Cloud Computing: Services, Types, and Benefits

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services over the internet to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale.

Top Benefits of Cloud Computing

• Cost: Eliminates the capital expense of buying hardware and software and setting up and running on-site data centers.
• Speed: Most cloud computing services are provided self-service and on-demand, so even huge amounts of computing resources can be provisioned in minutes.
• Global Scale: Offers the ability to scale elastically.
• Productivity: Cloud computing removes the need for many tasks, so IT teams can spend time achieving more important business goals.
• Performance: Reduces network latency for applications and provides greater economies of scale.
• Security: Cloud providers offer a set of policies, technologies, and controls to secure your information.

Types of Cloud Computing

• Public Cloud: Owned and operated by a third-party cloud service provider, which delivers computing resources over the internet. The service provider owns the hardware and software, and you access it through a web browser.
• Private Cloud: Computing resources used exclusively by a single company. You can have it on your company's data center or pay a third party to host your private cloud.
• Hybrid Cloud: Combines both, bound together by technology that allows data and applications to be shared between them. It gives you more flexibility, more deployment options, and helps optimize infrastructure, security, and compliance.

Types of Cloud Services

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

You rent IT infrastructure from a cloud provider on a pay-as-you-go basis. It is an instant computing infrastructure, provisioned and managed over the internet. Each resource is offered as a separate service. (e.g., Google Cloud Platform)

Typical Uses of IaaS

• Test and development
• Website hosting
• Storage, backup, and recovery
• Web applications
• High-performance computing
• Big data analysis

Advantages of IaaS

• Eliminates capital expense and reduces ongoing cost
• Improves business continuity and disaster recovery
• Facilitates rapid innovation
• Enables quicker response to shifting business conditions
• Allows you to focus on your core business
• Increases stability, reliability, and supportability
• Offers better security
• Gets new applications to users faster

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Cloud computing services that supply an on-demand environment for developing, testing, delivering, and managing software applications. It's designed for developers to quickly create web or mobile apps.

Typical Uses of PaaS

• Development framework
• Analytics or business intelligence
• Additional services such as workflow

Advantages of PaaS

• Cuts coding time
• Adds development capabilities without adding staff
• Develops for multiple platforms more easily
• Uses sophisticated tools affordably
• Supports geographically distributed development teams
• Efficiently manages the application lifecycle

Software as a Service (SaaS)

A method for delivering software applications over the internet, on-demand, and typically on a subscription basis. Cloud providers host and manage the software application and underlying infrastructure and handle any maintenance. (e.g., Email, Microsoft Office, Netflix)

Advantages of SaaS

• Gain access to sophisticated applications
• Pay only for what you use
• Use free client software