What is cloud computing?

What is Cloud computing ?

Cloud computing is on-demand access, via the internet, to computing resources–applications, servers (physical servers and virtual servers), data storage, development tools, networking capabilities, and more–hosted at a remote data center managed by a cloud services provider (or CSP). The CSP offers these resources to users for a monthly fee or charges them according to the amount of usage.

In comparison with traditional IT on premises and based on the cloud-based services you choose cloud computing does these things:

• Reduced IT expenses Cloud allows you to eliminate all or a portion of the cost and hassle of installing, purchasing configuring, configuring, and maintaining your own infrastructure on premises.
• Increase agility and speed-to-value: Cloud-based computing means that your company can begin using enterprise-level applications within minutes, rather than waiting for weeks or even months in order for IT response to your request. buy and set up hardware to support it, and then install software. Cloud allows you to empower specific users, specifically data scientists and developers–to assist themselves with software and assist in maintaining infrastructure.
• Scale up more quickly and efficiently: Cloud provides elasticity–instead of buying excess capacity that is in a stale state during slow times it allows you to scale capacity up or down according to fluctuations and spikes in traffic. Additionally, you can benefit from cloud providers’ global network to bring your apps closer to users across the globe.

Cloud computing is also a reference to the technology behind cloud computing that allows it to work. This includes some form of virtualized IT infrastructure–servers, operating system software, networking, and other infrastructure that’s abstracted, using special software, so that it can be pooled and divided irrespective of physical hardware boundaries. For instance one hardware server can be split into several virtual servers.

Virtualization allows cloud providers to make the most of their resources in the data center. Unsurprisingly, a lot of companies have embraced the cloud deployment model in their infrastructure on premises to maximize efficiency and savings over. traditional IT infrastructures and provide the same level of self-service and flexibility for their users.

If you’re using a mobile or a computer at the office or at home most likely, you use some type of cloud computing each day, whether it’s an application that is cloud-based such as Google Gmail as well as Salesforce streaming media such as Netflix or cloud-based storage for files like Dropbox. Analysts in the industry Gartner predicted in the past that global end-user public cloud computing spending could reach 600 billion dollars in 2023. (link is located outside ibm.com).

Cloud computing services

IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service), PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) and SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) are the three most common models of cloud services, and it’s not uncommon for an organization to use all three.

SaaS (Software-as-a-Service)

SaaS is also known as cloud-based software, or cloud applications, is application software that’s hosted on the cloud, and users access through the web browser or desktop or mobile client, as well as via an API that is integrated with an operating system for mobile or desktop. system. Most of the time, SaaS users pay a monthly or annual subscription cost but some might offer ‘pay as you go pricing based on usage.

Alongside the cost savings, time-to value and scalability advantages of cloud computing, SaaS provides the following benefits:

• Automated upgrades Automatic upgrades: With SaaS users, customers can take advantage of new features immediately after the service introduces them, without needing to plan the on-premises update.
• Security against data loss Since SaaS saves application data to the cloud along with applications, customers will not lose data even if their device is damaged or crashed.

SaaS is the most popular mode of delivery for a lot of commercial software. There are currently many thousands of SaaS options available, ranging including the most focused departmental and industry-specific applications to powerful databases for enterprise as well as AI (artificial intelligent) software.

PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service)

PaaS offers software developers an the ability to access a platform on demand, including hardware, a full infrastructure, software stack and even development tools for creating, running and managing software without the cost, difficulty and inflexibility of maintaining the platform on premises.

With PaaS cloud services, the cloud service hosts everything — servers, networks storage operating middleware, software, databases — in the data centers of their customers. Developers can choose from a menu option to spin up’ the servers and environment they’ll need to operate develop tests deploy, manage or update and scale applications.

Nowadays, PaaS is often built around containers, which is a virtualized compute model just one step away of virtual servers. Containers virtualize the operating system, allowing developers to pack the application using just the operating system features they require in order to work on all platforms, and without modifications and without the need for middleware.

Red Hat OpenShift is a renowned PaaS that is built on containers like Docker containers, as well Kubernetes an open-source container orchestration system that simplifies deployment as well as the scaling process, load balancing and much other container-based services.

Find out More about PaaS

IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service)

IaaS gives on-demand access essential computing resources, including physical and virtual servers as well as storage, networking, and servers over the web on a pay-as you-go basis. IaaS allows users to expand and reduce resources on a need-to-know basis and reduces the need for large, upfront capital expenses or infrastructure on premises or owned by the user and also to over-buy resources to handle periodic spikes in demand.

Contrary with SaaS or PaaS (and even the latest PaaS computing models like containers as well as serverless), IaaS provides the users with the most basic control of computing resources within the cloud.

IaaS was by far the most awaited cloud computing model as it was first introduced in the 2010s. While it’s still the most popular cloud computing model for a variety of kinds of workloads, the use of SaaS and PaaS is increasing at a more rapid rate.

Find out more about IaaS.

Serverless computing

Serverless computing (also called serverless) is cloud computing technology which delegates all backend infrastructure management tasks – provisioning and scaling, scheduling and patching — to the cloud service provider, allowing developers to concentrate their attention and time on the business logic and code specifically for their application.

Furthermore, serverless executes applications on a per-request basis and only expands the infrastructure supporting it to increase and decrease in accordance with the amount of requests. With serverless, users are only charged for resources utilized when the application is running. They do not pay for inactive capacity.

FaaS, or Function-as-a-Service, is often confused with serverless computing when, in fact, it’s a subset of serverless. FaaS lets developers execute sections of scripts (called functions) in response to certain events. Everything that is not code–physical equipment, the virtual machine’s operating system and management of web server software are automatically commissioned from the cloud services provider in real time as the code runs and then spun back up when the execution is complete. The billing begins when execution starts and ceases when execution ends.

