What Is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is the delivery of on-demand computing resources (including servers, databases, storage, platforms, infrastructure, applications, etc.) over the Internet. Cloud computing can be used on a pay-as-you-go basis, which means you pay just for what you need.

Why move to the cloud? What are the benefits of cloud computing?

Cost-Efficiency

Cloud computing is a cost-effective solution for storing large amounts of data on the Internet. The traditional IT infrastructure includes applications, runtimes, security, integration, databases, servers, virtualization, storage, networking, and more. Instead of maintaining all of this by yourself, with associated operations and maintenance expenditure, you can rely on a cloud provider to handle O&M for you, allowing you to focus on your core business. You migrate everything to the cloud, and the cloud provider will handle the rest.

Paying for cloud computing is very simple, just like when you pay your power bill, you pay only for what you use. In general, there are two types of payment: yearly/monthly subscription or pay-as-you-go. Put simply, cloud computing’s flexible billing can help you to save a lot of money.

Data Security

Data security in cloud computing is more complicated than in a traditional data center, because data is stored in different machines such as servers, PCs, and various mobile devices. However cloud providers can help you to secure any infrastructure you deploy in the cloud environment, including compute, storage, database and networking resources. You just need to secure your access credentials, your applications, and the underlying operating system.

Scalability & Speed

When you suddenly need more computing power to your website or applications, you can scale up quickly and easily: almost instantly. For example, E-commerce websites may experience suddenly traffic peaks during Black Friday , which could overload your infrastructure and impact the usability of your website. Downtime has a dollar value, and E-commerce sites cannot afford to lose customers due to system failures. With the scalability of cloud computing, when you face to a sudden traffic peak, you can automatically allocate more compute resources to keep your website or application stable and responsive. If the physical server which hosts your application experiences an error, your applications will be migrated to another working server with no intervention on your part.

Elasticity

When you face a sudden spike in traffic, you may need more resources to help you handle the heavy demand placed on your application. Cloud computing makes it possible to scale up quickly: you don’t need to order and provision physical equipment, which is slow and complicated. When your demands drop, you can scale your infrastructure back down to meet actual demand: no need to pay for resources you don’t need. This is one of cloud computing’s key advantages: elasticity. You use (and pay for) only what you need.

Unlimited Storage Space

Storing data on the cloud gives you virtually unlimited storage capacity, so you don’t need to worry about running out of storage space in a cloud environment. Because you aren’t managing the physical storage equipment on your own, you don’t need to estimate your future needs either: your on-cloud storage seamlessly grows to meet demand. With cloud computing, you can access as much as you need, and scale up and down when needed.

Backup & Recovery

With your data stored in the cloud, you can store data across multiple regions for redundancy and reliability. Most service providers support data recovery almost in real time to ensure high availability of your data.

Go Global in Minutes

Cloud computing allows you to deploy your application or website in multiple regions around the world with just a few clicks. As a result, while you are reducing costs for infrastructure deployment, your customers could have a better user experience with lower latency.

Looking for more details? Explore cloud computing with our white paper in below:

A Methodology For Getting Started With Cloud Computing