What is cloud computing?

A beginner's guide
Simply put, cloud computing is the delivery of computing servicesservers, storage, databases,
networking, software, analytics and moreover the Internet (the cloud). Companies offering these
computing services are called cloud providers and typically charge for cloud computing services
based on usage, similar to how you are billed for water or electricity at home.
Still foggy on how cloud computing works and what it is for? This beginners guide is designed to
demystify basic cloud computing jargon and concepts and quickly bring you up to speed.
How to choose a cloud provider
Browse a dictionary of common cloud computing terms

Uses of cloud computing

 You are probably using cloud computing right now, even if you dont realise it. If you use an online
service to send email, edit documents, watch movies or TV, listen to music, play games or store
pictures and other files, it is likely that cloud computing is making it all possible behind the scenes.
The first cloud computing services are barely a decade old, but already a variety of organisations
from tiny startups to global corporations, government agencies to non-profitsare embracing the
technology for all sorts of reasons. Here are a few of the things you can do with the cloud:

Create new apps and services

Store, back up and recover data
Host websites and blogs
Stream audio and video
Deliver software on demand
Analyse data for patterns and make predictions

Top benefits of cloud computing

Cloud computing is a big shift from the traditional way businesses think about IT resources. What is
it about cloud computing? Why is cloud computing so popular? Here are 6 common reasons
organisations are turning to cloud computing services:

1. Cost
Cloud computing eliminates the capital expense of buying hardware and software and setting up and
running on-site datacentersthe racks of servers, the round-the-clock electricity for power and
cooling, the IT experts for managing the infrastructure. It adds up fast.

2. Speed
Most cloud computing services are provided self service and on demand, so even vast amounts of
computing resources can be provisioned in minutes, typically with just a few mouse clicks, giving
businesses a lot of flexibility and taking the pressure off capacity planning.

3. Global scale
The benefits of cloud computing services include the ability to scale elastically. In cloud speak, that
means delivering the right amount of IT resourcesfor example, more or less computing power,
storage, bandwidthright when its needed and from the right geographic location.

4. Productivity
On-site datacenters typically require a lot of racking and stackinghardware set up, software
patching and other time-consuming IT management chores. Cloud computing removes the need for
many of these tasks, so IT teams can spend time on achieving more important business goals.

5. Performance
The biggest cloud computing services run on a worldwide network of secure datacenters, which are
regularly upgraded to the latest generation of fast and efficient computing hardware. This offers
several benefits over a single corporate datacenter, including reduced network latency for
applications and greater economies of scale.

6. Reliability
Cloud computing makes data backup, disaster recovery and business continuity easier and less
expensive, because data can be mirrored at multiple redundant sites on the cloud providers network.
Types of cloud services: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS
Most cloud computing services fall into three broad categories: infrastructure as a service (IaaS),
platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (Saas). These are sometimes called the cloud
computing stack, because they build on top of one another. Knowing what they are and how they are
different makes it easier to accomplish your business goals.

Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS)
The most basic category of cloud computing services. With IaaS, you rent IT infrastructureservers
and virtual machines (VMs), storage, networks, operating systemsfrom a cloud provider on a pay-
as-you-go basis. To learn more, see What is IaaS?
Platform as a service (PaaS)
Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) refers to cloud computing services that supply an on-demand
environment for developing, testing, delivering and managing software applications. PaaS is
designed to make it easier for developers to quickly create web or mobile apps, without worrying
about setting up or managing the underlying infrastructure of servers, storage, network and databases
needed for development. To learn more, see What is PaaS?

Software as a service (SaaS)

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is a method for delivering software applications over the Internet, on
demand and typically on a subscription basis. With SaaS, cloud providers host and manage the
software application and underlying infrastructure and handle any maintenance, like software
upgrades and security patching. Users connect to the application over the Internet, usually with a web
browser on their phone, tablet or PC. To learn more, see What is SaaS?

