Cloud Computing — why cloud services over traditional on-premises infrastructure
When the internet first came we had no clue, how powerful and useful email is going to become. Our productivity has grown by orders of magnitude because of this instant communication and we haven’t realized it anymore. A similar transformation is happening right now where a huge amount of data, backups, and the entire work environment are migrating to the cloud.
The concept of “the cloud” has evolved into a wide range of solutions, but cloud computing is essentially the use of third-party computing power that delivers services over the internet.
So in this article, we are gonna see “why cloud services over traditional on-premises infrastructure”.
The Cloud is everywhere these days. Some examples of companies that provide services through the cloud:
Perhaps we must have used some of the above services and have never realized that these are cloud computing services.
We can divide all of the different services into three layers of the cloud. The primary objective of a cloud computing network is based on what layers its users have access to.
In any company, to develop a new service, we need to meet these basic requirements:
1. The ability to scale to meet elastic demands
2. Provide resiliency in response to a data center failure
3. Ensure data is secure and protected
4. Platform to collaborate.
5. The project must be delivered quickly
6. The service be cost-efficient to build and maintain
These seem to be a fairly standard set of requirements. Let's see how cloud platforms deliver all of that and a bit more:
Growth/Scaling: Now we can hire the best talent remotely. Knack is a cloud-based database tool that makes it easy for anyone to manage, share, and utilize their data.
Security: Most of the data has been stored on Google, Microsoft, or Amazon servers and we haven’t heard of getting hacked. Keeping data in the cloud is much safer.
Cost: Company time changes, it shrinks and grows, we cant buy servers as people join our company and sell them as they leave. we can have a new device policy. As soon as somebody comes on board, we can just give them cloud access and disable their cloud license whenever needed. We’re only paying for the compute resources that we consume. All we need is a browser and a good internet connection.
Collaboration: Imagine an unlimited number of employees who can work on the same sheet, at the same time. Wow!!
Data Management and Resiliency: I am a techie but I am also a traditionalist. I like to keep my manage my data locally and it keeps getting sync on the cloud from time to time. I can also work on the cloud whenever required. Also, It can recover quickly and continue operating even when there has been an equipment failure, power outage, or other disruption.
Ease of use: Account, billing, salaries are just one click away now, even from our smartphones.
This article was not about how, it was about why. How to migrate from a desktop version to a cloud-based version is also a lot easier than we think.
Cloud behemoths such as AWS, Google, and Microsoft will continue to grow. Startups will continue to emerge with new, groundbreaking technologies. Threats will remain in the shadows, but security will parallel their growth. I am a techie and I can assure you that cloud is not a trend, they are here to stay.
