Cloud Computing: Understanding How It Works, Why It Matters, And What It Can Do For You
May 01
10 min read
May 01
10 min read
Cloud computing is defined as the computing services including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence over the Internet (“the cloud”) to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale. Since the beginning of cloud computing the world has witnessed an explosion of cloud based application s and services in IT. It really took hold with the emergence of software as a service and hyper-scale cloud-computing providers such as Amazon Web Services, Azure, etc. Delivering hosted services through the internet called “cloud computing”. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service are the three main categories or types of cloud computing into which these services fall (SaaS). A cloud can be either public or private. Anyone online can purchase services from a public cloud.
Cloud computing/ cloud hosting has emerged as a critical computing paradigm, which provide easy to use, on demand access to a shared pool of programmable computer resources via the internet. Cloud computing is not always less expensive than conventional forms of computing, just as renting is not always less expensive than buying in the long run. If an application requires Cloud computing services on a regular and predictable basis, it may be more cost-effective to deliver those services in-house. As they embark on a much faster digital transformation journey, businesses are looking for solutions to improve agility, business continuity, profitability, and scalability.
There are many advantages and some considerations when choosing cloud storage over local data storage, especially when storing important business files that require safe storage, constant backups, and easy access.
One main benefit is that your files are accessible from any device with an internet connection. Customer presentations do not have to be brought in on a specific laptop or thumb drive — they can be easily accessed through the cloud.
Another plus for cloud storage is that a lot of them come with their own apps that let you just drag and drop data from one place on your computer or smartphone to the cloud, some even offer automatics storage backup, so you can just set it and forget it.
With the cloud, it is easy to scale your storage based on your data needs. If you add another user and need more storage, that’s no problem. If you lose a few users and suddenly have way too much storage, it is easy to scale down and save some money.
Cloud storage is the peace of mind that comes from constant storage backups made to a secure offsite location. If you’re on-premise storage infrastructure breaks down or your hardware fails, the cloud makes disaster recovery much simpler.
- It eliminates the need for on-site server maintenance. With cloud storage, you don’t need to hire employees to run and maintain servers, which saves money on both hardware and salary expenses. By outsourcing server maintenance to the cloud, you eliminate the hassle and extra expense that comes from maintaining an on-prem server.
Cloud computing services is on the rise and it’s not just for tech giants like Amazon or Microsoft. The usage of cloud services for business purpose has grown steadily over the past 10 years and by 2020, it is expected that over half of organisations will be using cloud-based services. Cloud computing enables rapid scalability, which means that businesses can expand without incurring additional costs for hardware or infrastructure upgrades.