Often, we have people confused by “the Cloud” and how it works, the reality is there is no cloud it’s just someone else’s computer located somewhere else, all be it in a very secure place.
For years before “Cloud Computing,” we used remote computing as it was cheaper to have one powerful resource to store all the data and then remotely access it, often this was done within a business and remote access to it was limited and maybe slow but was possible.
Then along comes the internet, fast easy access to lots of data shared from servers remotely located and owned by big companies.
Improved internet made it possible to get better remote access to our business on-premises servers and improve our remote computing.
Then these companies like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon started to share access to their server resources in the early 2000s, and what we now know as Cloud computing was born.
With the advent of big players offerings like Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Amazon Web Services Popular Cloud computing came to be, the reality is it is a cost-effective server and application hosting platform that is provided by another company in their secure data center that you can have access to for a fee.
The availability of more cost-effective solutions enabled businesses to move from the on-premises server to remotely hosted services using the ever-increasing options for mass data storage and fast secure, and easy access.
It is now common to have conversations with clients that have servers near the end of life as to how they can move to “The Cloud”, the cost-benefit is often the deciding factor plus the ability to scale as required. Cloud-based services are sold on a subscription-based system often pay monthly with the ability to change subscriptions each month to suit the requirements of the business.
The advantages of cloud computing are that you are not limited to the physical hardware that you have purchased, if you need to scale up or out you can at any time, meaning you can increase the size or number of Processors, Memory, Storage Capacity or any other aspect of you computing literally at the click of a button.
In truth, Cloud computing was created with the invention of the internet, and we had been using the technology all along but just had not given it a name.
We have all been using remote computing (Cloud) when we access websites and email, these are services that have always been provided mainly on remote servers (other people’s computers)
With the ever-increasing demand for cloud computing there are a large number of players in the market, whilst the big three may be the safe option the costs are not always the best for smaller companies, it is always best to shop around there may well be a better fit for your requirements with one of the smaller players and often there can be a cost advantage.
So just remember there is no Cloud it’s just someone else’s computer.
