Up Close with Cloud Computing Services

Cloud computing was a revolutionary movement that transformed the way enterprises and organizations carried out businesses. Earlier enterprises incurred huge costs as they need to install applications on computers to perform various business operations but now the applications are hosted online. Thus cloud computing can be defined as a computing model that offers servers, networks, applications and data centers through the internet. Companies and organizations need to buy only the type and the amount of services that they require. That means companies need not install any hardware, software or applications; they just have to buy the requisite services provided over a network by third parties. As there is no installation there are no maintenance worries.

Types of Cloud Computing Services

Cloud computing has seen tremendous growth over the past few years. Most of the popular web applications used today such as Skype, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Picassa, YouTube and so on are offered through cloud. Cloud computing services are broadly classified into three and they are:

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Infrastructure as a Service or IaaS gives access to storage and servers in the cloud. Another important advantage is that it offers the elasticity to scale up and down the server and storage capacity. This is extremely useful for those companies who don’t have sufficient server and storage capacity especially at the time of traffic.

• Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Platform as a Service or PaaS refers to the provision of platforms so that customers can build their applications on it. PaaS comes to the aid of those businesses which cannot provide enough resources during peak times.

• Software as a Service (SaaS)

Software as a Service or SaaS is the most popular computing model that offers businesses access to software service in the cloud. The companies need not install any software but can access it from anywhere.

Advantages of Cloud Computing

• Convenient on demand model for network access
• Reduced Costs and increased storage availability
• Extensive flexibility and higher reliability
• No need of keeping applications up to date as it is highly automated

Though there are several cloud computing providers, not all can provide impeccable services. A good service provider would offer:

•  Self-provision servers, network, storage infrastructure real-time from anywhere, anytime
• Facilitates instant deployment of new Servers with zero capital expenditure on hardware and software
• Highly-available multi-tenant environment
• On-demand Compute and Storage
• Elastic services - scale servers and storage in real time

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