Cloud Applications
Cloud computing is a popular trend that basically means moving the hardware, platforms, or software that are purchased, upgraded, and maintained within your company to an external server where they are provided by a cloud service for a fixed monthly fee.
For many companies, cloud computing reduces their cost of IT infrastructure ownership and allows them to spend less time and money maintaining hardware and software and more time and money focusing on core competencies. There are several types of cloud services, each with their own benefits.
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
- Eliminate the cost of in-house IT infrastructure
- No capital expenditure on hardware, data center space, servers, and networking equipment
- Immediate access to enterprise-grade IT infrastructure
- Fixed monthly fee stabilizes cost of IT ownershi
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
- Eliminates cost of software provision hosting capabilities
- Eliminates cost of buying and managing underlying hardware for application development
- Ensures your applications are elastic with the number of users
- API to developers to build web applications
- Access to all facilities required in application development life cycle
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
- Eliminates cost of buying and licensing software
- Eliminates time spent installing, patching, and upgrading software
- Improved and reliable software performance
Who Should Use an IaaS Cloud Solution
Infrastructure-as-a-service, also known as hardware as a service, uses virtual machines to connect, via the Internet, to a partitioned space on the cloud servers. The cloud does all the heavy lifting, giving you top CPU power, speed, and storage space while eliminating the cost of building and maintaining an in-house IT infrastructure. You can still use your own software, but it will be run on the cloud at peak performance. IaaS is a great option for small, startup companies because they can immediately have access to an enterprise-grade infrastructure for a fixed monthly fee.
Who Should use a PaaS Cloud Solution
A platform-as-a-service-cloud solution basically lets application developers concentrate on application development while the cloud provides the platform for their applications. The platform facilitates the development of application without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and software provision hosting capabilities. The platform ensures applications are elastic with the number of users and provides all the facilities required to complete the development life cycle, from development, to testing, to deployment, to hosting, to maintenance in the same integrated development environment.
Who Should use a SaaS Cloud Solution
Software-as-a-service hosts software on a cloud server that users can access via an Internet connection for a fixed monthly fee. This saves companies the cost of buying and licensing software and eliminates the trouble of installing, upgrading, and patching their software. Since the software is running on a cloud, it can be accessed from any location instead of just a single machine. Also, the software will be running at peak performance instead of the maximum performance allowed by your local machines. This service is best suited for companies that are not specifically in the technology business and simply need their software to be available and require little maintenance. Even companies who already have their own software should look into using SaaS if they spend a lot of time on maintaining their in-house software or need it to run faster.
