What is cloud computing, types, pros, cons, and complete guide
Cloud Computing

What is cloud computing, types, pros, cons, and more?

The global cloud computing market is expected to grow to $1.2 trillion by 2027. When it comes to business, it often makes more sense to rent IT services than to build your own data center. Spending time and money on making money is always better than taking on the responsibility (and cost) of an on-premise server room.

When a business uses the cloud, it can use ready-made IT resources, which has a number of unique business benefits.

This article is a complete guide to cloud computing. It tells you everything you need to know about this technology and how it works in modern IT.

What is cloud computing?

Cloud is a platform that holds a pool of computing resources and makes them available over the internet as an on-demand, pay-as-you-go service. All Clouds are, in essence, virtualized data centers that are made up of resources for computing and storage.

All of the services that are hosted on the cloud are called “cloud computing services.” So, cloud computing is the use of services like storage, apps, and servers through the cloud.

See the: Top 10 Cloud Based ERP Softwares

Types of cloud computing Services

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) are the three main types of cloud computing services based on the utilities that are bought. Let’s discuss them.

1. Software as a Service (SaaS)

As part of the software as a service (SaaS) model, a third-party vendor will provide you with the software stack in its entirety, and you will lease it on a pay-as-you-go basis.

With SaaS, you have the complete freedom to work on the purchased software without having to worry about how the underlying software or even the infrastructure is maintained. SaaS also removes the need to worry about how to maintain the software.

Microsoft 365, Zoho, Salesforce, SAP, Google G Suite, and a number of other companies are among the most popular providers of SaaS.

Know more: Top 5 Cloud Accounting Software

2. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

IaaS stands for infrastructure as a service and refers to the provisioning and management of virtualized computing infrastructure for businesses by cloud service providers. IaaS provides access to a variety of information technology resources, such as storage, servers, and networking utilities, via the internet. Many businesses start their cloud computing and big data journey through IaaS solutions.

AWS, Rackspace Open Cloud, IBM Smart Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and a number of other companies are among the most prominent cloud computing service providing companies of IaaS.

3. Platform as a Service (PaaS)

PaaS refers to a model in which a third-party vendor, in addition to providing the underlying hardware, also supplies the middleware, operating systems, and tools that are necessary to develop and test applications.

Because of this, you won’t have to pay the costs associated with maintaining, patching, or carrying out any kind of capacity planning for your underlying platform.

AWS, Salesforce.com, Microsoft Azure, Oracle Cloud, SAP, and OpenShift are among the common vendors that provide PaaS. Other providers include OpenShift.

Understand that to leverage the power of cloud computing; you will require the help of top cloud computing service provider. These are the companies that will provide the coherence between your business and the cloud services provided by companies like AWS, Azure, Google, Oracle, SAP etc.

Read more: What is Salesforce LinkedIn Integration

Types of cloud computing Models

The hosting models that you select will have a significant impact on the cloud computing business model, which is the foundation upon which the services are provided. The following are the 3 major types of cloud computing models.

1. Public

A public cloud is a cloud whose resources are shared by more than one customer. Multiple users can share the same resources and services in a Public Cloud.

These renters only pay for the services they use. They book a set amount of space, computing power, or application ahead of time and are then charged for it. Since a public cloud’s hardware is shared, it costs less to use.

2. Private

In a private cloud, the whole cloud is set aside for just one tenant. You can change the cloud to fit your needs as a tenant. You can connect to the Private Cloud over the internet or through a private LAN.

Most applications for large businesses are hosted on a Private Cloud, which keeps all of an organization’s data safe. The private cloud is chosen by organizations that have very sensitive information or applications that are vital to their mission.

3. Hybrid

A hybrid cloud, as the name suggests, is a mix of public and private clouds that gives you the best of both worlds. With the Hybrid cloud, when the resources on the Private cloud are all used up, and more are needed, the Public Cloud is used to get these extra resources.

With a hybrid cloud, you can host some of your apps on a public cloud and other, more important apps on a private cloud. This helps you save money and resources based on what you need.

Read more: How An AWS Multi-Region Architecture Can Strengthen DR?

