Cloud Computing Wikipedia

Cloud security refers to efforts to protect digital assets and data stored on cloud-based services. Measures to protect this data include two-factor authorization (2FA), the use of VPNs, security tokens, data encryption, and firewall services, among others. Analysts argue that as the cloud now underpins most new technological disruptions in everything from mobile banking to healthcare, usage is only going grow. It’s hard to see many new technology projects being delivered that don’t harness the cloud in some way.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

You still have to manage the physical servers, and you’re responsible for their maintenance and scaling. This means that only you get to use the servers and have unlimited control over them. A potential issue with this is, having everything handled by the cloud service provider means you have little or no control over the services. A cloud deployment model determines where your data (and applications) is stored and how your customers interact with it. IaaS offers the least abstraction and the highest level of control over the underlying infrastructure.

• Some examples of popular SaaS solutions would be Microsoft 365, Dropbox, and DocuSign.
• Donations to freeCodeCamp go toward our education initiatives, and help pay for servers, services, and staff.
• As cloud technology continues to grow, it will become even more important for both individuals and businesses.
• In simple terms, cloud computing allows you to rent instead of buy your back-end IT systems.
• Clients can interact with these APIs in various ways, including from the AWS console (a website), by using SDKs written in various languages (such as Python, Java, and JavaScript), or by making direct REST calls.

How Cloud Computing Manages and Stores Data

The public cloud provider owns, manages and assumes all responsibility for the data centers, hardware and infrastructure on which its customers’ workloads run. It typically provides high-bandwidth network connectivity to help ensure high performance and rapid access to applications and data. On the other hand, public cloud users give up the ability to control the infrastructure, which can raise security and regulatory compliance concerns. Some public cloud providers, like AWS Outposts rack, now offer physical, on-premises server racks for jobs that need to be done in-house for security and compliance reasons. Additionally, many vendors offer cloud cost calculators to help users better predict and understand charges.

However, PaaS focuses on providing application development tools rather than compute resources. This cost-effective cloud computing model enables businesses to utilize a development, testing, and deployment environment all through the internet. A hybrid cloud is a combination of public private clouds managed as a single environment.

Hybrid cloud computing is a combination of public and private cloud computing, and each hybrid cloud varies from IT system to IT system. If applications can move through separate environments through connectivity or integration, the cloud environment can be considered hybrid. Examples of a hybrid cloud system include one private cloud and one public cloud, two or more private clouds, or two or more public clouds. It can also include virtual environments that are connected to public or private clouds. Cloud computing relies heavily on virtualization and automation technologies. This simplifies the abstraction and provisioning of cloud resources into logical entities, letting users easily request and use these resources.

That said, if you want to focus more on the quality of your application, it’s perfect. Through the use of specialized software, virtualization enables us to mimic hardware functionalities. One way to conceptualize virtualization is as software pretending to be hardware. The SaaS market alone is expected to grow cloud computing from $273.55 billion in 2023 to $908.21 billion by 2030, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.7 percent.

The three public CSPs — AWS, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure — rank at the top, followed by other leading vendors including Oracle, Alibaba, IBM, Huawei and Tencent. A SaaS distribution model delivers software applications over the internet; these applications are often called web services. Users can access SaaS applications and services from any location using a computer or mobile device with internet access. In the SaaS model, users gain access to application software and databases. An example of a SaaS application is Microsoft 365 for productivity and email services.

Layers of a Cloud Computing Stack

Access the most comprehensive, secure, and price-performant AI infrastructure for all your training and inference needs. Improve customer experiences with interactive chatbots and virtual assistants, conversational and predictive analytics, and agent assistance. Boost employee productivity with conversational search, code generation, and automated report generation. Accelerate process optimization with natural language processing and image recognition, data augmentation, and supply chain optimization. You can deploy technology services in a matter of minutes, and get from idea to implementation several orders of magnitude faster than before.

Another way to describe types of cloud computing is public, private, or hybrid. Streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, or Spotify use cloud computing to store media remotely, which you can access through an online portal. At work, you might use customer relationship management (CRM) tools or a service like Dropbox, both of which use cloud technology. Instead of building their own platform for developing, testing, delivering, and managing software applications, they use a cloud provider to make it easier. And instead of managing software installations on all of their employee’s devices, they use software that runs on the internet.

Origins of cloud computing

It’s built on physical hardware, and every cloud solution is also built on this model. Cloud computing runs on layers of resources with varying degrees of abstraction — the ability to simplify processes for users — stacked on top of each other. This abstraction serves to cover different needs, including costs, management responsibilities and control. A cloud computing stack clarifies a business’ infrastructure complexity, highlighting how services can assemble on top of each other to become usable solutions.

• His work has been featured in outlets such as Keypoint Intelligence, FitSmallBusiness and PCMag.
• Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), software-as-a-service (SaaS) and serverless computing are the most common “as-as-service” cloud platform models.
• Here’s what you need to know about why the cloud matters and how it can help your business.
• This allows organizations to scale faster and more efficiently without the burden of having to buy and maintain their own physical data centers and servers.

Cloud Security

Customers only pay for the central processing unit cycles, storage or bandwidth they consume. Examples of public CSPs include AWS, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), IBM, Microsoft Azure, Oracle and Tencent Cloud. In the public cloud model, a third-party CSP delivers the cloud service over the internet. The resources are shared between multiple organizations to implement cost efficiency and scalability. The cloud provider typically charges the customer based on the resources consumed, such as storage space used, compute time or network bandwidth.

For example, an organization can choose AWS for its global reach with web hosting, IBM Cloud for data analytics and machine learning (ML) platforms and Microsoft Azure for its security features. Architecture of cloud computing is the combination of both SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) and EDA (Event Driven Architecture). Client infrastructure, application, service, runtime cloud, storage, infrastructure, management and security all these are the components of cloud computing architecture. When using a public cloud, you’re not concerned about the server maintenance, and you’re sure of high reliability and the possibility of unlimited scalability. To maximise resources, cloud service providers have their clients sharing servers. In the case of cloud computing, you don’t have to worry about buying the computer, or protecting it, or covering the running costs.

Public cloud environments can be separated and distributed to multiple entities. Scalability measures a cloud system’s ability to increase or decrease IT resources as needed. It’s often regarded as one of the most significant benefits of cloud computing. Especially in enterprise-level businesses, cloud infrastructure must be able to accommodate fluctuating demands. For example, if a company expands, more employees are likely to access its cloud technology. Despite handling more users, the system should not suffer from performance issues.

There are multiple models and a wide range of services available, giving organizations a lot of flexibility when it comes to cloud computing. From public to private to hybrid cloud, businesses can find or build the right configuration to meet their own particular budget, requirements, and needs. However, some security experts argue that public cloud services are more secure than traditional data centers. Most cloud vendors have large security teams and employ the latest technologies to prevent and mitigate attacks. Smaller enterprises simply don’t have as many resources to devote to securing their networks. That means being able to connect and integrate cloud services from multiple vendors is going to be a new and increasing challenge for business.