What is cloud computing?
In simple terms, cloud computing is the delivery of on-demand computing services like servers, storage, databases, networking, and softwares over the Internet (“The Cloud“) on a pay-as-you-go basis from a cloud service provider like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Microsoft Azure.
Benefits of cloud computing
It is a big shift from the traditional way of having access to infrastructure needed to run a software company. Here are some common benefits which made organisations to start using the cloud computing services:
- Cost – Top benefit of using cloud computing services is that organisations can avoid the upfront cost and complexity of owning and managing their own IT infrastructure but in this case they simply pay for what they use and when they use it.
- Speed – Services are provided on demand basis and resources can be provisioned with in few clicks saving a lot of time in provisioning the infrastructure manually.
- Scalability – If you are using a cloud computing service you don’t need to over-provision resources up front to handle the surge in traffic during peak seasons. Using autoscaling policies, these resources can be scaled or descaled instantly to meet the current requirement automatically.
- Performance – Cloud computing services run on a high performance network of secure datacenters in multiple geographic locations. There are several benefits over a single corporate datacenter like reduced network latency, high availability, disaster recovery, data backup and a secure infrastructure saving from potential threats.
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Types of cloud computing
- Public Cloud – This type of cloud is owned and operated by a cloud service providers and generally for B2C (Business to Consumer) type interactions. These service providers provide their computing resources like servers and storage over the Internet.
- Private Cloud – In this type, computing resources are deployed for a particular company’s on-site datacenter and used for intra-business interactions. These computing resources managed by the same organization.
- Hybrid Cloud – This mixed of both type of interactions – B2B (Business to Business) or B2C ( Business to Consumer). Both public and private cloud are grouped together by technology that enable data and services to be shared between them. It provides greater flexibility, more deployment options and helps optimise your existing infrastructure, security and compliance.
Types of cloud services
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – It contains the basic building blocks for cloud IT. In IaaS, you rent IT infrastructure like servers and virtual machines, storage, networks, operating systems from a cloud provider on a pay-as-you-go basis.
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) – This is the next layer up and include the tools and software that developers need to build applications on top of Infrastructure. These could be middleware, database management, operating systems, and development tools.
- Software as a Service (SaaS) – Software as a service is a new way for delivering software applications over the Internet. In most cases, SaaS can be referred as end-user applications.