Whether you’re streaming a movie on Netflix, collaborating with co-workers on a project, or running an artificial intelligence (AI) model, most likely you’re using cloud computing.
Cloud computing is how many businesses and individuals today store, process and manage data. But what exactly is cloud computing, how does it work and why is it important?
Cloud computing is the delivery over the internet of computing services, including servers, storage, databases, networking, software and analytics for users to access. This means users don’t need to own and maintain their IT hardware and software.
Remember the days when you used to buy Microsoft Office software in a box and then store it on your computer? When you leave the office, you can’t access your Word or Excel documents.
On a company-wide scale, businesses do the same thing. They own and manage software and hardware (such as servers, which are computers that serve data, applications and services) containing their data in their own data centers. This is what’s called “on premises” or “on prem” as a slang.
For many companies, it’s easier and sometimes cheaper to put their data in the data centers of major cloud providers, use their software and hardware, and access company information and applications through the internet.
The biggest cloud providers globally are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. In Asia, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud and Huawei Cloud also dominate.
These hyperscalers operate data centers that span thousands to over 1 million square feet, housing thousands of servers that store data and run applications on behalf of their customers.
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The term cloud computing came about when engineers used to diagram their corporate networks, they would loosely sketch a cloud-like shape to represent unknown networks they connect to, like the internet.
Today, cloud computing is multi-billion-dollar industry. It works through a network of data centers that process and store data. Users interact with cloud-based platforms through web browsers like Chrome or applications.
For example, when someone edits a document in Google Docs, their work is saved on Google’s cloud servers rather than their own hard drive on their computer. Similarly, when businesses use platforms like Salesforce, customer data is processed and managed in the cloud rather than on company-owned servers.
This means cloud computing serves users on demand. Users can request computing power, storage or applications as needed, without having to worry about maintaining the necessary hardware and software.
This feature lets businesses adapt to market changes quickly — such as scaling up on Black Friday when website traffic explodes for online shopping — without having to buy additional servers and maintain them.
Per Google Cloud, there are three main types of cloud computing: public cloud, private cloud and hybrid cloud.
A company doesn’t have to stick to just one cloud computing company. To avoid being stuck if a cloud provider goes offline, as many as 90% of companies opt to use multiple cloud providers. This avoids reliance on a single vendor and optimizes performance.
Cloud providers rent out three types of services: Infrastructure (servers and storage), platform (framework) and software (applications). In the industry, these services are called Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS).
AI workloads — computational tasks involved in developing, training, deploying and running AI models — use all three types.
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An ISACA blog post details the pros and cons of cloud computing. Likewise, Google Cloud explores the benefits and risks. Here are the benefits:
And the risks:
