7 Essential Characteristics of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a growing market worldwide. The Indian public cloud services market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.1 percent from 2021 to 2026, reaching 13 billion USD by 2026, according to the International Data Corporation [1]. Understanding the appeal of cloud computing and understanding cloud computing applications helps first to explore the basics of this technology, its benefits, and the essential characteristics of cloud computing.

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing moves computing services such as servers, storage, networking, and analytics online. Your databases, for example, would be on the Internet rather than at a physical location. This means end users can access the service wherever and whenever needed, whether onsite or off-premises. Resources are shared, enabling people to use technology without buying and building their infrastructure.

Cloud computing has three main deployment models: 

• Private cloud: A business sets up its protected cloud to leverage the benefits of cloud computing without sacrificing control of its IT.

• Public cloud: Users log into a vendor’s IT infrastructure to perform tasks, store data, develop applications, and more. 

• Hybrid:  Combining public and private cloud features, a hybrid model relies on public cloud solutions and existing on-premises infrastructure to enhance IT offerings.

Benefits of cloud computing

The Indian government is trying to accelerate the delivery of cloud computing in the country by accelerating the launch of eGov applications [2]. You can experience many benefits of cloud computing that can be utilised across industries, such as:  

• Saving space

• Flexible infrastructure

• Ability to access apps where and when they’re needed

• Ease of scaling up or down

• Higher productivity from increased speed

• Improved security

• Reduced costs

• Reduced environmental impact

Fundamental characteristics of cloud computing

Cloud computing offers convenient, on-demand access to your computing resources online. This has facilitated the move to remote work and supports collaboration wherever you are located. For IT teams, cloud services also make technological provisioning simpler. This section will look in more detail at seven essential characteristics of cloud computing. 

On-demand self-service

Before the cloud, an individual or business would need to buy, configure, and install an IT infrastructure to support their computing needs. With the advent of AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and other public cloud platforms, it is now possible to access the IT tools you need much more quickly. You also don’t need to provision the servers, databases, or other computing capabilities yourself, and you can get started without understanding the underlying technology.  

Broad network access

Gone are the days when an individual needed to be onsite, in front of a desktop connected by a cable to the server, an internet connection, and other technology. The cloud provides broad network access, with resources available from anywhere with an internet connection. 

Resource pooling

With the public cloud, you have access to resource pooling. For example, instead of one small business investing in all the technology needed to develop a new application, it can turn to a cloud provider. Common resources are shared on a high-efficiency infrastructure maintained, monitored, secured, and updated by experts. Meanwhile, a small business can take advantage of economies of scale and only needs access to the internet to take advantage of the cloud resources. 

Scalability

Since the actual computing resources are online, it is much easier to scale up or down as needed. For instance, If a business needs more data backup, it can contract with the cloud provider for more storage. It doesn’t have to shop around for its data storage technology, wait for that hardware to arrive, set it up, and secure it first. Or, if a business wants to scale back when a team shrinks, it can simply pay for fewer software licenses instead of having unused desktops and other technology taking up space and budget.

Pay-per-use availability

Expanding on this idea, cloud computing lets you pay only for the services you need. The cloud computing provider can measure your resource utilisation and charge per use. Providers may even be able to bill you down to the second. However, agreeing to a long-term commitment could see greater cost savings. 

Resilience 

Technology is vulnerable to security threats. Yet, because of online resources, your IT may be more secure if you access a cloud supported by a provider. Also, most cloud providers will build redundancy to ensure you can access the resources you want if something goes wrong. This would mean, for example, that your provider might have a data centre in Hyderabad and another in Bangalore in case something happened to one or the other. 

This also means that if something happened to your own business (say a power outage), while your on-premises computers were down, your employees could continue to function by logging in to the cloud from off-site networks.

Different types of cloud computing

You can learn many different types of cloud computing. The market is typically segmented to reflect the type of service. This includes:

• Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS): When you use IaaS, you are contracting with the provider for powerful cloud-based servers, networking technology, or data storage. Top competitors in the IaaS space include Cisco, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.

• Software-as-a-service (SaaS): Perhaps the best-known SaaS solution lets users access the cloud to assess their applications. This allows people to collaborate online and work in the same onsite or off-premises applications. SaaS examples include Adobe Creative Cloud, Google Workspace, and Salesforce CRM software. 

• Platform-as-a-service (PaaS): PaaS lets users create, test, deliver, and manage applications, taking advantage of their vendor’s cloud-based servers, storage, network, and databases. The PaaS solution makes it easier to develop for multiple platforms, as the business is not limited by its on-premises technology. Examples of PaaS include Microsoft Azure, SAP Cloud, IBM Cloud Foundry, and Red Hat OpenShift.

Next steps

With the anticipated 23.1 percent growth in the Indian cloud market, demand for cloud talent will also increase [1]. To meet that need, officials and organisations in India will likely need to accelerate their cloud talent supply. Position yourself to participate in cloud computing by expanding your knowledge of cloud computing characteristics through courses on Coursera. To get started, consider taking an introductory course such as IBM’s Introduction to Cloud Computing and Cloud 101, both available on Coursera.