Industry trends on Cloud Computing

Industry trends on Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a service model that allows information technology (IT) customers to obtain computing resources over the internet. In network diagrams and flowcharts, an icon that resembles a cloud is traditionally used to represent the internet. A cloud computing environment has five important characteristics that differentiate it from a traditional computing environment:

1. Self Service – the customer can provision computing resources by themselves, on demand.
2. Network Access – resources are provisioned and accessed over the internet.
3. Resource Pools – resources are pooled together to serve the needs of multiple customers.
4. Elasticity – resources can be rapidly provisioned or scaled down depending on real-time need.
5. Measured Services – resource usage can be monitored and controlled by the customer.

There are several cloud computing services offered today. Each of these services can be broadly divided into 3 categories. These are as follows:

• IaaS: Infrastructure-as-a-Service is a cloud computing service offered by providers like AWS (Amazon Web Services). Such a provider would give companies virtual server storage and instance along with APIs (application programming interfaces) that allow users to migrate their workloads to virtual machines or VMs. A user has a specific storage capacity volume allocated to them, and they can stop, start, configure and access the storage and the virtual machine in whichever way they desire. An IaaS provider offers memory-optimised, compute-optimised, small, medium and large and extra-large instances while enabling instance customisation for a wide range of workload requirements. The IaaS model is the closest thing to remote data centres for a business user.
• PaaS: This refers to the Platform-as-a-Service model. In this model, a cloud provider uses its infrastructure for development tool hosting. A user accesses these tools using APIs, gateway software or web portals over the internet. PaaS services are used for general development requirements, while several PaaS service providers also host software post development. Google App Engine, AWS Elastic Beanstalk and Salesforce’s Lightning Platform are the most widely used PaaS products today.
• SaaS: Software-as-a-Service refers to a cloud distribution model that uses the internet to deliver software applications known as web services. A user can access a SaaS service or application from anywhere with just a mobile device or computer system with an internet connection. The SaaS cloud computing model gives users access to databases and application software. Microsoft 365 is the most commonly used SaaS application today for email and productivity services.

There are multiple benefits of using cloud computing. Some of them are provided below :

• Cost management: Cloud infrastructure deployment significantly reduces capital costs, since enterprises no longer need to spend large amounts on maintaining and buying physical equipment. This reduces capital expenditure for businesses, regardless of their size. They also reduces downtime and affiliated costs – since there are fewer malfunctions due to the virtual storage of data, businesses don’t need to spend money or time fixing these issues.
• Workload and data mobility: Storing data in the cloud means users can get access to it using any device from anywhere using just their active internet connection. This implies that there is great flexibility among users to work remotely and across a number of host devices.
• BCDR (Business continuity and disaster recovery): Data storage in a cloud environment can guarantee users that their data is always accessible even though their device might be lost or stolen. Using cloud-based solutions, enterprises can recover data rapidly in emergencies like power outages and natural disasters. This enables BCDR and ensures data and workloads are always available despite business disruption.

The Cloud of the Future

Moving to the cloud truly enables workers and companies to be agile and adapt to what the work environment throws their way. Processes can be simplified, communication channels move away from solely email to better tools, data integration is now real time, and the possibilities are endless. But with all these advantages, there are still some reservations about cloud computing. Security is still a major sticking point for many executives. Performance, cost, and compliance can also be concerns. Plus, there are still many decision makers who just aren’t quite ready to embrace this technology The cloud is still changing, and it will be very interesting to see what new benefits appear in the coming years.

References