What is Cloud computing
In the simplest terms, cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet instead of your computer’s hard drive. Cloud computing is named as such because the information being accessed is found remotely in the cloud or a virtual space. Companies that provide cloud services enable users to store files and applications on remote servers and then access all the data via the Internet. This means the user is not required to be in a specific place to gain access to it, allowing the user to work remotely.
There are numerous benefits and advantages to cloud computing:
- Cost: Could computing eliminates the capital requirement for buying hardware and software in the front. The running cost of electricity and service are eliminated too.
- 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 they’re needed, and from the right geographic location.
- Performance: The biggest cloud computing services run on a worldwide network of secure datacenters. They are regularly upgraded to the latest generation of fast and efficient computing hardware.
- Elasticity: With cloud computing, you don’t have to over-provision resources up front to handle peak levels of business activity in the future. Instead, you provision the amount of resources that you actually need. You can scale these resources up or down to instantly to grow and shrink capacity as your business needs change.
- Scalability: With scalability, cloud computing allows the system to adapt and scale to changes in workload, ensuring the level of resource available is as closely matched to current demand as possible. The end user usually pays only for the resource they use and avoid costs on any unused capacity.
- Economies of Scale: With hundreds to thousands of customer’s data combined in the cloud, cloud computing providers achieve higher economies of scale which means lower pay as you go prices.
- No Guessing Capacity: In the past, you would have to guess the amount of capacity you needed prior to deploying an application, leaving you with too little or too many resources. Insert cloud computing and you can access as much or as little as needed.
- Increased Speed and Agility: Cloud computing puts the resources at your fingertips, limiting the cost and time it takes to experiment and develop.
- Focus on Customers: Cloud computing lets you focus on projects that differentiate your business, rather than focusing on running and maintaining a data center.
Types of Cloud Services
Regardless of the kind of service, cloud computing services provide users with a series of functions including:
- Storage, backup, and data retrieval
- Creating and testing apps
- Analyzing data
- Audio and video streaming
- Delivering software on demand
Cloud computing is still a fairly new service but is being used by a number of different organizations from big corporations to small businesses, nonprofits to government agencies, and even individual consumers.