Types of cloud deployments: public, private,

hybrid
Not all clouds are the same. There are three different ways to deploy cloud computing resources:
public cloud, private cloud and hybrid cloud.

Public cloud
Public clouds are owned and operated by a third-party cloud service provider, which deliver their
computing resources like servers and storage over the Internet. Microsoft Azure is an example of a
public cloud. With a public cloud, all hardware, software and other supporting infrastructure is
owned and managed by the cloud provider. You access these services and manage your account
using a web browser.

Private cloud
A private cloud refers to cloud computing resources used exclusively by a single business or
organisation. A private cloud can be physically located on the companys on-site datacenter. Some
companies also pay third-party service providers to host their private cloud. A private cloud is one in
which the services and infrastructure are maintained on a private network.
 Hybrid cloud
Hybrid clouds combine public and private clouds, bound together by technology that allows data and
applications to be shared between them. By allowing data and applications to move between private
and public clouds, hybrid cloud gives businesses greater flexibility and more deployment options.

How cloud computing works

Cloud computing services all work a little differently, depending on the provider. But many provide a
friendly, browser-based dashboard that makes it easier for IT professionals and developers to order
resources and manage their accounts. Some cloud computing services are also designed to work with
REST APIs and a command-line interface (CLI), giving developers multiple options.

Microsoft and cloud computing

Microsoft is a leading global provider of cloud computing services for businesses of all sizes. To
learn more about our cloud platform, Microsoft Azure and how it compares to other cloud providers,
see What is Azure? and Azure vs. AWS.

What is cloud computing? Everything

you need to know now
Cloud computing has evolved beyond basic SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS offerings,
as the cloud matures to become the engine of enterprise technology
innovation

By Eric Knorr
Editor in Chief, InfoWorld | JUL 10, 2017
 Thinkstock

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The cloud in cloud computing originated from the habit of drawing the internet as a fluffy
cloud in network diagrams. No wonder the most popular meaning of cloud computing refers to
running workloads over the internet remotely in a commercial providers data centerthe so-
called public cloud model. AWS (Amazon Web Services), Salesforces CRM system, and
Google Cloud Platform all exemplify this popular notion of cloud computing.

But theres another, more precise meaning of cloud computing: the virtualization and central
management of data center resources as software-defined pools. This technical definition of
cloud computing describes how public cloud service providers run their operations. The key
advantage is agility: the ability to apply abstracted compute, storage, and network resources to
workloads as needed and tap into an abundance of pre-built services.

[ Download the public cloud megaguide PDF: Amazon, Microsoft, Google, IBM, and Joyent
compared. | Also: InfoWorlds David Linthicum explains how to move into a cloud career
from traditional IT. | Stay up on the cloud with InfoWorlds Cloud Computing Report
newsletter. ]
From a customer perspective, the public cloud offers a way to gain new capabilities on demand
without investing in new hardware or software. Instead, customers pay their cloud provider a
subscription fee or pay for only the resources they use. Simply by filling in web forms, users can
set up accounts and spin up virtual machines or provision new applications. More users or
computing resources can be added on the flythe latter in real time as workloads demand those
resources thanks to a feature known as auto-scaling.

Types of cloud services

The array of available cloud computing services is vast, but most fall into one of the following
categories:

SaaS (software as a service)

This type of public cloud computing delivers applications over the internet through the browser.
The most popular SaaS applications for business can be found in Googles G Suite and
Microsofts Office 365; among enterprise applications, Salesforce leads the pack. But virtually
all enterprise applications, including ERP suites from Oracle and SAP, have adopted the SaaS
model. Typically, SaaS applications offer extensive configuration options as well as
development environments that enable customers to code their own modifications and additions.

