47 Cloud Computing Facts: Private, Public And Hybrid Clouds

The convenience and ease of cloud computing are taking over every industry in sight as cloud services are making their way to serve both individuals and companies, with a comprehensive catalog.

Cloud computing is not just an on-demand service but offers diverse features to change the way people conduct their businesses and improve scalability. The onset of remote work settings is another space that cloud service has simplified through the years with cloud platforms.

Cloud computing, in simple words, is a recent online technology enabling people to have access to computer hardware and software features without actually needing to access a computer.

History And Early Development

The journey of cloud computing technology has been through many obstacles, with failed and successful attempts that made it possible to deliver services unimaginable even a decade ago. The idea of making use of interconnected networks on the internet in this way followed many phases, and history offers a glance at some of those.

Cloud computing services, with their three models, namely public cloud, private cloud, and hybrid cloud, are experiencing rapid growth in diverse niches.

The service is composed of multiple remote services granting access to cloud software, which offer services such as cloud storage, networking, analytics, software, cloud security, and many more cloud-based services.

The earliest mention of cloud computing was found in an Compaq internal document in 1996.

The symbol cloud was used back in 1977, symbolizing a network of computers in the original ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) and CSNET (Computer Science Network).

The first cloud-based services providing space was created by Amazon through its subsidiary called Amazon Web Services in July 2002.

Google released the beta version of Google App engine in the year 2008.

The platform intended on providing a PaaS infrastructure, entirely maintained for people to use common programming languages such as Python, PHP, and Node.js to create web application services.

Microsoft released Microsoft Azure, the cloud expertise service, in February 2010.

NASA's Nebula became the first of its kind open-source software back in 2008 that deployed private and hybrid cloud.

U.S. National Science Foundation used Google IBM cluster technology to assess massive data to initiate an Exploratory Cluster program for funding academic research.

Sovereign cloud, or national cloud computing, was an endeavor by the French government in 2009, which was announced to be created under Project Andromède. The project failed miserably as the core initiative Cloudwatt was shut down.

The open-standard cloud computing platform was created in July 2010 by a joint project with the collaboration of NASA and Rackspace Hosting. This platform intended on offering computer hardware services to run on the web.

The client-server architecture was used far before cloud computing came into the scene, where the data and entire control resided on the server-side. This system had many limitations; therefore, it was replaced with cloud services.

The initial theory of cloud computing dates back to the year 1955, when John McCarthy, the original creator of the term 'artificial intelligence', expressed the idea of using a computing service amid a group of people.

The period between the '70s and '90s saw various technological advancements necessary to make the concept of cloud computing become a reality.

The origin of Oracle Cloud in 2012 also marked the beginning of three basic clouds for businesses, public, private, and hybrid. The three basics rapidly grew in the market and became the norm, after which software as a service became quite popular.

Since 2016, cloud services have taken a new turn and emphasized their services to be developer-friendly through improvised tools and services created specifically to meet their requirements.

IaaS, PaaS, And SaaS

These three are the most popular cloud services created for users to get the most out of their paid cloud experience. These models host a catalog of various services required to run intricate tasks or services as simple as availing space to save files. All of these are cloud-based models, containing different properties and offering different services. 

IaaS or infrastructure as a service offers cloud-based, pay-as-you-go cloud storage, networking, or virtualization services.

IaaS infrastructures are highly scalable and economical in comparison with on-premise, costly structures while allowing better control in your hands.

IaaS' pay-as-you-go model fits every budget, so it is one of the most widely preferred versions.

Data security issues can be faced using IaaS due to its multitenant infrastructure.

PaaS or platform as a service provides hardware and software tools over the internet, specifically for developers to make use of and create web applications and software.

PaaS enables users access to databases and tools, leading them to create applications without spending hours on writing extensive codes.

PaaS extends a cost-effective and extremely efficient way to create unique applications, making it a must-have for developers.

PaaS often faces reliability issues, while cloud security, control, and compatibility are a few more features developers are often likely to face troubles with.

SaaS or software as a service cloud platform enables users to access software online through a third party, preferably over a monthly subscription fee.

SaaS is excellent for people who wish to save money on installing pricey software on the desktop. It grants accessibility and cost-effectiveness without a need for installation to run the software, as it is entirely based online.

