To begin, we must understand what cloud computing is, it is based on the delivery of hosted services over the Internet, which are divided into three main categories, which are:
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
Similarly, the cloud can provide easy and scalable access to computing resources and IT services, whether private or public, for anyone who needs it. However, keep in mind that a private cloud is limited to a specific number of people.
The symbol for the cloud, often used to refer to the Internet in diagrams, inspired the name cloud computing. The infrastructure used in the cloud also has the necessary hardware and software components for the correct implementation of a cloud computing model.
How does it work?
Basically, cloud computing allows users to access data and applications from their devices over the Internet. For example, a network connection links the front-end, which includes the device the customer uses to access, the browser, the network, and cloud software applications, with the back-end, which has databases, servers and computers.
Depending on virtualization and automation technologies, cloud computing helps users to have better access to the cloud and also to do it on their own, and also where they can connect services and deploy workloads without intervention from the cloud provider’s IT staff, as it links to a central server that is based on protocols to facilitate data exchange, and to manage connectivity between different client devices and cloud servers.
What are the different types of cloud computing services?
There are three categories that divide the cloud computing services, let’s review them:
IaaS.
These providers are considered as a remote data center for business users, and they provide a virtual server instance and storage, they also have application programming interfaces (APIs), which allow users to migrate workloads to a virtual machine, and configure, access, stop, and start the virtual machine or cloud storage as desired.
PaaS.
These providers have development tools in their infrastructures, which users can access via web portals or gateway software, or even APIs. Some products that have PaaS providers include Salesforce Lightning Platform, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, and Google App Engine.
SaaS.
These providers are a distribution model that offers software applications over the Internet, where users can access from a mobile device or computer with an Internet connection. One of the products that uses this model is Microsoft 365, which is used for productivity and email services, as users have access to databases and application software.
Cloud computing deployment models
There are three cloud computing implementation models, these are private, public and hybrid.
Private:
This model allows an enterprise, organization, or company to create and maintain its own underlying cloud infrastructure. Some of the common private cloud technologies and providers include VMware and OpenStack. In addition, they have comfort and versatility to carry out the management, control and security of local data.
Public:
These public models are sold by the minute or hour, and there are some available for the long term, these models are based on a cloud service over the Internet. In this way, customers only have to pay for the CPU cycles, storage or bandwidth they consume for the period of time they agreed to.
Hybrid:
These models are a mix of private and public clouds, so they can use private cloud storage for certain workloads, and public cloud for peak workloads. This also seeks to have control of the data but with a public infrastructure.
There is also another model that is multi-cloud, where you can use two or more cloud providers at the same time. Many companies use this model to minimize the risk of a cloud service interruption or to take advantage of pricing.