[ Go deeper at InfoWorld: Learn more about what is IaaS (infrastructure as a service), what
is PaaS (platform as a service), and what is SaaS (software as a service). | Then get ready for
the latest trend in cloud computing: What is multicloud? The next step in cloud computing.
]

IaaS (infrastructure as a service)

At a basic level, IaaS public cloud providers offer storage and compute services on a pay-per-use
basis. But the full array of services offered by all major public cloud providers is staggering:
highly scalable databases, virtual private networks, big data analytics, developer tools, machine
learning, application monitoring, and so on. Amazon Web Services was the first IaaS provider
and remains the leader, followed by Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and IBM Cloud.

PaaS (platform as a service)

PaaS provides sets of services and workflows that specifically target developers, who can use
shared tools, processes, and APIs to accelerate the development, test, and deployment of
applications. Salesforces Heroku and Force.com are popular public cloud PaaS offerings;
Pivotals Cloud Foundry and Red Hats OpenShift can be deployed on premises or accessed
through the major public clouds. For enterprises, PaaS can ensure that developers have ready
access to resources, follow certain processes, and use only a specific array of services, while
operators maintain the underlying infrastructure.
Note that a variety of PaaS tailored for developers of mobile applications generally goes by the
name of MBaaS (mobile back end as a service), or sometimes just BaaS (back end as a service).

FaaS (functions as a service)

FaaS, the cloud instantiation of serverless computing, adds another layer of abstraction to PaaS,
so that developers are completely insulated from everything in the stack below their code.
Instead of futzing with virtual servers, containers, and application runtimes, they upload
narrowly functional blocks of code, and set them to be triggered by a certain event (e.g. a form
submission or uploaded file). All the major clouds offer FaaS on top of IaaS: AWS Lambda,
Azure Functions, Google Cloud Functions, and IBM OpenWhisk. A special benefit of FaaS
applications is that they consume no IaaS resources until an event occurs, reducing pay-per-use
fees.

Private cloud
The private cloud downsizes the technologies used to run IaaS public clouds into software that
can be deployed and operated in a customers data center. As with a public cloud, internal
customers can provision their own virtual resources in order to build, test, and run applications,
with metering to charge back departments for resource consumption. For administrators, the
private cloud amounts to the ultimate in data center automation, minimizing manual provisioning
and management. VMwares Software Defined Data Center stack is the most popular
commercial private cloud software, while OpenStack is the open source leader.

Hybrid cloud
A hybrid cloud is the integration of a private cloud with a public cloud. At its most developed,
the hybrid cloud involves creating parallel environments in which applications can move easily
between private and public clouds. In other instances, databases may stay in the customer data
center and integrate with public cloud applicationsor virtualized data center workloads may be
replicated to the cloud during times of peak demand. The types of integrations between private
and public cloud vary widely, but they must be extensive to earn a hybrid cloud designation.

Public APIs (application programming interfaces)

Just as SaaS delivers applications to users over the internet, public APIs offer developers
application functionality that can be accessed programmatically. For example, in building web
applications, developers often tap into Google Maps API to provide driving directions; to
integrate with social media, developers may call upon APIs maintained by Twitter, Facebook, or
LinkedIn. Twilio has built a successful business dedicated to delivering telephony and messaging
services via public APIs. Ultimately, any business can provision its own public APIs to enable
customers to consume data or access application functionality.
iPaaS (integration platform as a service)

Data integration is a key issue for any sizeable company, but particularly for those that adopt
SaaS at scale. iPaaS providers typically offer prebuilt connectors for sharing data among popular
SaaS applications and on-premises enterprise applications, though providers may focus more or
less on B-to-B and ecommerce integrations, cloud integrations, or traditional SOA-style
integrations. iPaaS offerings in the cloud from such providers as Dell Boomi, Informatica,
MuleSoft, and SnapLogic also enable users to implement data mapping, transformations, and
workflows as part of the integration-building process.