SaaS is best for IT professionals who wish to negate the hassles of hardware and software installations and pay hefty sums, even for a single-use.

SaaS has many limitations as well. Insufficient data security with identity and access management, troubling software integration in the existing in-house software due to lack of compatibility, and low performance because of faulty internet connection. These are all limitations of using SaaS.

Cloud is the common factor between all of these with different features, which is also the reason behind another common feature, cloud security issues.

All cloud services require strong security walls to defend the frequent data breach, phishing, and hacking that can occur.

Google Cloud offers both PaaS and SaaS platforms.

The most popular commercial cloud service providers are Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services.

Private, Public, And Hybrid Cloud

You may be working on a cloud, but these cloud services are further divided into three different categories, extending three different types of cloud computing services infrastructure. With the rapid change in requirements and work processes, different people require different types of cloud services.

Therefore, these three were further created to simplify choosing, as it is created keeping the most valued requirements of each category in mind.

Public cloud is the most commonly used type of cloud model.

Public cloud is extremely flexible and extends a wide choice of cloud services to share across the growing community or organizations.

Public cloud extends low-priced and economical pricing offers.

Public cloud is the least secure option and lacks security and it is unsafe for sensitive workloads on running cloud platforms.

Private cloud restricts usage to only one organization, offering more control in the infrastructure.

Private clouds allow easy accessibility to safety to work with sensitive corporate data on the web.

Private cloud is recommended to be used for spaces prioritizing high security over high prices.

Private cloud is not the most economical solution and offers limited access to mobile users due to high security.

As the name suggests, a hybrid cloud is a combination of these two types of clouds.

A single organization dealing with multiple verticals with different requirements can use the hybrid cloud.

Hybrid cloud practices flexible policy to divide features and workload amid public and private cloud.

An evolved mix of public and private cloud providers is complex to manage, resulting in a lack of control, limitation with cloud deployment, and wasteful spending.

Another cloud platform called multi-cloud comprises either one of these or all of these cloud service providers to redeem optimal results.

Choosing the right model depends upon the user requirements, budget, flexibility, and security. Defining requirements and workload can be a great idea when choosing the right model.

FAQs

What is interesting about cloud computing?

Cloud computing has been a revolutionary idea for delivering on-demand services through remote networking. Cloud services enabled users to access an entire computer data online rather than the computer's hardware, improving its accessibility and safety for data.

What are the four benefits of cloud computing?

Cloud computing extends various benefits through its platform of diverse hosted services on remote networks. Here are four benefits:

Data protection from power crisis or other reasons.

Grants access to data from anywhere with cloud storage.

Cost reduction having to pay only for services one uses.

Data security while being under constant scrutiny to maintain established standards.

What are the six main characteristics of cloud computing?

These are the six main characteristics of cloud computing:

Resource pooling

Large network access

Security

Scalability

On-demand service

Economical to use

Which industry is the biggest user of cloud computing?

The banking industry is the biggest user of cloud computing and day by day, other industries are also rapidly stepping towards cloud adoption.

How popular is cloud computing?

Cloud computing services are experiencing exponential growth in all working sectors. Cloud is everywhere, from banking, business, and automation to government-provided services and entertainment. Projections estimate spending by end-users on cloud computing to grow over $270 billion by 2022.

How fast is cloud computing growing?

Cloud computing's growth can be assessed through its growing presence in almost all sectors, be it business, automation, or entertainment. Cloud service has offered immense growth and convenience from big to small brands. Therefore, it is a continuously growing service across the globe.

What are the security risks of cloud computing?

Cloud computing, while being extremely beneficial, also has its share of cons, security being one of them. Security risks of cloud computing are data loss, unauthorized access, cyber attacks, phishing, and hacking.

How does cloud computing work?

Cloud computing replicates computer hardware and software-like structures on its remote servers, ranging from private, public, and hybrid clouds. These cloud-stored services are accessible through any device located anywhere as long as one has the right credentials.

What are the three cloud computing services delivery models?

The three cloud computing service delivery models are IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), SaaS (Software as a Service), and PaaS (Platform as a Service). All these have their own advantages and disadvantages and cater to users based on their requirements.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing?

The advantages of using cloud computing include accessibility, cost-effective services, and resource pooling, while the disadvantages of cloud computing include security issues, theft of intellectual property, and account hijacking.