Cloud Computing 101 | Basics

In simple, cloud computing is the delivery of on demand services online. Cloud computing services may vary from applications to security to storage even to processing power, but essentially, all those that happen over the internet.

How does it work?

A big problem users faced back in the day was access and storage of information, data and material. More the years went by people were adapting to the increasing evolution of technology and the weight of big data and information increased. It came to a pivoting point where increasing data was a problem that slowed machines down. Here enters, CLOUD COMPUTING. Now users opt to rent or subscribe and get access to data centers and storage units online (stored in the internet) rather than having those infrastructure alone. 

Mind you, this is a multibillion dollar industry that has seen the start of humongous data companies in the world. Known as “Cloud Service Providers” they provide the benefit of not having upfront costs of IT infrastructure or tangible data center's or servers for users and big companies. 

Moreover, these service providers benefit from earning millions of dollars keeping data, networking and servers for people. Basically they are able to sell one set of services to almost anyone in this day and age. So, in detail, cloud computing offers a mighty range of services like, storage, networking and processing power, Natural language processing and Artificial Intelligence and standard day to day applications - (Games, video, photo you name it) and basically any software, application or system that doesn't require you to be physically near a computer.

Examples of Cloud Computing

As mentioned above there are many services and systems, but let's put a few names out there for you to better understand. Starting off with Gmail from google, a mail network and storage system that basically is your neural network for emails (not the only company). Gmail uses cloud backup storage to store all emails and big data from all their users. Much like YOUTUBE or NETFLIX, which are online video and streaming services that use cloud systems to store and provide an uninterrupted service to all its subscribers. Better yet, apps like Uber & Pick me (in Sri Lanka) along with online content management systems, website development tools like WordPress. You name it. Many of the big brand names that you can think of would be an ideal example for cloud computing, as most of every operation is run on the cloud in 2021.

Moreover, let’s also look at the different types of cloud computing that is available in a strictly technical perspective. Just like purposes of storage or networking, cloud computing has a few technical terms in terms of the available types. Let's look at them below with some examples.

SaaS (Software as a Service)

This is basically when cloud computing delivers application or services through the internet browser. Just like the example of Gmail, we can consider the full functionality of G-suit by Google under SaaS. 

IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)

This basically when cloud computing service providers offer storage and other computer services on a subscription or pay per use system. Good examples again can be Google’s Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services, IBM Cloud and even Microsoft Azure.

PaaS (Platform as a Service)

This is a more niche service directed towards developers, who can better use it to share processors, tools, APIs and other applications that allow them to develop, test and deploy projects.

FaaS (Functions as a Service)

This is more or less an effective method of server less computing. It adds another layer of abstraction to PaaS. This allows developers to be fully insulated from everything in the stack below their code. A good thing about this method is that it does not consume any Laas resources until a specific event occurs. This keeps the pay per use fees at a minimum.

Private Cloud 

A private cloud essentially compressors the technology used to run Laas clouds into bits of software that can be deployed and operated in the customer’s data center. A polar opposite to the public cloud, this method more or less is confined to a unique set of people who use it based on their requirements ONLY.

Hybrid Cloud

As its name suggests, a hybrid cloud is born when a private and a public cloud is merged together. This involves an ecosystem where applications can move between private & public clouds.

Public API’s 

API stands for application programming interfaces, and public API’s offer developers the ability and functionality to access other applications when programmed. Just like how developers integrate the Facebook API or the Google API when building websites.

The above are some of the important ones, but there are more and you can read about the rest on this brilliant article by Infoworld.com - Click Here. So now let’s dig deeper into the history of Cloud Computing.

History of cloud computing

This concept may have gotten popular after the early 2000s and becomes a more prominent part in the day to day digital lives of people after the 2010’s, but cloud computing existed even in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Initially cloud computing came as a form of renting where computer companies allowed people to rent time to be on the computer mainframe. However, once the PC (Personal Computer) system was introduced. People moved out to having a PC as it was much more cost effective. 

As much as PC’s became a global trend in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, cloud computing resurfaced again later on as people wanted more and more. More storage, more data, more service. PC’s could not handle that load, and did not have sufficient resources to cater to the growing technological needs of the average user. 

Benefits of cloud computing

Ideally, we at EarlTech will not pinpoint a lot of benefits as a lot of benefits for cloud computing varies and depends on the different types of cloud computing services used. However, the fundamental benefit of cloud computing is the fact that companies, users don't need to maintain their own computer infrastructure.

As such, cloud computing is an essential part of day to day procedures in non technological and technological companies. Even EarlTech uses cloud computing for a lot of processors and applications. Even though cloud computing is not the cheapest to adapt to, budgeting for this purpose is the way to go and is the future of computing. We hope you got the foundations of cloud computing through this write up. Catch you in the next one.