What is Cloud Computing / Cloud Services?
Cloud computing/cloud services are the outsourcing of software, processing & data storage that is used by end-users. Rather than owning, buying, & maintaining physical data centers & servers. We can access these services over the Internet on a pay-per-use basis, from any cloud service provider companies like Salesforce & Amazon Web Services (AWS), etc.
Cloud services allow organizations to rent server space, maintenance and help them in reducing the cost of onsite servers. Today, users can develop, deploy full applications, & software on the cloud. Cloud technology provides faster service than a traditional installation.
Most of the organizations are using the benefit of cloud services for various purposes, such as software development, disaster recovery, data backup, data security, email, big data analytics, etc.
Businesses that use CLOUD COMPUTING solutions do not need to build solutions from scratch nor need to maintain complex hardware, the cloud service provider will do it for you.
Different types of CLOUD SERVICES
The cloud services are designed to provide easy, reliable, scalable access to applications, resources, and services that fully managed by the cloud service providers. Here are the main models of cloud services that include Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), Platform as a service (PaaS) and Software as a service (SaaS).
Each type of cloud service provides different-different levels of management, flexibility, and control so that you can select the best set of cloud services for your needs.
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
The first cloud service Infrastructure as a service (IaaS). IaaS is a basic building block of cloud computing. The infrastructure as a service computing model stores an organization’s entire data center to the cloud. A cloud service provider maintains all networking hardware and storage servers.
With Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), you can rent storage, operating systems, servers, virtual machines (VMs) and networks—from a cloud service provider on a pay-per-use basis. Infrastructure as a service makes it possible for tech-companies to rent IT resources & infrastructures to keep pace with growth, without making any large capital investments. Infrastructure as a service gives you the highest level of management control, reliability, and flexibility.
Platform as a service (PaaS)
The second cloud service is Platform as a service (PaaS). PaaS is the building block for software creation, testing, delivering including code libraries, development tools, programming environments, and servers.
Platform as a service makes developers work easier, developers can quickly create web or mobile applications, without thinking about managing the storage, network, servers, and databases needed for development.
Platform as a service provider takes care of your security, data integration, maintenance, and infrastructure so that users can focus on software creation, building, hosting, and testing apps.
Software as a service (SaaS)
The third cloud service is (SaaS) which stands for Software as a service. SaaS is the most common type of cloud computing. Software as a service delivers complete, user-ready applications over the internet. SaaS cloud providers manage and host the software application over the internet and also take care of underlying infrastructure & maintenance, such as software upgrades & security. Companies take advantage of SaaS service on a pay-per-use basis, pay-per-use means the cloud service provider will charge based on the usage of resources.
CLOUD DEPLOYMENT MODEL
- Private Cloud
The first deployment model is the private cloud. A private cloud is also known as an internal cloud infrastructure that is used by stand-alone (Single) organizations. In the Private cloud, the data is backed up by a company’s firewall and is accessible to its users via the intranet. This type of cloud is perfect for organizations that have high management demands and high-security requirements.
Private cloud vendors: VMware, Oracle, Dell, IBM, Microsoft and Cisco.
- Public Cloud
The second deployment model is the Public cloud. Public cloud is also known as an external cloud infrastructure that is provided on a network for general public use. It can be accessed anywhere and from anyone worldwide. This type of cloud is good for lean organizations with growing and fluctuating demands.
Cloud providers: Yahoo, Google, Salesforce, Zoho, Microsoft, Rackspace, Amazon.
- Hybrid Cloud
The third deployment model is the Hybrid cloud. Hybrid cloud is an incorporation of two cloud deployment models that is public cloud and private cloud that satisfy the needs of a specific organization. A hybrid cloud is ideal for scalability, flexibility, and security.
An organization can use the private cloud to secure its important data & public cloud for customer interactions.
Hybrid cloud vendors: Microsoft, IBM, Amazon, VMware, Rackspace, Google, and Century Link.
- Community Cloud
The fourth deployment model is the community cloud. A community cloud is mutually shared between organizations that belong to a particular community such as banks, government organizations, etc.
For example, in a building, each floor is rented for different purposes and needs similar privacy, performance, and security measures.
The community cloud vendor is Google’s “gov cloud.”
Cloud Computing Advantages
Cloud computing has been around for approximately two decades. But nowadays firms can’t make it without Cloud Computing technology. Few businesses still not using Cloud services and many of them are getting ready to migrate their IT System on more advanced cloud infrastructures. Here are the Advantages that why a business needs to migrate to cloud technology or cloud services.
- Automatic Software Updates
- Capital Expenditure Reduction
- Pay-per-use
- No Location Constraints
- Data Security
- Flexibility
- Mobility
- Quality Control
- Disaster Recovery
- Loss Prevention
- Sustainability
- Performance
Conclusion:
In conclusion, cloud computing can be seen from many angles, and can also be interpreted in different ways. Cloud computing has many benefits that provide to its users and businesses. But, the only thing that remains constant is that cloud computing has now become an integral part of businesses and enterprises & will revolutionize the future.
