Companies can rent access to anything from applications to storage from a cloud service provider rather than owning their own computing infrastructure or data centres. One benefit of using cloud computing services is that firms can avoid the upfront cost and complexity of owning and maintaining their own IT Infrastructure, and instead simply pay for what they use, when they use it.
FIXING ISSUES BEFORE THEY HAPPEN
Infrastructure-as-a-Services
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) refers to the fundamental building blocks of computing that can be rented: physical or virtual servers, storage, and networking. This is attractive to companies that want to build applications from the very ground up and want to control nearly all the elements themselves, but it does require firms to have the technical skills to be able to orchestrate services at that level.
Platform-as-a-Service
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) is the next layer up, as well as the underlying storage, networking, and virtual servers.
This will also include the tools and software that developers need to build applications on top of that could include middleware, database management, operating systems, and development tools.
Software-as-a-Service
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is the delivery of applications-as-a-service, probably the version of cloud computing that most people are used to on a day-to-day basis.
The underlying hardware and operating system are irrelevant to the end-user, who will access the service via a web browser or app; it is often bought on a per-seat or per-user basis.
WHAT IS CLOUD COMPUTING?
Cloud computing is the delivery of on-demand computing services from applications to storage and processing power typically over the internet and on a pay-as-you-go basis.
CLOUD COMPUTING BENEFITS
No more buying servers, updating applications or operating systems, or decommissioning and disposing of hardware or software when it is out of date, as it is all taken care.- Companies do not need to buy or maintain their own computing infrastructure.
- For commodity applications, such as email, it can make sense to switch to a cloud provider, rather than rely on in-house skills.
- Companies can move faster on projects and test out concepts without lengthy procurement and big upfront costs because firms only pay for the resources they consume.