Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power, without direct active management by the user. The term is generally used to describe data centers available to many users over the Internet. Large clouds, predominant today, often have functions distributed over multiple locations from central servers. If the connection to the user is relatively close, it may be designated an edge server.

The companies that offer these computing services are called cloud providers. They charge for cloud computing services based on usage.

Cloud computing is usually classified on the basis of location, or on the service that the cloud is offering.

Based on a cloud location, we can classify cloud as:

  • Public
  • Private
  • Hybrid
  • Community Cloud

 

Based on a service that the cloud is offering, we classify as:

  • IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service)
  • PaaS(Platform-as-a-Service)
  • SaaS(Software-as-a-Service)

 

Types of cloud services: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS

Cloud computing services fall into 3 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.

  • Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS)

IaaS is the most basic category of cloud computing services that allows you rent IT infrastructure (servers or VM’s) from a cloud provider on a pay-as-you-go basis.

  • Platform as a service (PaaS)

Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) refers to the supply an on-demand environment for developing, testing, delivering and managing software applications. It is designed 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.

  • Software as a service (SaaS)

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is a method for delivering software applications over the Internet as per the demand and on a subscription basis. SaaS helps you host and manage the software application and underlying infrastructure and handle any maintenance (software upgrades and security patching).

 

Top cloud providers of 2019:

As per ZDNet and latest survey the below players are on Top list

AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud; IBM makes hybrid move; Salesforce dominates SaaS