What is meant by cloud computing?

Let’s start with the name. What is the origin of the word ‘cloud’? When the internet was in it’s infancy the word ‘cloud’ was used as a metaphor to describe how the complex telephone networks connected.

But what exactly is it? Cloud is a model of computing where servers, networks, storage, development tools, and even applications (apps) are enabled through the internet.

Types of Cloud Computing:

There are three types of clouds: public, private, and hybrid. Each type requires a different level of management from the customer and provides a different level of security.

Public Cloud

In a public cloud, the entire computing infrastructure is located on the premises of the cloud provider, and the provider delivers services to the customer over the internet. Customers do not have to maintain their own IT and can quickly add more users or computing power as needed. In this model, multiple tenants share the cloud provider’s IT infrastructure.

Private Cloud:

A private cloud is used exclusively by one organization. It could be hosted at the organization’s location or at the cloud provider’s data center. A private cloud provides the highest level of security and control.

Hybrid Cloud

As the name suggests, a hybrid cloud is a combination of both public and private clouds. Generally, hybrid cloud customers host their business-critical applications on their own servers for more security and control, and store their secondary applications at the cloud provider’s location.

Multi Cloud

The main difference between hybrid cloud and multicloud is the use of multiple cloud computing and storage devices in a single architecture.

Cloud Computing Services:

There are three main types of cloud services: software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS). There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to cloud; it’s more about finding the right solution to support your business requirements.

SaaS

SaaS is a software delivery model in which the cloud provider hosts the customer’s applications at the cloud provider’s location. The customer accesses those applications over the internet. Rather than paying for and maintaining their own computing infrastructure, SaaS customers take advantage of subscription to the service on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Many businesses find SaaS to be the ideal solution because it enables them to get up and running quickly with the most innovative technology available. Automatic updates reduce the burden on in-house resources. Customers can scale services to support fluctuating workloads, adding more services or features they grow. A modern cloud suite provides complete software for every business need, including customer experience, customer relationship management, customer service, enterprise resource planning, procurement, financial management, human capital management etc.

PaaS

PaaS gives customers the advantage of accessing the developer tools they need to build and manage mobile and web applications without investing in—or maintaining—the underlying infrastructure. The provider hosts the infrastructure and middleware components, and the customer accesses those services via a web browser.

To aid productivity, PaaS solutions need to have ready-to-use programming components that allow developers to build new capabilities into their applications, including innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), chatbots, and the Internet of Things (IoT). The right PaaS offering also should include solutions for analysts, end users, and professional IT administrators, including big data analytics, content management, database management, systems management and security.

IaaS

IaaS enables customers to access infrastructure services on an on-demand basis via the internet. The key advantage is that the cloud provider hosts the infrastructure components that provide compute, storage, and network capacity so that subscribers can run their workloads in the cloud. The cloud subscriber is usually responsible for installing, configuring, securing, and maintaining any software on the cloud native solutions, such as database, middleware and application software.

What is cloud server?

A cloud server is essentially storage; a one-stop means of storing all your business data and programs on a remote server that is accessible over the internet.

Cloud server hosting performs all the same functions of a traditional physical server, delivering processing power, storage and applications but provide a centralized server resource that is hosted and delivered over a network (the internet), which can be accessed on demand by multiple users. It is best imagined as a combination of electronic structures that store data, information, applications and more, across different locations and computers.

All the information your business needs is united and synced in one place, meaning you can be more proactive and work on-the-go; liaising with customers, suppliers and colleagues with the resources you need, whenever you need them.

Advantages of Cloud Based storage include:

• Secure Backup Storage– With cloud storage, you can have a third copy of your data kept offsite and safe. It only takes a few clicks to drop a copy of your files into your cloud storage system and you’re good to go. No matter what happens to your computer, server, or office building, you’ll always have a safe and secure copy of your data.
• Affordability – maintaining your own company infrastructure can be costly both in terms of time and money. Using a third party provider also provides options with regards to payment packages; businesses can opt for pay-as-you go, monthly or yearly options – large investment is not always necessary.
• Outsourced server management – everything you need is managed for you, freeing up your IT team for more pressing tasks.
• Scalability – As your business grows or changes, cloud servers can be scaled up or down quickly and easily.
• Reliability – Keeping your data located in a remote, powerful data center increases reliability and strengthens your IT security and creating live cloud backups of your files, giving you total peace of mind.
• Flexibility – Cloud servers can be accessed from any location if you have an internet connection. Giving you the freedom to create a hybrid working environment where you employees can work from any location by connecting to the cloud servers.
• Increased Security– Cloud data storage can get you closer to becoming immune to cyber attacks. The most secure file platforms will provide additional layers of confidence. As long as you take care of your credentials, you can rest assured that only you and approved team members and clients can access stored files in the cloud.
• Cloud Technology is future enabled– With the latest tech solutions like the Internet of Things, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, businesses are generating and collecting more data than ever before. The data should be stored somewhere highly secured and protected from cyber criminals. This is where advanced cloud computing solutions come into play and help businesses store, manage and process important data and information over the web in a secure manner. This is the reason, businesses of all sizes are shifting their operations and systems to the cloud environment.

On the whole, Cloud Technology is here to stay. Businesses need to leverage this technology and grow with it. The technology is both powerful and inspiring. In the long run, it proves to be a cost-effective way of executing services for many businesses, both big and small. Since cloud computing enjoys a bigger scope, mainly in terms of reach ability, it is bound to have a awe-inspiring future. Find out more about our cloud solutions by getting in touch with one of our experts today!