What is cloud computing, in simple terms?
In order to provide quicker innovation, adaptable resources, and scale economies, cloud computing is the distribution of computing services over the Internet ("the cloud"), including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence.
Companies can access anything from programs to storage from a cloud service provider, renting access to them rather than owning their own computing equipment or data centers.
Utilizing cloud computing services allows businesses to bypass the upfront costs and complexity of purchasing and maintaining their own IT infrastructure in favor of paying only for the services they actually use.
By offering the same services to a wide range of consumers, cloud computing service companies can gain enormous economies of scale.
Services for cloud computing today offer a wide range of possibilities, from the fundamentals of storage, networking, and processing power to advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and natural language processing as well as common office software. Even quantum computing can now be provided via the cloud, along with just about any other service that doesn't require you to be physically adjacent to the computer gear you are utilizing.
Cloud computing is the foundation of a huge range of services. This ranges from services that let big businesses store all of their data and operate all of their apps in the cloud to consumer services like Gmail or the cloud backup of the images on your smartphone. For instance, Netflix uses cloud computing services to power both its online streaming platform and other internal business systems.
The name "cloud computing" has been used since the early 2000s, although the idea of "computing as a service" dates back to the 1960s, when computer bureaus allowed businesses to rent time on mainframes rather than having to purchase one themselves.
These "time-sharing" services were mainly replaced by the development of the personal computer (PC), which made owning a computer much more accessible. This was followed by the emergence of corporate data centers, which allowed businesses to store enormous amounts of data.
However, in the application service providers, utility computing, and grid computing of the late 1990s and early 2000s, the idea of renting access to computer resources has often come up. This was followed by the rise of software as a service and hyper scale cloud-computing companies like Amazon Web Services, after which cloud computing really took off.
With an emphasis on various components of the technology stack and use cases, cloud computing may be divided into a number of different subsets. Let's look at a few of the most well-known in greater detail.
Physical or virtual servers, storage, and networking are the three basic components of computing that can be hired under the term "Infrastructure as a Service" (IaaS). This is appealing to businesses that want to create applications from the ground up and take almost complete control of the process; however, it does necessitate that businesses have the technical know-how necessary to coordinate services at that level.
The next layer up is called Platform as a Service (PaaS), and it includes virtual servers, storage, networking, middleware, database management, operating systems, and development tools, among other things. This layer also includes the software and tools that developers will need to build applications on top of it.
The delivery of programs as a service is known as software as a service (SaaS) and is perhaps the aspect of cloud computing that most people are accustomed to on a daily basis. The end consumer, who will connect to the service through a web browser or app, is unconcerned about the underlying hardware and operating system; it is frequently purchased on a per-seat or per-user basis.
Just as renting is not always more cost-effective than buying over the long run, cloud computing is not always less expensive than traditional types of computing. It could be more cost-effective to provide computer resources internally if an application has a consistent and predictable need for them.
Some businesses might be hesitant to host private information in a service that is also used by competitors. If you switch to a SaaS application, you can find yourself using the same programs as a competitor, which could make it difficult to gain a competitive edge if the program is essential to your company's operations.
While using a new cloud application may be simple, moving current data or apps to the cloud may be significantly more difficult and expensive. Additionally, it appears that there is currently somewhat of a skills gap in the cloud, with a specific shortage of personnel with DevOps and multi-cloud monitoring and administration expertise.
According to one study, a sizable portion of seasoned cloud users believed that IaaS's long-term cost savings ultimately outweighed the up-front transfer expenditures.
Of course, having an internet connection is a requirement if you want to access your applications.
When it comes to organizational IT spending, cloud computing is set to surpass more established methods of delivering software and services internally that have been used for decades. However, as businesses get more at ease with the concept of having their data somewhere else than a server in the basement, use of the cloud is only expected to increase. And now, rather than just concentrating on price, cloud computing suppliers are increasingly promoting cloud computing as an agent of digital change. The argument is that switching to the cloud helps speed up company change by encouraging organizations to rethink business operations. This argument might be persuasive for certain businesses that need to give their digital transformation initiatives a boost, but for others, the rising expense of switching to the cloud may be making people less enthusiastic about it.