WHAT IS CLOUD
The widely known Cloud technology in the digital market has its users from large organizations to Individuals. Many of us don’t realize that when we save our photos in Google Photos and take the backup any time of those pictures is an example of using cloud technology. Cloud is using remote servers hosted on the internet by cloud providers to help you store, manage and process your data rather than depending on your local server or personal computer storage. Cloud gives you online storage for your data as hard drives, computers and phones are prone to failures which can make you lose your data.
Other than storing 700 photos that you took in a concert, Cloud is a big hit for business purposes as it is extremely beneficial for storing, managing and processing a large amount of business data and it also comes with applications that gives your business work efficiency. Since two decades cloud has been only rising as more and more organizations are adopting it to enhance the overall performance of their business.
Cloud has evolved into various types, models, and services. Not all clouds are the same and not any type of cloud is suitable for any type of business. We have already discussed the Benefits of cloud but it’s still hard to understand how to make selection from Cloud Types, Models and Strategies to benefit a particular organization. It would be easy to make a choice if we would know the differences between its types, service models, and strategies.
THREE TYPES OF CLOUD
- Private Cloud- It is a secure cloud-based environment with dedicated storage and hardware resources given to the specific organization either owned or on a monthly lease. It can be architected to meet an organization’s specific needs. It can be physically located on the organization’s onsite data center or given to the third party to host it for the company at an amount. It gives an organization complete control over the services and maintenance of the infrastructure on a private network. It is mainly used by big organizations.
Pros:
- Great privacy and security,
- Control over system configuration,
- Reliable performance
- Flexibility
- Enhanced Service Quality
Cons:
- Expensive
- Need IT expertise
- Public Cloud- the public cloud is a standard cloud computing model which offers resources, servers and applications storage to their customers on the internet at cost effective prices. It is either free or pay-as-usage model. Public clouds are owned and operated by cloud providers. Hence, it is suitable for small businesses who are not keen on high security and don’t want to worry about maintaining hardware resources. Google Photos and Google Drive are examples of the public cloud.
Pros:
- Great scalability
- Cost-effective
- Reliability
- Location Independent
- Availability of Services SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS
Cons:
- No control over privacy and security
- Doesn’t run sensitive Applications
- Lack of Flexibility
- Not Ideal for High-Level security
- Hybrid Cloud- A hybrid cloud is an environment where public and private services are used together to create value. The hybrid cloud allows its customers to use the combination of both private cloud and public cloud. Organizations can move their workloads from private to public cloud smoothly according to their business needs. Hybrid cloud has become a corporate computing cloud because of the flexibility it gives to the organizations.
Pros:
- Cost-efficient
- Flexible
- Reliable
- Work-efficient
- Scalable
- Security
Cons:
- Infrastructure Dependency
As we have briefly discussed all the forms or the types of the cloud with their advantages and disadvantages, we know each type and what business it can be beneficial for. Cloud technology will keep coming with innovative advancements and there will be more to learn about it in time. Cloud has three types of service models SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS, and two types of Cloud Strategies Single Cloud and Multi-cloud. Learn how fruitful cloud services and cloud strategies are for any business.
