It is very likely that you must have come across the term, “The Cloud”, if you are someone who depends on a computer for making a living. Either your company made a big decision to migrate to the cloud some of the software that you so painstakingly learnt to use, or else they were planning to buy a better cloud based alternative of it and put all your data there. Are you one among those hapless many who couldn’t understand what all the buzz was about at the time, but was too afraid to ask? Don’t worry, we have got you covered.
What is the “cloud”?
Let’s start off by defining what the “cloud” means in the context of computers and software. The cloud normally refers to the infrastructure owned, and operated, by a company on the internet. It typically comprises of thousands of server machines that could be distributed across the world in different Data Centers. Data Centers are dedicated buildings, or parts of buildings, which are equipped to house server computers, and their associated networking infrastructure. Using specialized software, the computing power of these thousands of independent servers is collectively harnessed to run software systems providing Software-As-A-Service(SaaS) to customers across the world. This includes several vital services like email, spreadsheets, storage, chat, CRM to every imaginable service that you can think of today. Gone are the days where you had to download and install a software on all the individual computers in your department. Today you just sign-up for a service, and start using it from the next moment. No hassles of installation or upgrades. Gmail, Salesforce, Dropbox etc., are all examples of this model.
The next wave of the cloud was Infrastructure-As-A-Service(IaaS). The traditional model was something called an On-Premises model, where companies used to own and operate their own server machines. This required huge upfront investment, as well as large teams to maintain all this hardware. With the advent of IaaS, third-party companies like Amazon, Google and Microsoft, started renting out hardware like servers and storage to other companies fully over the internet. Companies could use these IaaS offerings to sign-up and start using the hardware just like using a cloud based SaaS offering. Pricing is usually on a pay-as-you-go basis, where you charged only for the server resources that you consume. Companies could suddenly get access to world class infrastructure without huge investments, or the large teams required for its maintenance.
Why should you bother knowing about it?
Cloud computing has entirely reshaped how the world of computers and software used to function. SaaS and IaaS has drastically reduced the time-to-market for new products and services in all major industries. This has accelerated its adoption across industries. Consequently, if you are someone working in any one such industry, it is essential that you have at least a fundamental understanding about cloud computing which we have tried to provide here.
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