Cloud computing how does it work

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List of Partners vendors. Cloud computing is the delivery of different services through the Internet. These resources include tools and applications like data storage, servers, databases, networking, and software. Rather than keeping files on a proprietary hard drive or local storage device, cloud-based storage makes it possible to save them to a remote database.

As long as an electronic device has access to the web, it has access to the data and the software programs to run it. Cloud computing is a popular option for people and businesses for a number of reasons including cost savings, increased productivity, speed and efficiency, performance, and security.

Cloud computing is named as such because the information being accessed is found remotely in the cloud or a virtual space. Companies that provide cloud services enable users to store files and applications on remote servers and then access all the data via the Internet. This means the user is not required to be in a specific place to gain access to it, allowing the user to work remotely.

Cloud computing takes all the heavy lifting involved in crunching and processing data away from the device you carry around or sit and work at.

It also moves all of that work to huge computer clusters far away in cyberspace. Cloud computing can be both public and private.

Public cloud services provide their services over the Internet for a fee. Private cloud services, on the other hand, only provide services to a certain number of people. These services are a system of networks that supply hosted services.

There is also a hybrid option, which combines elements of both the public and private services. Regardless of the kind of service, cloud computing services provide users with a series of functions including:. If an application has a regular and predictable requirement for computing services it may be more economical to provide that service in-house.

Some companies may be reluctant to host sensitive data in a service that is also used by rivals. Moving to a SaaS application may also mean you are using the same applications as a rival, which may make it hard to create any competitive advantage if that application is core to your business. While it may be easy to start using a new cloud application, migrating existing data or apps to the cloud may be much more complicated and expensive. And it seems there is now something of a shortage in cloud skills with staff with DevOps and multi-cloud monitoring and management knowledge in particularly short supply.

In one recent report a significant proportion of experienced cloud users said that they thought upfront migration costs ultimately outweigh the long-term savings created by IaaS. Cloud computing tends to shift spending from capital expenditure CapEx to operating expenditure OpEx as companies buy computing as a service rather than in the form of physical servers.

This may allow companies to avoid large increases in IT spending which would traditionally be seen with new projects; using the cloud to make room in the budget may be easier than going to the CFO and looking for more money. Of course, this doesn't mean that cloud computing is always or necessarily cheaper that keeping applications in house; for applications with a predictable and stable demand for computing power may be cheaper from a processing power point of view at least to keep in-house.

To build a business case for moving systems to the cloud you first need to understand what your existing infrastructure actually costs. There's a lot to factor in: obvious things like the cost of running a data centers, and extras such as leased lines.

The cost of physical hardware -- servers and details of specifications like CPUs, cores and RAM, plus the cost of storage. You'll also need to calculate the cost of applications -- whether you plan to dump them, re-hosting them in the cloud unchanged, completely rebuilding them for the cloud or buying an entirely new SaaS package each option will have different cost implications.

The cloud business case also needs to include people costs often second only to the infrastructure costs and more nebulous concepts like the benefit of being able to provide new services faster.

Any cloud business case should also factor in the potential downsides, including the risk of being locked into one vendor for your tech infrastructure. It's hard to get figures on how companies are adopting cloud services although the market is clearly growing rapidly.

However, it may be that figures on adoption of cloud depend on who you talk to inside an organisation. Not all cloud spending will be driven centrally by the CIO: cloud services are relatively easy to sign up for, so business managers can start using them, and pay out of their own budget, without needing to inform the IT department. This can enable businesses to move faster but also can create security risks if the use of apps is not managed.

Adoption will also vary by application: cloud-based email -- is much easier to adopt than a new finance system for example. Research by Spiceworks suggests that companies are planning to invest in cloud-based communications and collaboration tools and back-up and disaster recovery, but are less likely to be investing in supply chain management. Certainly many companies remain concerned about the security of cloud services, although breaches of security are rare.

How secure you consider cloud computing to be will largely depend on how secure your existing systems are. In-house systems managed by a team with many other things to worry about are likely to be more leaky than systems monitored by a cloud provider's engineers dedicated to protecting that infrastructure.

However, concerns do remain about security, especially for companies moving their data between many cloud services, which has leading to growth in cloud security tools , which monitor data moving to and from the cloud and between cloud platforms. These tools can identify fraudulent use of data in the cloud, unauthorised downloads, and malware. The country of origin of cloud services is also worrying some organisations see Is geography irrelevant when it comes to cloud computing?

Public cloud is the classic cloud computing model, where users can access a large pool of computing power over the internet whether that is IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS. One of the significant benefits here is the ability to rapidly scale a service. The cloud computing suppliers have vast amounts of computing power, which they share out between a large number of customers -- the 'multi-tenant' architecture.

Their huge scale means they have enough spare capacity that they can easily cope if any particular customer needs more resources, which is why it is often used for less-sensitive applications that demand a varying amount of resources. Private cloud allows organizations to benefit from the some of the advantages of public cloud -- but without the concerns about relinquishing control over data and services, because it is tucked away behind the corporate firewall.

Companies can control exactly where their data is being held and can build the infrastructure in a way they want -- largely for IaaS or PaaS projects -- to give developers access to a pool of computing power that scales on-demand without putting security at risk. However, that additional security comes at a cost, as few companies will have the scale of AWS, Microsoft or Google, which means they will not be able to create the same economies of scale.

Still, for companies that require additional security, private cloud may be a useful stepping stone, helping them to understand cloud services or rebuild internal applications for the cloud, before shifting them into the public cloud. Cloud computing is insatiably gobbling up more of the backend services that power businesses. But, some companies have apps with privacy, security, and regulatory demands that preclude the cloud.

Here's how to find the right mix of public cloud and private cloud. Hybrid cloud is perhaps where everyone is in reality: a bit of this, a bit of that. Some data in the public cloud, some projects in private cloud, multiple vendors and different levels of cloud usage. According to research by TechRepublic, the main reasons for choosing hybrid cloud include disaster recovery planning and the desire to avoid hardware costs when expanding their existing data center.

For start-ups who plan to run all their systems in the cloud getting started is pretty simple. But the majority of companies it is not so simple: with existing applications and data they need to work out which systems are best left running as they, and which to start moving them to cloud infrastructure.

This is a potentially risky and expensive move, and migrating to the cloud could cost companies more if they underestimate the scale of such projects. A survey of businesses that were early cloud adopters found that the need to rewrite applications to optimise them for the cloud was one of the biggest costs, especially if the apps were complex or customised. A third of those surveyed said cited high fees for passing data between systems as a challenge in moving their mission-critical applications.

Physical servers are now virtual via cloud computing. Via an Internet service connection, cloud storage works by enabling users access and to download data on any chosen device, such as a laptop, tablet or smartphone. Cloud storage users can also edit documents simultaneously with other users as well, making it easier to work away from the office. Depending on specific needs, prices vary for cloud storage. As an individual user, you can usually get initial amounts of cloud storage for free — such as 5GB with Apple iCloud, which previously dealt with some highly publicized cloud security issues.

You have to pay a fee for additional storage. Common price models include monthly or yearly rates, depending on the services you are using. Other cloud based services include cloud hosting and servers, offered by companies such as Rackspace.

You can see PaaS in action with the Fastmetrics cloud phone service, which offers a cloud PBX phone system , hosted securely in the cloud. Another example is this server for free video conference calls , for anyone from anywhere, without the use of software. To understand the workings of a cloud system, it is easier to divide it into two sections: the front end and the back end.