Cloud computing is a kind of outsourcing of computer programs. Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of compute power, database storage, applications, and other IT resources through a cloud services platform via the internet with pay-as-you-go pricing. Whether you run applications that share photos to millions of mobile users or deliver services that support the critical operations of your business, the cloud provides rapid access to flexible and low-cost IT resources. With cloud computing, you don’t need to make large up-front investments in hardware and spend a lot of time managing that hardware.
Simply put, cloud computing provides an easy way to access servers, storage, databases, and a broad set of application services over the Internet
Advantages of Cloud Computing:
Cloud computing is a big shift from the traditional way businesses think about IT resources. What is it about cloud computing? Why is cloud computing so popular? Here are 6 common reasons organizations are turning to cloud computing services:
Variable vs. Capital Expense:
Let’s begin with the ability to trade capital expense for variable operational expense. Instead of having to invest heavily in data centers and servers before knowing how you’re going to use them, you can pay only when you consume computing resources and pay only for how much you consume.
Economies of Scale:
Another advantage of cloud computing is that organizations benefit from massive economies of scale. By using cloud computing, you can achieve a lower variable cost than you would get on your own. Because usage from hundreds of thousands of customers is aggregated in the cloud, providers such as AWS can achieve higher economies of scale, which translates into lower prices.
Stop Guessing Capacity:
When you make a capacity decision prior to deploying an application, you often end up either sitting on expensive idle resources or dealing with limited capacity. With cloud computing, organizations can stop guessing about capacity requirements for the infrastructure necessary to meet their business needs. They can access as much or as little as they need and scale up or down as required with only a few minutes’ notice.
Increase Speed and Agility:
In a cloud computing environment, new IT resources are one click away, which allows organizations to reduce the time it takes to make those resources available to developers from weeks to just minutes. This results in a dramatic increase in speed and agility for the organization, because the cost and time it takes to experiment and develop is significantly lower.
Focus on Business Differentiators:
Another advantage of cloud computing is the ability to go global in minutes. Organizations can easily deploy their applications to multiple locations around the world with just a few clicks. This allows organizations to provide redundancy across the globe and to deliver lower latency and better experiences to their customers at minimal cost.
Source: Microsoft Azure, AWS