IDaaS (identity as a service)

The most difficult security issue related to cloud computing is the management of user identity
and its associated rights and permissions across private data centers and pubic cloud sites. IDaaS
providers maintain cloud-based user profiles that authenticate users and enable access to
resources or applications based on security policies, user groups, and individual privileges. The
ability to integrate with various directory services (Active Directory, LDAP, etc.) and provide is
essential. Okta is the clear leader in cloud-based IDaaS; CA, Centrify, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle,
and Ping provide both on-premises and cloud solutions.

Collaboration platforms
Collaboration solutions such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, and HipChat have become vital
messaging platforms that enable groups to communicate and work together effectively.
Basically, these solutions are relatively simple SaaS applications that support chat-style
messaging along with file sharing and audio or video communication. Most offer APIs to
facilitate integrations with other systems and enable third-party developers to create and share
add-ins that augment functionality.

Vertical clouds
Key players in such industries as financial services, healthcare, retail, life sciences, and
manufacturing provide PaaS clouds to enable customers to build vertical applications that tap
into industry-specific, API-accessible services. Vertical clouds can dramatically reduce the time
to market for vertical applications and accelerate domain-specific B-to-B integrations. Most
vertical clouds are built with the intent of nurturing partner ecosystems.

Advantages of cloud computing

The clouds main appeal is to reduce the time to market of applications that need to scale
dynamically. Increasingly, however, developers are drawn to the cloud by the abundance of
advanced new services that can be incorporated into applications, from machine learning to
internet-of-things connectivity.

Although businesses sometimes migrate legacy applications to the cloud to reduce data center
resource requirements, the real benefits accrue to new applications that take advantage of cloud
services and cloud native attributes. The latter include microservices architecture, Linux
containersto enhance application portability, and container management solutions such
as Kubernetes that orchestrate container-based services. Cloud-native approaches and solutions
can be part of either public or private clouds and help enable highly efficient devops-style
workflows.

Cloud computing security

Objections to the public cloud generally begin with cloud security, although the major public
clouds have proven themselves much less susceptible to attack than the average enterprise data
center. Of greater concern is the integration of security policy and identity management between
customers and public cloud providers. In addition, government regulation may forbid customers
from allowing sensitive data off premises. Other concerns include the risk of outages and the
long-term operational costs of public cloud services.

Triumph of the cloud delivery model

Yet cloud computing, public or private, has become the platform of choice for large applications,
particularly customer-facing ones that need to change frequently or scale dynamically. More
significantly, the major public clouds now lead the way in enterprise technology development,
debuting new advances before they appear anywhere else. Workload by workload, enterprises
are opting for the cloud, where an endless parade of exciting new technologies invite innovative
use.

What is cloud computing?

Everyone is talking about the cloud. But what does it mean?

More and more, we are seeing technology moving to the cloud. Its not just a fadthe shift
from traditional software models to the Internet has steadily gained momentum over the last
10 years. Looking ahead, the next decade of cloud computing promises new ways to
collaborate everywhere, through mobile devices.

So what is cloud computing? Essentially, cloud computing is a kind of outsourcing of

computer programs. Using cloud computing, users are able to access software and
applications from wherever they need, while it is being hosted by an outside party in the
cloud. This means that they do not have to worry about things such as storage and power,
they can simply enjoy the end result.

Life before cloud computing

Traditional business applications have always been very complicated and expensive. The
amount and variety of hardware and software required to run them are daunting. You need
a whole team of experts to install, configure, test, run, secure, and update them.

When you multiply this effort across dozens or hundreds of apps, itns easy to see why the
biggest companies with the best IT departments arennt getting the apps they need. Small
and mid-sized businesses dont stand a chance.

Cloud computing: a better way

With cloud computing, you eliminate those headaches that come with storing your own
data, because youre not managing hardware and software that becomes the
responsibility of an experienced vendor like salesforce.com. The shared infrastructure
means it works like a utility: you only pay for what you need, upgrades are automatic, and
scaling up or down is easy.

Cloud-based apps can be up and running in days or weeks, and they cost less. With a cloud
app, you just open a browser, log in, customize the app, and start using it.