Cloud computing: Types of cloud computing

Public Cloud

A public cloud kind of cloud computing where cloud service providers provide computing resources ranging from SaaS applications as well as individual virtual computers (VMs), to the bare-metal computing hardware and full enterprise-grade infrastructures and development platforms available to users on the internet. The resources may be available at no cost, or could be offered in accordance with subscription-based or pay-per-use pricing models.

The cloud provider that is public and manages every responsibility of the hardware, data centers and infrastructure upon which the workloads of its customers run and usually provides high-bandwidth connectivity to the network to ensure fast and high-performance access to data and applications.

The public cloud is one of the most multi-tenant system–the cloud provider’s infrastructure for data centers is shared with all customers of public cloud. In the top public clouds, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud customers could number thousands.

Many companies are shifting a portion of their computing infrastructures to cloud, as the cloud services are elastic and easily scalable, with the flexibility of adapting to change in demand for workload. Many are attracted by the promise of higher efficiency and less waste of resources as customers pay only for the services they use. Some are also looking to reduce the cost of hardware and infrastructures on premises.

Cloud private

Private cloud refers to a type of cloud that is where the entire cloud computing and cloud infrastructure are committed to, and accessed by a single user. Private cloud is a hybrid advantages of cloud computing — including the flexibility, scalability and the ease of service delivery the control of access security, security, and customizing of the on-premises infrastructure.

Private cloud services are generally situated on premises in the data center of the customer. However, a private cloud may be also placed by an independent cloud provider’s infrastructure, or based using rented infrastructure, housed within an outside data centre.

Many companies prefer to use private clouds over the public as private cloud is the simplest method (or the only option) to satisfy the regulatory requirements for compliance. Many choose private cloud as their workloads contain sensitive documents intellectual property, personal identified information (PII) financial records, medical records or any other sensitive data.

In building a private cloud infrastructure following the cloud-native principles, an organisation can transfer workloads easily to the public cloud or to run them in an hybrid cloud (see below) when they are prepared.

Hybrid cloud

Hybrid cloud is precisely what it says–a mix of both private and public cloud environments. Particularly, and most importantly the hybrid cloud connects the cloud services of an organization’s private and public cloud services into an unified, flexible infrastructure to manage the company’s apps and workloads.

The purpose for hybrid clouds is to provide a mixture of private and public cloud resources, and a degree of orchestration that allows an organization to select the best cloud for every job or task and shift workloads easily between both clouds when conditions change. This allows the company to achieve its business and technical goals more effectively and efficiently than with a traditional the private or public cloud on its own.

Hybrid multicloud as well as Multicloud

Multicloud refers to the use for two or more cloud with two or more cloud providers. A multicloud cloud is as easy as by using email SaaS offered by one company or image editor SaaS from a different. When enterprises discuss multicloud, they’re typically speaking about utilizing multiple cloud services, including SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS services from one or two most popular cloud providers.

Hybrid multicloud is the combination for two or more cloud providers in conjunction with a cloud that is private.

Multicloud is a choice for businesses to prevent vendor lock-in as well as to have a wider range of services to choose from, as well as to have access to more innovative technologies. However, the more cloud providers you have in your system – each with their individual set of control tools, transfer rate, or security protocols — the more challenging it is to manage your cloud. Multicloud management platforms give you access to multiple cloud providers through a central dashboard which allows development teams to view their projects and deployments. operations teams are able to keep track of nodes and clusters, and cybersecurity experts can watch for potential threats.

Cloud security

Security issues have historically been the biggest barrier for companies looking at cloud-based services, especially cloud services offered by public clouds. As a result of the growing increasing demand, however, the security provided through cloud services is gradually surpassing on-premises security options.

Security in cloud environments requires different processes and skills of employees that are not required in traditional IT environments. Best practices for cloud security are as follows:

• Security is a shared responsibility Cloud company is accountable for safeguarding the cloud infrastructure while the customer is accountable for the security of their data in the cloud. However, it’s crucial to clearly define the ownership of data between public and private third parties.
• Secure data storage: All information must be protected at rest, while in transit as well as when while in use. Customers must have complete control over their security keys and hardware security devices.
• Management of access and identity for users IT and customer teams require a full understanding and access to devices, networks, applications and data access.
• Collaboration management: Proper communications and clear, easy-to-understand procedures between operations, IT security, and IT teams will guarantee smooth cloud-to-cloud integrations which are safe and long-lasting.
• Monitoring compliance and security It starts by understanding the compliance requirements of all regulatory agencies applicable to your particular industry, and establishing continuous monitoring of all connected cloud-based and connected systems to keep track of all data exchanges that occur between cloud environments that are private, public, or the hybrid cloud.

Cloud use cases

In the event that 25% of companies plan to move their applications to the cloud within the next 12 months It’s a sign that the applications of cloud computing are endless. Even for companies that aren’t considering a massive switch to cloud computing specific programs and cloud computing can be the perfect match IT heaven.

disaster recovery and continuity of business are an ideal fit for cloud as cloud offers cost-effective redundancy to shield data from problems with systems and also the physical distance needed for the recovery of data and programs during the case of an local outage or natural disaster. All of the major public cloud providers offer Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS).

Any activity that involves the storage and processing massive amounts of data at a high speed–and requires the most storage and computing capacity than many organizations can or wish to buy and install on their own premises–is a prime area of interest to cloud computing. Examples include:

• Big data analytics
• Internet of Things (IoT)
• Artificial intelligence–particularly machine learning and deep learning applications

For teams that adopt Agile and DevOps (or DevSecOps) to speed up development cloud provides self-service of the end-user, on-demand, that keeps operational tasks like spinning up test and development servers — from becoming bottlenecks for development.