The cloud is a technology that can fundamentally change how a business operates, and in many more ways than one. We wanted to review what the cloud is and touch on the utility it can bring in pursuit of various operational goals and needs.

So, what is the cloud, anyway?

The Cloud is Just a Fancy Term for a Different Computer or Infrastructure

That really is the long and the short of it. We’ll be the first to tell you that computing infrastructure is expensive both in procurement and upkeep… but it is also a necessity for most business operations today.

This is where the cloud can prove immensely beneficial.

When someone refers to “the cloud,” they’re just talking about a separate infrastructure they connect to via the Internet that enables some functionality they wouldn’t have otherwise. There are three general types of cloud that a business could use:

1. A private cloud is a cloud infrastructure that is owned and managed by the person or organization utilizing it. It is best suited for more predictable workloads and is touted as more secure, but this is only true if a company prioritizes its security.
   
   
2. A public cloud is a cloud infrastructure owned and managed by an external provider from whom a business can rent computing resources. It is often the better choice for resource-intensive or variable workloads, but it can be challenging to establish who is responsible for securing what.
   
   
3. Hybrid cloud, or a cloud infrastructure that utilizes both private and public cloud resources to provide both privacy and scalability. This is widely seen as the best of both worlds, as the highest security can be applied to both the private aspect’s protections and the public aspect can be protected via administrative rules.

Your use of the cloud will be dictated by your particular needs, so please don’t hesitate to contact us for an honest and straightforward evaluation of what would most effectively suit your operations. This determination will likely be shaped by your business goals.

Let’s talk about the three primary ways that you may potentially find use in cloud resources.

How Can the Cloud Be Used By Small or Medium-Sized Businesses?

Chances are, your needs will be fulfilled via an Infrastructure-as-a-Service model, a Platform-as-a-Service model, or a Software-as-a-Service model.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)

IaaS gives you access to what many people first associate with the cloud: additional network resources such as computing power and storage space. You can think of this method as effectively borrowing the provider’s hardware to do as you please, as you are installing operating systems and applications on someone else’s computer. Meanwhile, that someone ensures their hardware is readily available for your processes.

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)

While you may not see the utility in this option unless you have developers and programmers on your team, PaaS can make life much easier for those businesses that do. This use of the cloud means that the provider will maintain the underlying hardware and the software platform this hardware relies on, with the user installing their own applications and feeding the system the data it needs. 

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

This is the other cloud use that you are most likely to have experience with, as it is exemplified by the online versions of common software—for instance, everything included in Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. In many ways, SaaS applications are a way for a team to enjoy the use of familiar toolkits without needing to worry about their upkeep, and can easily scale to meet the number of team members that need access to them.

Chances Are, Whatever You Need, There’s an Option in the Cloud

If you want to learn more about these options, or about utilizing the cloud in general, reach out to the team of IT professionals we have here at Compudata. We’d be more than happy to assist you in implementing the cloud for yourself. To get started, call us at 1-855-405-8889.