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Friday, October 7, 2022

Cloud Computing – Benefits & Uses

 

According to Microsoft website?

Top benefits of cloud computing

Cloud computing is a big shift from the traditional way businesses think about IT resources. Here are seven common reasons organisations are turning to cloud computing services:

Cost

Cloud computing eliminates the capital expense of buying hardware and software and setting up and running on-site datacenters—the racks of servers, the round-the-clock electricity for power and cooling, the IT experts for managing the infrastructure. It adds up fast.

Speed

Most cloud computing services are provided self service and on demand, so even vast amounts of computing resources can be provisioned in minutes, typically with just a few mouse clicks, giving businesses a lot of flexibility and taking the pressure off capacity planning.

Global scale

The benefits of cloud computing services include the ability to scale elastically. In cloud speak, that means delivering the right amount of IT resources—for example, more or less computing power, storage, bandwidth—right when it is needed and from the right geographic location.

Productivity

On-site datacenters typically require a lot of “racking and stacking”—hardware setup, software patching, and other time-consuming IT management chores. Cloud computing removes the need for many of these tasks, so IT teams can spend time on achieving more important business goals.

Performance

The biggest cloud computing services run on a worldwide network of secure datacenters, which are regularly upgraded to the latest generation of fast and efficient computing hardware. This offers several benefits over a single corporate datacenter, including reduced network latency for applications and greater economies of scale.

Reliability

Cloud computing makes data backup, disaster recovery and business continuity easier and less expensive because data can be mirrored at multiple redundant sites on the cloud provider’s network.

Security

Many cloud providers offer a broad set of policies, technologies and controls that strengthen your security posture overall, helping protect your data, apps and infrastructure from potential threats.

From <https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/resources/cloud-computing-dictionary/what-is-cloud-computing/#benefits>

Uses of cloud computing

You are probably using cloud computing right now, even if you don’t realise it. If you use an online service to send email, edit documents, watch movies or TV, listen to music, play games or store pictures and other files, it is likely that cloud computing is making it all possible behind the scenes. The first cloud computing services are barely a decade old, but already a variety of organisations—from tiny startups to global corporations, government agencies to non-profits—are embracing the technology for all sorts of reasons.

Here are a few examples of what is possible today with cloud services from a cloud provider:

Create cloud-native applications

Quickly build, deploy and scale applications—web, mobile and API. Take advantage of cloud-native technologies and approaches, such as containers, Kubernetes, microservices architecture, API-driven communication and DevOps.

Test and build applications

Reduce application development cost and time by using cloud infrastructures that can easily be scaled up or down.

Store, back up and recover data

Protect your data more cost-efficiently—and at massive scale—by transferring your data over the Internet to an offsite cloud storage system that is accessible from any location and any device.

Analyse data

Unify your data across teams, divisions and locations in the cloud. Then use cloud services, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, to uncover insights for more informed decisions.

Stream audio and video

Connect with your audience anywhere, anytime, on any device with high-definition video and audio with global distribution.

Embed intelligence

Use intelligent models to help engage customers and provide valuable insights from the data captured.

Deliver software on demand

Also known as software as a service (SaaS), on-demand software lets you offer the latest software versions and updates around to customers—anytime they need, anywhere they are.

From <https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/resources/cloud-computing-dictionary/what-is-cloud-computing/#cloud-computing-models>

According to Google website?

 

What are the benefits of cloud computing?

It’s flexible

Due to the architecture of cloud computing, enterprises and their users can access cloud services from anywhere with an internet connection, scaling services up or down as needed.

It’s efficient

Enterprises can develop new applications and rapidly get them into production—without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.

It offers strategic value

Because cloud providers stay on top of the latest innovations and offer them as services to customers, enterprises can get more competitive advantages—and a higher return on investment—than if they’d invested in soon-to-be obsolete technologies.

It’s secure

Enterprises often ask, What are the security risks of cloud computing? They are considered relatively low. Cloud computing security is generally recognized as stronger than that in enterprise data centers, because of the depth and breadth of the security mechanisms cloud providers put into place. Plus, cloud providers’ security teams are known as top experts in the field.

It’s cost-effective

Whatever cloud computing service model is used, enterprises only pay for the computing resources they use. They don’t need to overbuild data center capacity to handle unexpected spikes in demand or business growth, and they can deploy IT staff to work on more strategic initiatives.

From <https://cloud.google.com/learn/what-is-cloud-computing#section-1>

What is cloud computing used for?

Cloud computing offers a broad range of possible applications that can benefit organizations. Here are some common use cases:

Infrastructure scaling

Many organizations, including those in retail, have wildly varying needs for compute capacity. Cloud computing easily accommodates these fluctuations.  

Disaster recovery

Rather than building more data centers to ensure continuity during disasters, businesses use cloud computing to safely back up their digital assets.

Data storage

Cloud computing helps overloaded data centers by storing large volumes of data, making it more accessible, easing analysis, and making backup easier.

Application development

Cloud computing offers enterprise developers quick access to tools and platforms for building and testing applications, speeding up time to market.

