often far secure than traditional computing because companies like Google and Amazon can attract and retain cyber security personnel of a higher quality than many government agencies.” No wonder, presently more and more companies and organizations opt for cloud computing as a more secure option.
What are the Benefits of Switching to the Cloud?
If you decide to switch from the traditional IT to cloud computing, you can reduce costs, increase speeds, boost productivity, and global scale. Moreover, cloud computing makes it easier and convenient to access applications and data from any location worldwide and from any device even offline. Cloud computing provides users with more effective tools wherewith they can backup and restore their data and apps in a more efficient way.
What are the Uses of Cloud Computing?
There are many uses of cloud computing. If you opt for this type of delivering IT resources, you can start creating new apps and services, test and build various applications, embed intelligence, store, analyze, backup, and recover your data, and deliver software on demand.
Businesses are switching to the cloud for the flexibility it brings. You can reduce the number of workstations in your office and allow your staff to work from home, which is convenient, cost-effective, and thus beneficial for your business. Moreover, cloud computing makes it possible for you to keep track of your business operations effectively. All you need is a fast Internet connection to get real-time updates of your business operations.