Pros of cloud computing

  • Economical: – Cloud services are rentable, reducing a company’s IT costs.
  • Better backup and recovery: – Cloud has a preplanned disaster recovery site. This allows faster data restoration than traditional Disaster Recovery.
  • Great Accessibility: – An enterprise’s cloud-hosted services are accessible worldwide.
  • Flexibility and Scalability: – Cloud makes resources seem limitless because they can be dynamically expanded based on business needs.

Also know: Why blockchain based cloud computing could be the future of IoT?

Cons of cloud computing

  • Security: – Since Cloud services are online; the data is vulnerable to cyberattacks.
  • Restriction: – Choosing a vendor or service provider limits an organization to its proprietary apps.
  • Internet Connection is mandatory: – With Cloud services, using enterprise apps online is required. Internet outages can cause downtime for these businesses.

Case studies and illustrations of cloud computing

Computing in the cloud has developed and diversified into a wide array of offerings and capabilities that are designed to meet virtually any business requirement that can be conceived of. Some examples of the capabilities and varieties offered by cloud computing includes the following:

Services like Google Docs and Microsoft 365

Both Google Docs and Microsoft 365 are available to users worldwide through the internet. Users have the ability to access their work presentations and spreadsheets that are stored in the cloud at any time, from any location, and using any device. This allows users to be more productive in their work.

Service like E-mail, Calendar, Skype, and WhatsApp

Emails, calendars, Skype, and WhatsApp all take advantage of the cloud’s capability to provide users with remote access to their data, allowing users to access their personal information on any device, at any time, and in any location they choose.

Video calling apps like Zoom and Microsoft Teams

Zoom is a video and audio conferencing software platform that is hosted in the cloud. It records meetings and stores the recordings in the cloud, giving users the ability to access the recordings at any time and from any location. Microsoft Teams is yet another platform that is commonly used for communication and collaboration.

Cloud services like AWS Lambda

Lambda frees developers from the burden of provisioning and managing server infrastructure by allowing them to execute application or back-end service code. The pay-as-you-go model continuously scales with an organization to accommodate real-time changes in the amount of data that is being used and the amount of data that is being stored. Serverless computing is supported by a number of major cloud service providers, including Google Cloud, AWS(Amazon web services) and Microsoft Azure to name a few.

So, how is cloud computing actually put to use? The plethora of services and capabilities offered by contemporary public clouds have found applications in an extremely wide variety of use cases, including the following:

Development and testing solutions

Timelines and milestones can be sped up by using development and testing environments that are prefabricated and customized.

Hosting for production-level workloads

Live production workloads are increasingly being hosted in the public cloud by various organizations. To accomplish this, the cloud resources and services that are essential to the creation of an adequate operational environment for the workload and its required level of resilience must be meticulously planned out, designed, and built.

Big data analytics

Cloud storage allows for remote data centers to be flexible and scalable, and these centers can provide data-driven insights that are of great value. Amazon EMR and Google Cloud Dataproc are two examples of services that are offered by major cloud providers and are specifically geared toward big data projects.

Conclusion

Cloud computing is coming to mobiles also with the advent of technologies like 5G. In the end, cloud computing and mobile cloud computing is the way of the future because it has so many great benefits for both small and large businesses.

Even though there are some learning curves, it’s clear that the impact of cloud computing on mobile app development is going to be huge. It is our sincere hope that after reading this blog, you now have a better understanding of cloud computing and the benefits it can bring to your business.

Author

  • Prabhakar Atla Image

    I'm Prabhakar Atla, an AI enthusiast and digital marketing strategist with over a decade of hands-on experience in transforming how businesses approach SEO and content optimization. As the founder of AICloudIT.com, I've made it my mission to bridge the gap between cutting-edge AI technology and practical business applications.Whether you're a content creator, educator, business analyst, software developer, healthcare professional, or entrepreneur, I specialize in showing you how to leverage AI tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot to revolutionize your workflow. My decade-plus experience in implementing AI-powered strategies has helped professionals in diverse fields automate routine tasks, enhance creativity, improve decision-making, and achieve breakthrough results.

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