Businesses are running all kinds of apps in the cloud, like customer relationship
management (CRM), HR, accounting, and much more. Some of the worlds largest
companies moved their applications to the cloud with salesforce.com after rigorously testing
the security and reliability of our infrastructure.

As cloud computing grows in popularity, thousands of companies are simply rebranding

their non-cloud products and services as cloud computing. Always dig deeper when
evaluating cloud offerings and keep in mind that if you have to buy and manage hardware
and software, what youre looking at isnt really cloud computing but a false cloud.

LEARN MORE ABOUT PLATFORM AS A SERVICE

The three types of cloud computing
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

A third party hosts elements of infrastructure, such as hardware, software, servers, and
storage, also providing backup, security, and maintenance.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Using the cloud, software such as an internet browser or application is able to become a
usable tool.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

The branch of cloud computing that allows users to develop, run, and manage applications,
without having to get caught up in code, storage, infrastructure and so on.

There are several types of PaaS. Every PaaS option is either public, private, or a hybrid mix
of the two. Public PaaS is hosted in the cloud and its infrastructure is managed by the
provider. Private PaaS, on the other hand, is housed in on-site servers or private networks,
and is maintained by the user. Hybrid PaaS uses elements from both public and private,
and is capable of executing applications from multiple cloud infrastructures.
PaaS can be further categorized depending on whether it is open or closed source, whether
it is mobile compatible (mPaaS), and what business types it caters to.

When choosing a PaaS solution, the most important considerations beyond how it is hosted
are how well it integrates with existing information systems, which programing languages it
supports, what application-building tools it offers, how customizable or configurable it is, and
how effectively it is supported by the provider.

As digital technologies grow ever more powerful and available, apps and cloud-based
platforms are becoming almost universally widespread. Businesses are taking advantage of
new PaaS capabilities to further outsource tasks that would have otherwise relied on local
solutions. This is all made possible through advances in cloud computing.

What are the benefits of cloud computing?

Traditional business applications have always been very complicated and expensive. The
amount and variety of hardware and software required to run them are daunting. You need
a whole team of experts to install, configure, test, run, secure, and update them.

When you multiply this effort across dozens or hundreds of apps, its easy to see why the
biggest companies with the best IT departments arent getting the apps they need. Small
and mid-sized businesses dont stand a chance. The affordability of cloud-hosted data
makes it an essential tool for these types of situations. Here are some other benefits of
cloud computing.

Adaptable

Cloud computing allows for adaptable programs and applications, that are customizable,
while allowing the owners control over the core code.

Multi-tenancy
Cloud software provides the opportunity to provide personalized applications and portals to
a number of customers or tenants.

Reliable

Because it is hosted by a third party, businesses and other users have greater assurance of
reliability, and when there are problems, easy access to customer support.

Scalability

With the Internet of Things, it is essential that software functions across every device and
integrates with other applications. Cloud applications can provide this.

Secure

Cloud computing can also guarantee a more secure environment, thanks to increased
resources for security and centralization of data.

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Cloud Computing from Salesforce.
"Here are cloud computing basics for those asking, What is cloud computing? Cloud computing is quickly replacing
the traditional model of having software applications installed on on-premise hardware, from desktop computers to
rooms full of servers, depending on the size of the business. With cloud computing, businesses access applications
via the internet. Its called Software As A Service (or SaaS). Businesses are freed up from having to maintain or
upgrade software and hardware. Just log on and get to work, from anywhere and, in many cases, any device.
Salesforce is the leader in cloud computing, offering applications for all aspects of your business, including CRM,
sales, ERP, customer service, marketing automation, business analytics, mobile application building, and much more.
And it all works on the same, connected platform, drawing from the same customer data. So as opposed to working
in silos, your entire company can work as one a team. And because its all in cloud as opposed to being installed on-
premise, even the largest, enterprise-wide deployments can happen in a fraction of the time of traditional
deployments, which can take over a year. "