What is cloud computing technologies?

Cloud computing services generate nearly $400 billion in revenue a year, and there is little sign that this growth will stop.

For businesses and their customers, cloud computing offers numerous benefits: no costly investment in local equipment or infrastructure is required, and no technical knowledge is required. In this article, we tell you what you need to know about what cloud computing is and the advantages of implementing these solutions in your company.

What is cloud computing?

It is a model that enables on-demand access to a pool of computing resources (for example, networks, servers, storage, applications, and services), which can be provisioned and released with minimal management effort or interaction.

Basically, cloud computing providers provide everything we need to store, manage, and process data on the network. This eliminates the dependency on hard drives, physical media, and other local resources.

How does cloud computing work?

Cloud computing allows companies to purchase the rights to use a certain storage capacity, which can be reduced or expanded as needed. This means that the services are scalable: we pay for what we use.

A central server (the company that provides the cloud computing services) manages the communication between the cloud servers and our devices so that we can access the stored data whenever we need it.

Thus, companies using cloud computing can scale faster and save on costs, since there is no need to buy and maintain their own data centers.

Types of cloud computing

The cloud services market is divided into three types of cloud computing: Software as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Infrastructure as a Service.

1. Software as a Service (SaaS)

SaaS is the main segment within the types of cloud computing. It has become the standard model for deploying business apps, such as customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.

2. Platform as a Service (PaaS)

In the PaaS model, companies can focus solely on developing applications and managing data, while the cloud service provider operates and maintains the infrastructure. This, in addition to reducing the need for management and maintenance tasks, also helps to eliminate or automate processes.

3. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

The IaaS model provides access to hardware and virtualized resources such as servers, networks, storage, or virtual machines. Here, providers are responsible for maintaining or developing the necessary platform, operating system or software, while customers pay only for what they consume.