The “cloud” is often mistakenly thought of as the Internet but it is actually a vast number of servers that provide a service and are accessed via the Internet. The concept has been around for some time. The software for webmail accounts such as Hotmail is cloud-hosted – all the user needs is an internet access.
Cloud computing and services are about storing your data and running applications via a web browser from your PC, Laptop or Mobile device. You do not download and install applications on your own device, all processing and storage is maintained by the cloud server. For this reason, cloud computing has also been described as "on-demand computing and is often bought on a subscription service.
Businesses are now recognising the clear benefits of outsourcing to a computer cloud. Capital expenditure is reduced, since applications are hosted by the cloud rather than by local computers.
Cloud computing is flexible – you can buy in only the services you want, when you want them. Extra services can be added or removed at a moment’s notice as your business needs change.
You can have your own private cloud accessible only within your organization, the public cloud of an external provider or a hybrid cloud that spans both.
To find out how your business can harness the benefits of cloud computing, please contact us on 0800 292 2100
There are three primary deployment models for cloud services: Private, Public and Hybrid Clouds.
Private clouds
Whether operated and hosted by your enterprise IT department or by an external provider such as Alliance Solutions, private clouds are for the exclusive use of your organization.
Public clouds
These are open to any number of organizations and individual users on a shared basis. Using a public cloud minimizes your initial capital investment and combines agility and efficiency with massive scalability.
Hybrid clouds
These link private and public clouds, providing access to extra resources when the private cloud hits maximum utilization. Or, a hybrid cloud might split computing by tier between private and public clouds. For example, the database may reside in the private cloud while the application server is located in the public cloud.
With any of these structures, cloud computing enables an application to take advantage of idle or excess compute, storage and network capacity that is shared with other applications.
The cloud is one of the keys to avoiding over provisioning and enabling efficient load balancing among your computing resources.
There are a number of reasons why people would consider Cloud Computing but sometimes trying to understand the terminology and buzzwords can be confusing. The following are a brief description of the Cloud based hosting platforms:
Software as a Service (SaaS)
A number of software vendors including Microsoft and Google now offer application software on a monthly subscription basis e.g. Microsoft Office, Google Apps are available to use on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Accessing servers or storage space over the Internet Since you purchase what you need and pay-as-you-go, this is often referred to as utility computing. Web hosting is an example of this service.
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
This is for companies that develop their own applications using Web based tools so they run on systems software and hardware provided by another company. An ecommerce website is an example where all the processes including the shopping basket, checkout, and payment system are run on a merchant's server.
Multi Tenancy
Is where multiple customers can share a single cloud-hosted applications e.g. Salesforce.com but they only have access to their own data. Multi- tenancy is the most cost-effective form of cloud computing, since the software itself is shared.
Pros
1. Low upfront cost i.e. the ability to replace the investment and replacement IT expenditure with a regular and predictable operational expenditure.
2. The benefit of being able to access your data from anywhere with an Internet connection.
3. Able to scale systems up or down on demand.
4. Outsource the maintenance burden of servers and applications.
5. Everything managed under SLAs.
6. It is considered to be a”green” solution environmental benefit (lower carbon emissions) of many users efficiently sharing large systems.
Cons
1. Higher ongoing operating costs, which are likely to be work out more expensive on an ongoing basis.
2. Dependency on a reliable Internet connection.
3. Risk of being locked into proprietary or vendor-recommended systems. How easily can you migrate to another system or service provider if you need to?
4. What happens if your supplier suddenly decides to stop supporting a product or system you've come to depend on?
5. Greater dependency on service providers. Can you get problems resolved quickly, even with SLAs?
6. Potential privacy and security risks of putting valuable data on someone else's system in an unknown location.