Low-cost cloud computing and improved availability
Cloud computing is the latest technology trend, given its multiple benefits. It was announced more than 10 years ago and looks like it came to stay.
The benefits of cloud computing are: cost reduction, flexibility, availability, and security
What is cloud computing?
They are a set of technology services, offered over the Internet,that are charged only for what is consumed and that are designed to give business agility and flexibility.
What services does the cloud provide?
Computing: the capacity it supports of applications on the Internet. The user can choose the number of processing cores and memory it requires. While, the cloud provider takes care of having them available for when the user requires it.
Storage– The cloud offers virtually unlimited storage capacity. In addition, you have the ability to replicate information to multiple geographic locations. This adds a fault tolerance layer that seeks to ensure the availability of information at all times.
Networking– Each cloud provider offers a set of services that seeks to virtualize the network layer of physical infrastructure solutions. Thus, new tools are defined to control communication between different cloud services. While managing resource security and improving response times for customers around the world.
And what are the types of cloud computing?
There is a classification of cloud types within which the services we have already mentioned can be deployed:
Public cloud
When a provider consolidates a set of physical resources into one or more geographic locations and exposes them for consumption as services over the Internet. This is known as a public cloud, because their access is open to everyone, even though the resources allocated to each user are private.
Private cloud
When a particular user decides to provision compute, storage, and networking capabilities locally. With this, you can consume resources individually, this is known as a private cloud. In particular, traditional physical facilities, also known as on-premises,are included in this category.
Hybrid cloud
When solutions are integrated between multiple public cloud providers, connected to one or multiple private clouds, this is known as a hybrid cloud solution.
Products Offered in the cloud
Cloud computing services describe a variety of service models:
- based on how you want to use the service ([SaaS]).
- platform as a service [PaaS]or
- infrastructure as a service[IaaS]) run strictly in the cloud.
One of the advantages of using the cloud-only model is that you don’t have to worry about the infrastructure on which services are running. Back-end functionality is invisible to users and IT.
The cloud-only model is perfect for small businesses, such as startups, that don’t have internal IT resources or capital to buy and maintain their own infrastructure. Hiring a managed infrastructure service can be a good choice. You don’t have to purchase or manage your infrastructure, as the Cloud Service Provider (CSP) takes care of it.
Note, however, that the cloud-only model can limit the level of adaptation of your services. Because users and IT staff can’t customize SaaS and PaaS-based services running in the cloud. If you need to be able to customize your services and infrastructure, you may require a hybrid model.
The hybrid cloud model
The cloud-only model prevents you from having to build and maintain your own infrastructure. But what if your company has invested heavily in on-premises hardware, line-of-business systems, custom applications, etc.? Need to abandon all resources and customizations to enjoy the benefits of cloud computing? This is where the hybrid model comes from.
Hybrid deployment is a combination of cloud services with on-premises services to meet IT needs. A hybrid cloud migration allows you to maintain critical resources on-premises while also working with cloud services. Connect on-premises resources to the cloud, effectively making new cloud services an extension of your on-premises infrastructure. The hybrid cloud model allows you to extend features or features that are not available on your existing on-premises systems (such as mobility and productivity) to your infrastructure. So how to choose which is the best model for you?
Which cloud computing model should your organization choose?
When organizations consider using cloud solutions, they typically focus on three areas:
- Cost Security,
- Reliability and reliability
- Compliance Functionality
These three categories do not necessarily have the same level of importance. Some small organizations may give more value to the cost of functions, while larger and more complex organizations may have the top priority for security and compliance.
Consider the following when choosing the most appropriate model for your organization:
Recent investment in hardware.
A year ago, a mid-sized organization invested in new hardware for its on-premises data center. Therefore, your organization may not be interested in making a major shift to the cloud for at least one or two years. Organizations in a similar situation will likely opt for a limited hybrid cloud model that focuses on delivering capabilities that don’t exist in their on-premises datacenter.
Outdated hardware and systems.
In contrast to the example above, an organization that considers renewing an on-premises datacenter versus cloud-based solutions can have a very different perspective. If your data center has older hardware and unsupported software versions, you’re more likely to consider moving to the cloud. And, if your cloud offering meets security and compliance requirements, relative cost, and cost model type (operational expenses vs. capital expenditures ), these may be the deciding factors.
Limited internal IT resources
The size and capacity of IT is important when considering switching to a cloud-based solution. Often, an organization with limited IT resources is changed more quickly to cloud services because there is no need to maintain IT software and hardware. Some organizations with larger IT groups might also consider the cloud as a way to free up their IT resources to focus on more strategic roles and therefore add value to the organization.
Available capital.
Cloud-based SaaS solutions are designed to help you avoid large capital investments in IT, rather than paying to access software for a certain time with a subscription model. If your organization has limited capital for IT or has other priorities for capital investment, the cloud-only model might be the best choice.
