An introduction to cloud computing

[Besttechie]

You’ve probably heard about cloud computing, but maybe you’re not sure about how it works or whether it is something you need to become more familiar with. If you run a business, cloud computing could be something that you could greatly benefit from, so if you need to get a better idea of what cloud computing involves, here is a quick introduction.

In a very basic summary, cloud computing refers to the process where the internet is used for services such as storage, servers and applications. So whereby many businesses have storage set up on their PC’s hard drives (local storage), cloud computing means that the infrastructure is shared and can be accessed from other places via the internet. So, in essence cloud really just means ‘through the internet.’

There are lots of ways that you can use cloud based storage for your business. You will have seen companies such as Dropbox providing services for people to store files. One of the really useful parts is that it makes it exceptionally easy to share files with other people. When emailing files, you can run into the problem of file sizes, but services like Dropbox enables you to share quickly and easily without such problems. Most companies offer a certain amount of storage for free, but then you will need to pay a fee if you reach the storage limit. Cloud storage can be a good way of backing up files so they don’t get lost. For example, a PC can break or a laptop could be stolen and you wouldn’t be able to get to the files. If you have saved them using cloud storage, you will still be able to access them.

Cloud storage options.

The Cloud is all about easy collaboration. Other services that you will also have heard of are Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive which operate through the same principle. You can share and edit files with people much easier than if you had to keep sharing via email for example.

Container orchestration is required to make it easy to turn apps on and off and is a service most providers cater for. If you are looking for IT support, then most cloud service companies will be able to help you through any technical jargon if you’re not familiar with any of the terms.

Security is a major concern with any area of file storage, whether cloud based or not, so to protect your business it is advisable to go with a company that comes with a high reputation and good security features. Different companies provide various packages and you will generally have to pay a lot more to get really good security features, but it will be worthwhile if it means you don’t have data stolen.

If you are not making the most of cloud computing for your business, then it is probably time to look into it. If you have people working remotely or your business operates from multiple locations, internet based infrastructure will make life a lot easier. It also makes it easier working with other suppliers or customers if you need to share files with them.

The infographic below pretty much sums it all up:

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[alpha]

Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power, without direct active management by the user. The term is generally used to describe data centers available to many users over the Internet. Large clouds, predominant today, often have functions distributed over multiple locations from central servers. If the connection to the user is relatively close, it may be designated an edge server.

Clouds may be limited to a single organization (enterprise clouds), or be available to many organizations (public cloud).

Cloud computing relies on sharing of resources to achieve coherence and economies of scale.

Advocates of public and hybrid clouds note that cloud computing allows companies to avoid or minimize up-front IT infrastructure costs. Proponents also claim that cloud computing allows enterprises to get their applications up and running faster, with improved manageability and less maintenance, and that it enables IT teams to more rapidly adjust resources to meet fluctuating and unpredictable demand. Cloud providers typically use a "pay-as-you-go" model, which can lead to unexpected operating expenses if administrators are not familiarized with cloud-pricing models.

The availability of high-capacity networks, low-cost computers and storage devices as well as the widespread adoption of hardware virtualization, service-oriented architecture and autonomic and utility computing has led to growth in cloud computing. By 2019, Linux was the most widely used operating system, including in Microsoft's offerings and is thus described as dominant. The Cloud Service Provider (CSP) will screen, keep up and gather data about the firewalls, Intrusion identification or/and counteractive action frameworks and information stream inside the network.

"Cloud computing" was popularized with  releasing its Elastic Compute Cloud Gitex in UAE product in 2006, references to the phrase "cloud computing" appeared as early as 1996, with the first known mention in a Compaq internal document.

The cloud symbol was used to represent networks of computing equipment in the original ARPANET by as early as 1977,^[and the CSNET by 1981—both predecessors to the Internet itself. The word cloud was used as a metaphor for the Internet and a standardized cloud-like shape was used to denote a network on telephony schematics. With this simplification, the implication is that the specifics of how the end points of a network are connected are not relevant for the purposes of understanding the diagram

Early history

During the 1960s, the initial concepts of time-sharing became popularized via RJE (Remote Job Entry); this terminology was mostly associated with large vendors such as IBM and DEC. Full-time-sharing solutions were available by the early 1970s on such platforms as Multics (on GE hardware), Cambridge CTSS, and the earliest UNIX ports (on DEC hardware). Yet, the "data center" model where users submitted jobs to operators to run on IBM mainframes was overwhelmingly predominant.

In the 1990s, telecommunications companies, who previously offered primarily dedicated point-to-point data circuits, began offering  services with comparable quality of service, but at a lower cost. By switching traffic as they saw fit to balance server use, they could use overall network bandwidth more effectively.They began to use the cloud symbol to denote the demarcation point between what the provider was responsible for and what users were responsible for. Cloud computing extended this boundary to cover all servers as well as the network infrastructure. As computers became more diffused, scientists and technologists explored ways to make large-scale computing power available to more users through time-sharing. They experimented with algorithms to optimise the infrastructure, platform, and applications to prioritize CPUs and increase efficiency for end users.

Edited September 30, 2019 by alpha