What exactly is Cloud Computing? It is pretty much the same as when one is using personal computer, except that your ‘computer’ is ‘somewhere else’.
Too basic for you? Check out topics of Cloud Native and Cloud Migration Strategies.
Ever wondered where are these ‘clouds’ supposed to be? Unlike what I once imagined, these clouds are not really in the sky or the outer space. As it turns out, when your data are saved in the cloud, your data are actually saved in a physical data center or server farm somewhere on the planet. These data centers usually have many, many racks filled with servers. And that’s where your data actually resides. The cloud providers take care of the maintenance of their respective data centers, such as the power supplies, cooling systems and networks, and then lease out these spaces to users. Depending on your business needs, you have the options of renting the space from the cloud providers through monthly subscriptions / pay-per-use, or spending on setting up your own private data centers. There are many organizations that opt to mixing both solutions to enjoy the flexibility while optimizing the cost.
Cloud computing services can range from hosting applications and services, helping you to create and test apps, analyzing massive amounts of data, providing virtual storage, as well as backup and data retrieval, just to name a few. So, it is just like personal computers, except that it can handle operations in a much, much larger scale. For example, big data analytics can forecast future behaviors better with access to massive amount of data available in the cloud. Analyzing or testing data can provide results with better accurate with bigger samples that are available from the pool of data.
When your data is in the cloud, access to the data or resources can be remote. You can work anywhere, without the need to travel to gain physical access to those resources. Documents are saved digitally and can be accessed from anywhere, anytime through any applicable devices. Thanks to this innovation, it has helped many corporations to continue its operations almost normally in this pandemic. Imagine an outbreak of this magnitude were to happen some 20 years ago. Many operations could have been largely affected as it would be difficult to work remotely, as cloud computing was not as easily accessible then.
Written by Emi | Capital Custodian