What is cloud computing?

Uses of cloud computing

You're probably using cloud computing right now, even if you don’t realize it.  If you use an online service to send email, edit documents, watch movies or TV, listen to music, play games, or store pictures and other files, it’s likely that cloud computing is making it all possible behind the scenes.  The first cloud computing services are barely a decade old, but already a variety of organizations—from tiny startups to global corporations, government agencies to non-profits—are embracing the technology for all sorts of reasons.  Here are a few of the things you can do with the cloud:

• Create new apps and services
• Store, back up, and recover data
• Host websites and blogs
• Stream audio and video
• Deliver software on demand
• Analyze data for patterns and make predictions

---

Top benefits of cloud computing

Cloud computing is a big shift from the traditional way businesses think about IT resources.  What is it about cloud computing?  Why is cloud computing so popular?  Here are 6 common reasons organizations are turning to cloud computing services:

1.  Cost
Cloud Computing eliminates the capital expense of buying hardware and software and setting up and running on-site datacenters—the racks of servers, the round-the-clock electricity for power and cooling, the IT experts for managing the infrastructure.  It adds up fast.

2.  Speed
​Most cloud computing services are provided self service and on demand, so even vast amounts of computing resources can be provisioned in minutes, typically with just a few mouse clicks, giving businesses a lot of flexibility and taking the pressure off capacity planning.

3.  Global scale
The benefits of cloud computing services include the ability to scale elastically.  In cloud speak, that means delivering the right amount of IT resources—for example, more or less computing power, storage, bandwidth—right when its needed, and from the right geographic location.

4.  Productivity
On-site datacenters typically require a lot of “racking and stacking”—hardware set up, software patching, and other time-consuming IT management chores. Cloud computing removes the need for many of these tasks, so IT teams can spend time on achieving more important business goals.

5.  Performance
The biggest cloud computing services run on a worldwide network of secure datacenters, which are regularly upgraded to the latest generation of fast and efficient computing hardware. This offers several benefits over a single corporate datacenter, including reduced network latency for applications and greater economies of scale.

6.  Reliability
Cloud computing makes data backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity easier and less expensive, because data can be mirrored at multiple redundant sites on the cloud provider’s network.

---

Types of cloud deployments: public, private, hybrid

​Not all clouds are the same. There are three different ways to deploy cloud computing resources: public cloud, private cloud, and hybrid cloud.

Public Cloud
Public clouds are owned and operated by a third-party cloud service provider, which deliver their computing resources like servers and storage over the Internet.  Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google Cloud is an example of a public cloud.  With a public cloud, all hardware, software, and other supporting infrastructure is owned and managed by the cloud provider.  You access these services and manage your account using a web browser.

Private Cloud
A private cloud refers to cloud computing resources used exclusively by a single business or organization.  A private cloud can be physically located on the company’s on-site datacenter.  Some companies also pay third-party service providers to host their private cloud.  A private cloud is one in which the services and infrastructure are maintained on a private network.

Hybrid Cloud
Hybrid clouds combine public and private clouds, bound together by technology that allows data and applications to be shared between them.  By allowing data and applications to move between private and public clouds, hybrid cloud gives businesses greater flexibility and more deployment options.

---

Types of cloud services: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS

Most cloud computing services fall into three broad categories: infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (Saas).  These are sometimes called the cloud computing stack, because they build on top of one another.  Knowing what they are and how they’re different makes it easier to accomplish your business goals.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
The most basic category of cloud computing services. With IaaS, you rent IT infrastructure—servers and virtual machines (VMs), storage, networks, operating systems—from a cloud provider on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) refers to cloud computing services that supply an on-demand environment for developing, testing, delivering, and managing software applications.  PaaS is designed to make it easier for developers to quickly create web or mobile apps, without worrying about setting up or managing the underlying infrastructure of servers, storage, network, and databases needed for development.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is a method for delivering software applications over the Internet, on demand and typically on a subscription basis.  With SaaS, cloud providers host and manage the software application and underlying infrastructure, and handle any maintenance, like software upgrades and security patching. Users connect to the application over the Internet, usually with a web browser on their phone, tablet, or PC.