6 tasks ideal for the cloud

Services ideal for the cloud storage and beyond:

Cloud is the technology of data processing which is distributed and in that some scalable information resources are given as a service to many external users via network. Cloud Storage is used to save, maintain data remotely and give access to the users over network usually internet where as cloud computing is all about working on the data or applications stored on the cloud.

Cloud computing has below basic concepts.

IaaS(Infrastructure as a Service): Most basic cloud service which lets you have IT infrastructures like servers, virtual machines or VMs, storage, operating systems, networks etc from a cloud provider on a pay-as-you-go basis.

SaaS (Software as a Service): In Software as a service (SaaS), a third-party provider hosts software applications on cloud and gives access to customers through the Internet usually on subscription basis. It also handles maintenance, software upgrades etc.

PaaS (Platform as a Service): This is to provide an integrated platform for applications and it provides on-demand environment for the development, deployment and support of applications. It is mainly designed for mobile/web applications which make the deployment and managing easier for the developers.

DaaS (Desktop as a Service): This is a little enhanced version of SaaS model which was introduced in the early 2000s. It is used to give concurrent access to multiple services to complete the task.

Cloud Storage is classified as below based on architecture and deployment model:

Public Model: Public clouds are usually owned and managed by third party providers. This is mainly used to provide hosting servers, larger storage space over the internet. Here everything like software, hardware and other infrastructures are owned by the hosting service provider itself.

Private Model: Private cloud usually refers to single business or private organization. Private cloud may be maintained inside the company or may be handled by a third party provider too. Private network is used to manage the services and infrastructure.

Hybrid Model: Hybrid Cloud as name indicates, it’s a combination of both private and public cloud models. It is linked to one another to allow information and tools sharing between them and the users. By this option, hybrid model gives greater flexibility and more implementation options.

You can access the cloud data remotely through the internet and process the same. Cloud usage is increased in recent days due to the beneficial features like higher productivity, lesser cost for investment and its great flexibility. Below are the few major benefits you can have while using cloud computing:

1. Speed: Cloud usually provides self service and on demand services. Vast number of resources can be provided within negligible time. It is also an easy to configure tool which gives the flexibility to organizations.
2. Cost Savings: Cloud needs less capital to configure and maintain when compared to traditional methods. Once you start using the cloud services, it saves your money in many ways as most of the cloud services are pay-as-you-go. So you will pay for only what you use. You don’t have to pay for hardware and its upgrades too.
3. Scalability: Cloud is scalable elastically which is one of the top benefits cloud offers. It gives the right amount (more or less) of IT resources from the right geographical location when it is necessary.
4. Performance: Cloud provides faster service than the single data center since it has larger network of more secured data centers and servers which is updated on regular basis with current technologies and needs.
5. Reliability: Cloud computing is more reliable when compared to on-premises server. Cloud does not much operational issues which make information and services bug free and secure. Cloud provides data backup, recovery easily using the data mirroring on multiple locations.
6. Efficiency: Large organizations can get their applications to market quickly without worrying much about infrastructure costs and maintenance through the cloud.

Due to the all top features of cloud, it has become popular so quickly and almost every organization is turning to cloud computing services. Cloud is just not only about Cloud Storage and Cloud Computing. Cloud can be used in any businesses in many other ways too. Below are the few common fields where you can use cloud:

1. File backup: one of the most useful options in businesses is file backup to cloud storage which makes you to stop using physical storage. Physical storage like discs and tapes are limited and it’s difficult to maintain them. By choosing to save files on cloud online, you can avoid the physical drive failure risks and you can save the data from natural disasters like fire, flood etc. Online cloud storage usage is effortless and very convenient way to keep the data. This will be very helpful when you shift your organization to new location.
2. Email Hosting: Nowadays emails communications are critical necessary option required in the businesses. Employees should be able to access the mails from anytime anywhere. Hosting your email provider on Cloud is the best solution in such cases instead of using an on-premise Exchange Server. It eliminates the worries about server up-time and email storage capacity. Through the cloud Email provider, any employee can access his mailbox from anywhere anytime through the network.
3. Mobile workspace: The cloud storage allows any organization to provide the mobile workspace. Employees can access any big or important files from cloud environment through the network whenever required. Similarly the E-mail access too. Organizations can save large files on cloud instead of sending to everyone through mail unnecessarily. Few cloud storage providers lets you work on the documents directly on the cloud easily.
4. Business applications: The cloud storage lets you host any applications so that your employees can work on the application from anywhere anytime. And everyone can access the applications simultaneously to work on it. You can host any applications like CRM, Planning, analytics etc. Before hosting make sure that your storage providers can maintain any kind of data applications.
5. Performance Testing: When an application is ready to use but needs to be tested on real time before giving access to the client or global, you can set a QA environment using cloud to perform the performance testing with real time data and sources with less effort and cost. You can test performance using large data set and check load time etc. This ensures your product reliability and the improved performance.
6. E-Commerce and Website hosting: Cloud is one of the best ways to host your any CMS or e-Commerce websites which totally improves the site load time. Since cloud is scalable you can opt for a reliable enterprise cloud storage provider for managing the services. This lets you add extra resources during high traffic like when there is a sale or big offers etc.