What is Cloud Computing - A Complete Guide

Technology has contributed a lot to revolutionize the world. It has brought advancement in our lifestyle and working style. One such most significant reforms are cloud computing that has made data handling easier without worrying about the space allocation and hassles of resource transportation.

Are you excited to know what is cloud computing? If the answer is yes, then, to get in-depth information on Cloud computing technology. go through the whole article once to enrich your knowledge.

Cloud computing has become a popular phrase on the internet. It is a fantastic and cost-effective way of processing and managing data from anywhere over the internet.

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What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is a platform that allows people to access and share data in a secure and scalable way; it just requires an internet connection. In other words, Cloud computing can also be thought of as internet-based computing where services such as servers, storage, and applications are delivered to the company's computers and other devices through the internet.

What are the Types of Cloud Computing?
There are a total of four types of cloud that every user can subscribe for as per his/her business needs and demands. Let us know them one by one.

1. Public cloud
From the name itself, we get the idea that this cloud computing is accessible to everybody. It is basically used for B2C or B2B types of interactions where either governments or big organizations handle computing resources.

2. Private cloud
In a private cloud, all the computing resources and services are deployed and dedicated to a single organization. Here, the computing resources are owned and governed by the same organization. Also, Some organizations pay third-party cloud service providers to host and maintain their private cloud.

3. Hybrid cloud
In simple words, a hybrid cloud is a combination of public and private clouds. Here, the resources of private and public clouds are shared to make data handling more flexible and provide better services than ever before.

4. Community cloud
In a community cloud, resources are shared between several organizations belonging to a specific community having similar needs. This service is preferred by a group of people having common or similar interests.

What are Cloud Computing Services?
Cloud computing services are categorized into three parts. Clients can opt for any of them as per their business needs and demands. Let us know what are they one by one.

1. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
It is a basic category of cloud computing services that help in handling data over the internet. In this IaaS, customers are provided infrastructures such as server space, bandwidth, network connections, load balancers, and IP addresses. By opting for this service, users will not have to worry about buying and maintaining components such as hard drives, network connections, etc.

2. Platform as a Service (Paas)
PaaS provides an environment that facilitates developers to build and create applications and services. It keeps on updating and adding new features to the software and application along with providing storage, networking, testing, collaborating, maintaining and deploying applications.

3. Software as a Service (SaaS)
It is a cloud service where online software licensing and access is given to the clients rather than installing it on their individual computers. Cloud computing service providers host on-demand applications and avail them to the customers over the internet. Through SaaS, organizations do not have to install and run applications in their own data centres. This helps clients to get rid of the costs of hardware acquisition and their maintenance.

Cloud Computing Architecture
Cloud computing architecture has two parts - front end and back end. Let us know what are these parts consist of and what is their importance is.

Front End
The front end is the user or client end.
It consists of interfaces and applications necessary to access the Cloud Computing system.

Back End
The back end is the cloud section of the system.
It comprises of all the resources such as huge data storage, deployment models, servers, virtual machines, security mechanisms, services, etc. needed to give Cloud computing services.

What are the Advantages & Disadvantages of Cloud Computing?
With everything, pros and cons are attached and so as to cloud computing. Let us see what the advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing are. It is worth opting for some service whose cons under weigh the pros. Despite security issues, people are operating their business on cloud platform because cost-saving, disaster recovery are bigger and more valuable as compared to associated risks.

Advantages of Cloud computing:
Accessibility - Cloud computing has made it possible to access files from anywhere with an Internet connection to avoid time zone and geographic location issues.

Cost savings - It is one of the best and cost-effective options to keep your data securely. You can choose the required storage option as per your business requirement, such if you want just to store the data or also want to perform some operation on it.

Disaster recovery - We cannot afford to lose our data, and for that sake, everyone should invest in an emergency backup plan by taking cloud storage help.

Scalability - With cloud storage, a user needs to pay only for storage he/she requires. In case your business experiences growth, you will have to extend your pay amount corresponding to the increased storage needs.

Productivity - To process and organize data, IT teams have to take care of hardware setup, software patching and various other IT management chores. Cloud computing platform really make you free from all these work and let you concentrate more on important business goals.

Performance - Cloud computing services run on secure and regularly upgraded data centres with the latest computing hardware to reduce the network latency and greater economies for sale.

Security: Cloud computing service providers strengthen their client's security by offering a broad set of policies and technologies that protect data and infrastructure from a potential threat.

Disadvantages of Cloud Computing:
Internet connectivity - Cloud computing is totally based on internet connectivity. To maintain consistency in your work, you need to have good internet connectivity. Sometimes, even the best servers may go down, which will stop your work until the internet connection returns.

Ongoing Costs - There is some bandwidth allowance for every service. Once you cross that bandwidth, you may have to pay extra charges for that. Similarly, as your business grows and demands more resources and storage, expenditure also increases.

Security - Remember, when you are storing your sensitive data on the cloud, you are trusting a third party. Therefore, better be informed from starting that cloud storage service is secure, but what if getting hacked or lost.

Conclusion
Cloud computing is a fantastic platform that offers servers, storage and applications helpful for managing the business in a secure way from anywhere in the world. It requires a good internet connection to offer highly secure, cost-effective and scalable resources.