Advantage of Cloud Computing Services

Advantage of Cloud Computing Services

Cloud computing is the next major computing trend that will obviously match our enterprise and business needs in addition to personal lifestyle. In simple terms cloud computing is the outsourcing of your IT infrastructure via the internet.

With the current technological advancement 70% of enterprises plan on deploying cloud services within 2 years or less.

There is still wide confusion regarding what cloud services are, what benefits they offer, the disadvantages, security and other vital aspects i will look at the main models and list down the main advantages and disadvantages.

Cloud Models

Cloud models can be divided into four main groups;

1. Public Cloud – This is the most common form and type most of us will tend to think when we chat about cloud computing. Computing resources are dynamically provisioned over the internet. A third party service provider known as utility will invoice the clients who use the cloud.
2. Private Cloud – This cloud unlike the above is restricted to a set of customers. In this case you will find the cloud is maintained for a specific enterprise or organization.
3. Community Cloud – A cloud environment in which several enterprises access the infrastructure based on similar needs. These clouds have more available resources than a public cloud but cost less than a private cloud. Most often used by large enterprises and also governments.
4. Hybrid Clouds – As the name suggests these are models of multiple internal and external cloud providers within ONE cloud infrastructure. They provide clients with greater choice and opportunities to access specific services within the same cloud without need to switch to another provider.

Cloud computing can have unique advantages for your enterprise but it requires deep understanding to pinpoint exact benefits. Clients should know more of the IT needs they desire, have information on utility resources.(service providers)

General Advantages

• Beauty of the cloud is that your subscription is flexible and firms can adjust their service in short time.
• Lower Cost, pay as you go, no hardware investments or software licenses.
• More performance, processing time on demand.
• Less maintenance in that some else will have to do all related cloud support for you.
• More security in regard to enforcement of policies and centralized management.
• Unlimited storage capacity as one will use when needed.

Disadvantages

The most cited are

• Dependency on Internet connectivity since a reliable and constant connection is needed.
• Loss of control, the problem of someone else hosting hardware, software and data that will result in security concerns.
• Unpredictable costs, pay as you go means the cost of computing will be different every month.

In summary cost reduction is the most interesting consideration for organizations today when they are evaluating cloud computing.

Thanking you very much for reading this.

David