What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services—including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence—over the Internet (“the cloud”) to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale. You typically pay only for cloud services you use, helping lower your operating costs, run your infrastructure more efficiently, and scale as your business needs change.
Instead of owning and maintaining physical data centers and servers, you can access technology services, such as computing power, storage, and databases, on an as-needed basis from a cloud provider.
Key Characteristics of Cloud Computing
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines cloud computing with five essential characteristics:
- On-demand self-service: A consumer can unilaterally provision computing capabilities, such as server time and network storage, as needed automatically without requiring human interaction with each service provider.
- Broad network access: Capabilities are available over the network and accessed through standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneous thin or thick client platforms (e.g., mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and workstations).
- Resource pooling: The provider’s computing resources are pooled to serve multiple consumers using a multi-tenant model, with different physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to consumer demand.
- Rapid elasticity: Capabilities can be elastically provisioned and released, in some cases automatically, to scale rapidly outward and inward commensurate with demand. To the consumer, the capabilities available for provisioning often appear to be unlimited and can be appropriated in any quantity at any time.
- Measured service: Cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource use by leveraging a metering capability at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage, processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts). Resource usage can be monitored, controlled, and reported, providing transparency for both the provider and consumer of the utilized service.
Benefits of Cloud Computing
Adopting cloud computing offers numerous advantages:
- Cost Savings: Reduces capital expenditure on hardware and infrastructure.
- Scalability: Easily scale resources up or down based on demand.
- Agility and Speed: Faster deployment of applications and services.
- Global Reach: Deploy applications closer to users worldwide.
- Reliability: Cloud providers offer robust infrastructure and disaster recovery options.
- Security: Advanced security measures often exceed what individual organizations can implement.
- Innovation: Access to cutting-edge technologies and services.
Cloud Service Models
There are three main cloud service models, each offering different levels of control and management:
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
IaaS provides basic computing infrastructure – servers, virtual machines, storage, and networks – on demand. It’s like renting the hardware.
Example: Amazon Web Services (AWS) EC2, Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines.
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
PaaS provides a platform allowing customers to develop, run, and manage applications without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure typically associated with developing and launching an app.
Example: AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Google App Engine, Azure App Service.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
SaaS provides software applications over the Internet, on demand, typically on a subscription basis. The cloud provider manages all the underlying infrastructure, middleware, app software, and app data.
Example: Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce.
Cloud Deployment Models
Cloud computing can be deployed in different ways:
- Public Cloud: Services are offered over the public Internet and shared by multiple organizations.
- Private Cloud: Cloud infrastructure operated solely for a single organization.
- Hybrid Cloud: A combination of public and private clouds, bound together by technology that allows data and applications to be shared between them.
- Multi-cloud: Using multiple public cloud providers to take advantage of different services or avoid vendor lock-in.
Getting Started
Exploring the world of cloud computing can seem daunting, but by understanding these basic concepts, you can begin to leverage its power. MSDN Documentation provides further resources to delve deeper into specific services and deployment strategies.
Continue your learning journey by exploring our Cloud Services and Cloud Deployment Models articles.