How Cloud Solutions Have Benefited Businesses?

However, talking about the cloud isn’t something very new in the tech world as it has been trending for over 10 years now; it surely has been evolving amongst businesses every second. Although computing resources were something that found its space in the 50’s era it has, however, found a relatively newer version in the form of ‘Cloud Computing,’ speaking technically. So, what exactly is Cloud? No, not the cloud formed due to evaporated water. In the technology world, the cloud is something used by businesses to store their data using Internet services. Got confused? Let us explain it simply.

Cloud Basics

Cloud Computing is something where businesses can store data on a third-party server hosted elsewhere. This means the cloud server won’t necessarily be located in-house. The purpose of cloud computing is to help businesses store data without having to worry about the storage space in their computer hard discs. It reduced the burden of maintaining too many hardware devices used for data storage to a great extent. A live and popular example of the cloud is Google Docs. 

Have you ever observed how Google Docs work? No? Well, try using it once and you’ll figure out that the data is being saved automatically forming a cloud file that can be accessed from across the globe. All you need to have is a valid ID to log in to Google Docs and get started instantly. This is just a miniature example of what the cloud can offer. The picture is way too massive to analyze.

So, with this, we can conclude that cloud computing is a platform that enables scalable and perfectly elastic software services using the Internet as a medium.  

IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS - Three Fundamental Cloud Branches 

IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service)

As the name suggests Infrastructure-as-a-Service or IaaS is a service platform where businesses can access storage, networking, servers, and virtualization through a third party to create an IT environment suiting individual business types. Apart from managing the infrastructure, the IaaS also aims at managing other services including IP address, network connections, load balancers, billing management, and access management, etc. to name a few.  

Storage Resiliency – This particular feature is one of the most important ones out of all as it keeps the operations of cloud computing go on smoothly even if there is a power outage or failure of any equipment. The storage resilient software would help in restoring all the data during any troubleshooting due to workloads on multiple physical servers. 

IaaS or Infrastructure-as-a-Service enables users to install operating systems, deploy databases, create storage and install workloads as per their business needs. 

SAAS (Software-as-a-Service)

• Software-as-a-Service is a Cloud platform that allows users to access data from any device with the help of an Internet connection. 

• The web model is hosted on servers managed by third-party vendors to run the applications including codes, servers, and databases efficiently. 

• The SaaS model helps companies to focus more on outsourcing of the IT responsibilities and reduce the overall cost of their hardware. The software developed is hosted on a cloud server, which is managed by a SaaS vendor. 

In all of the above discussions, we should not take SaaS the same as On-premise software. Both are different models. Whereas SaaS or (Software-as-a-Service) allows users to opt for annual or monthly subscriptions to access software applications from the cloud, the On-Premise model usually is when buyers own a license. They pay a certain percentage of money for the maintenance and support fees. Choosing either of them depends upon individual business requirements. 

PAAS (Platform-as-a-Service)

Platform-as-a-Service or PaaS as the name suggests is an alternative to any company’s IT infrastructure. This means, to some extent it replaces the IT model of a company with various cloud components in the form of servers, operating systems, and databases, etc. among others. 

Let’s see how PaaS works:

The cloud service provider’s hosted infrastructure with users allows businesses to access data via a web browser without disturbing the company’s existing IT model. The best part of PaaS is that it is flexible and can be deployed on all the cloud verticals including public, private and hybrid cloud models. It is extremely simple for which it takes a plus apart from service available that can be a concern for the users.  

Other Services Involved in Platform-as-a-Service Include:

• Web Service Integration
• Information Security Systems
• Application Development & Designing 
• Application Testing & Implementation

Cloud Computing – Here to StayAs Cloud computing technology has existed for over a decade now it has been one of the most rapidly changing ones amongst enterprises that have deployed cloud models on their premises. From a simple hosting service to a giant cloud platform Cloud Computing is available to anybody and anywhere in the world. Offering a perfectly scalable IT environment Cloud Computing is something that has gained attention worldwide and is evolving every second of the hour.