Big data analytics

Cloud computing offers almost unlimited resources to process large volumes of data to speed research and reduce time to insights. 

From <https://cloud.google.com/learn/what-is-cloud-computing#section-1>

 According to Oracle website? 

Cloud computing provides a superior alternative to traditional information technology, including these areas:

·         Cost—eliminate capital expenses

·         Speed—instantly provision space for development and testing

·         Global scale—scale elastically

·         Productivity—increased collaboration, predictable performance, and customer isolation

·         Performance—better price/performance for cloud native workloads

·         Reliability—fault-tolerant, scalable, distributed systems across all services

 

From <https://www.oracle.com/au/cloud/what-is-cloud-computing/>

How cloud computing fosters innovation

Cloud customers benefit from automatically having the latest innovations and emerging technologies built into their IT systems, because the cloud provider takes on the work of developing new capabilities and features.

It’s about the speed of innovation. With the right cloud provider, customers can leverage a modern cloud computing architecture to innovate faster, increase productivity, and lower costs. Better yet, choosing a cloud provider that offers an integrated cloud (SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS) architecture gives businesses the ability to move from operations to innovation and deliver new apps and services, including the use of innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), chatbots, blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Companies can harness the abundance of data to gain predictive insights into their businesses and ultimately drive better outcomes for their customers.

From <https://www.oracle.com/au/cloud/what-is-cloud-computing/>

According to simplilearn website? 

Benefits of Cloud Computing

Cloud platforms offer some significant benefits today, which are driving businesses to adopt Cloud Computing. Those major benefits include:

·         Speed

·         Cost

·         Scalability

·         Accessibility

·         Better Security

1. Speed

If you want an IT resource or service from the cloud, it is available almost instantaneously, and ready for production virtually at the same time. This means that the product, service, and the go-live date hit the market almost immediately, a considerable advantage over using a legacy environment. This has helped many businesses’ services generate revenue much sooner after they go live.

2. Cost

Planning and buying the right kind of hardware has always been a challenge in the traditional legacy environment. If you purchase hardware that doesn’t fit your needs, then chances are you might need to live with that purchase indefinitely. However, this is not an issue with the cloud, since you do not need to buy any hardware. Instead, you pay to use the host’s hardware, and once it does not fit your needs, you can release it and can replace it with a better configuration. In that way, you save a lot of money since you only pay for the time you use.

3. Scalability

In a legacy environment, forecasting demands is a full-time job, but with cloud services, you can easily set up an automated monitoring tool to do the job for you. That information will let you accurately upscale or downscale the rate of work you do depend on the needs.

4. Accessibility

Cloud Computing allows you to access resources, data, services, and applications from anywhere you want, as long as you are connected to the internet. If you are not connected to the internet, some tools and techniques will allow you to access the cloud whenever needed.

5. Better Security 

Ensuring that your data is stored in a secure, durable place is a priority for all businesses. The cloud provides highly secure storage for customers’ data, yet letting it be accessed anytime and anyplace that it’s required. Also, all data stored in the cloud is encrypted and secured so that it cannot be tampered with. 

From <https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/cloud-computing-tutorial/what-is-cloud-computing>

 According to salesforce website?

Who uses the cloud?

The cloud has become so integral to our everyday lives that most people use it without even realising. In fact, for many people, life without the cloud would be radically different. There would be no Facebook, no Twitter, no Gmail, and no Spotify.

The cloud has transformed the business landscape, too. Today millions of organisations around the world rely on cloud services for everything from document creation and backup to social CRM and accounts. And just to start.

Here's what that looks like:

·         Companies with over 25,000 employees use an average of 545 cloud apps or services.

·         As of March 2016 there were on average 1.09 billion daily active users on Facebook worldwide.

·         Over half of all Internet users rely on cloud-based email services like Gmail and Yahoo! Mail to send and receive their messages.

From <https://www.salesforce.com/in/learning-centre/tech/cloudcomputing/>

According to jigsawacademy website?

Why use cloud computing?

To summarize, these characteristics of cloud computing offer the following benefits:

·         With cloud computing, purchasing hardware and software is significantly cheaper.

·         A good internet connection is required to access all of the information you need at any time and from any location.

·         As demand increases, you can easily increase the capacity of this system. The services can be scaled and customized to meet the needs of individual users.

·         Cloud service providers spend a lot of money on security to ensure that their customers receive high-quality services.

·         Reliable storage can be found in the cloud. The process of backing up and restoring data is simple, inexpensive, and fast.

·         Enterprise users can easily access services and applications without worrying about the underlying cost of infrastructures, making it more cost- and time-effective. This gives a boost to the firm’s productivity.

From <https://www.jigsawacademy.com/blogs/cloud-computing/characteristics-of-cloud-computing/>

 

These many are the definitions and descriptions of Cloud Computing at your perusal from reputed websites. Choose any one/two or many definitions in your seminar topic article.

If you find any other related links, please add them in comment section. That will help other students to find the material easily.

…till next post, bye-bye & take-care.

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