3 Types of Cloud Computing [An Overview]

One of the most confusing things about the cloud computing industry is the terminology. Terms like cloud, cloud provider, multi-cloud, hybrid cloud, distributed cloud, and others are thrown around routinely with little or no explanation on how they all fit together in the bigger picture of cloud solutions. This article aims to clarify some of that confusion by providing an overview of the different types of clouds available and how each can solve a set of problems or meet business needs. Read on to learn more about these three types!

What Is A Cloud?

If you work in IT, chances are you’ve heard a lot about cloud computing. But what is a cloud? More importantly, why should we even care? The term cloud refers to an architecture in which all your computing activities are on servers owned by someone else. The idea behind moving workloads to the cloud is to save businesses money and resources. The result is that organizations can focus on core competencies instead of maintaining massive data centers; however, despite widespread hype, clouds haven’t completely changed how we work just yet. Anyone who works in IT should be thinking about how they can harness cloud technologies and best prepare their organizations for it as new capabilities become available over time.

What Is The Difference Between Multi-Cloud And A Hybrid Cloud?

A hybrid cloud is a model that involves two or more clouds (private, community, or public) working together seamlessly. This type of cloud model offers businesses additional flexibility and cost savings. A multi-cloud solution relies on more than one type of cloud computing but may not necessarily work seamlessly with each other. For example, you could use a multi-cloud approach when using an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform like Amazon Web Services (AWS) to store information while using a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform like Salesforce for customer relationship management (CRM). This approach allows businesses to maximize cost savings and uptime by having backup systems in place should one system go down for whatever reason.

How Does A Distributed Cloud Work?

A distributed cloud relies on a network of smaller, interconnected data centers. The benefit of a distributed cloud is that it’s less vulnerable to local outages or natural disasters than one big central data center. It’s also more cost-effective since companies don’t have to buy as much hardware and software upfront. In most cases, there are backup servers and processes in place should a restore be necessary. However, when an entire data center fails at once, there could be issues with downtime and system availability.

Conclusion

There is a lot of talk about cloud computing. From Amazon’s cloud services to Google Apps, it seems like a topic near and dear to many folks’ hearts. But how many people understand what goes on inside the cloud? A few readers might know a thing or two, but most probably don’t. It may not seem important at first glance; however, businesses rely more than ever on computing resources located in remote data centers. So, IT professionals must grasp how they work and how their organizations are affected. Hopefully, we’ve been able to shed some light on three distinct ways to manage your organization’s cloud services. Good luck!