Cloud Computing Services Features And its Benefits

Cloud Computing Services Features & Its Benefits

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There’s no denying that IT has influenced virtually all sectors of human endeavor today. From communication to marketing, business operations rely mainly on IT for successful execution and optimized results. One of the primary needs of an IT-powered system is data.

Data plays a crucial role in helping businesses:

analyze and understand the best models for maximum productivity and profitability.
detect errors in operation and provide effective solutions.
understand customer behavior and create more practical marketing plans.

etc

Businesses’ computational processes require data, which are traditionally stored on-site using servers, computers, or other devices. However, this system poses several challenges, such as:

heavy maintenance costs
high set-up cost
lack of scalability
difficulty in accessing data
more prone to security issues

Luckily, with the introduction of cloud computing, businesses can now enjoy a better way of handling data and utilizing IT for operations.

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing refers to the use and delivery of computing resources over the internet. Computing resources include servers, applications, databases, networking, and analytics. Instead of dealing with the heavy maintenance costs of on-site servers, businesses enjoy the same service, and even more, while paying only for the resources and services they use with cloud computing.

As a result, they can cut operating costs while solving the challenges of local storage without worrying about security and privacy issues. Interestingly, cloud computing services are available to all kinds of companies and organizations, whether small, medium, or large scale.

Types of Cloud Computing

Generally, there are four types of cloud computing models, which are:

private clouds
public clouds
hybrid clouds
multiclouds

Private clouds

Private clouds are clouds owned by a single end-user, group, or company and run behind the owner’s firewall. In private clouds, the entire IT infrastructure is dedicated to just one user who enjoys exclusive access. Private clouds are typically only available for internal use as they’re developed within the organization or company.

Public clouds

Public clouds are cloud resources offered by large cloud providers for public use. Public clouds aren’t owned by the users and can have millions of users, with each having its own privacy. Popular examples of public cloud providers are Alibaba Cloud, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Microsoft Azure.

Hybrid clouds

Hybrid clouds are formed from a combination of at least one private and public cloud connected via local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), virtual private networks (VPNs), and/or APIs.

Multiclouds

Multiclouds are the result of combining multiple public cloud resources from multiple vendors, and they can sometimes include private cloud resources too.

Cloud services

It’s worth mentioning that cloud computing models are different from cloud computing services. Cloud services indicate software or infrastructure hosted by third-party cloud providers for users via the internet. There are several types of cloud services, but the three main ones are IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS.

Cloud Computing Features & Benefits

1. Near-limitless scalability.

Business demands often increase with time, and as more products, services, or operation models are introduced. Unlike traditional methods, cloud computing enables businesses to easily scale their IT solution while keeping costs friendly. Thus, using cloud computing solutions gives companies the confidence to scale their business without worrying about overburdening their IT infrastructure.

2. Innovation

Traditional storage systems often have back-end performance issues which can be a major setback for organizations looking to be innovative. With cloud computing, innovation is an added advantage as the infrastructure allows businesses to experiment with different solutions and determine the most suitable and cost-effective one.

3. Cost-Effective

Cloud computing offers way cheaper and more reliable IT solutions, from the set-up cost to the maintenance fee. Although migrating to the cloud can be a bit expensive, it’s still a better alternative when businesses consider the cost of maintaining local storage methods.

4. Improved availability

Cloud computing eliminates the challenges of unavailability of files since it only requires a dependable internet to connect to your business data. All relevant team members can access and share important files while being far apart, making it easy to collaborate with the right people and break the distance barrier.

5. Pay for use

There are lots of free features on cloud services that small and medium businesses can take advantage of. However, there are also packages that companies have to pay for to enjoy the full potential of the cloud.

That said, the pricing model for cloud service users is solely dependent on usage rather than having a fixed fee. This is a cheaper and more economical model as businesses wouldn’t have to pay for services they didn’t use. Thus, cloud computing encourages the maximum use of resources while generating greater ROI.

Conclusion

Cloud computing is penetrating more businesses as news about its effectiveness and affordability continues to spread from one industry to another. Its benefits, as compared to traditional methods of handling IT needs, are incomparable. Plus, cloud computing offers businesses more robust security while keeping costs significantly lower and providing broader network access.

Written by – Mr. Adam Pittman