"Cloud Services" refers to a wide range of services delivered on demand to companies and customers over the internet. These services offer convenient and cost-effective access to applications and resources, eliminating the requirement for internal infrastructure or hardware.

Cloud services play a pivotal role in digital transformation, reshaping the way people work and businesses operate. Throughout the workday, cloud services are extensively utilized, facilitating a wide range of tasks such as email management and collaborative document editing.

How are Cloud Services delivered? 

Cloud services can encompass a range of offerings, some of which are fully managed by service providers while others require more user configuration and management. You only need a computer, network connection, and an operating system to access all your data or service in "the cloud", so there's no need for a company to host applications on its own on-premises servers.

When deciding how to leverage cloud services, organizations must also decide which type of environment works best for the business, including which cloud service is best suited to their needs.

What types of Cloud Services Solutions are there? 

There are three basic types of cloud services:

Software as a Service (SaaS) 

Software as a service, or SaaS,is the most heard and widely leveraged type of cloud service. SaaS includes a variety of services in our daily life, such as file storage and backup, instant messengers,  project management tools and web-based email. In each of these applications, users can access, share, store, and secure information in “the cloud.”

Examples of SaaS cloud service:

• Dropbox
• G Suite
• Microsoft Office 365
• Slack

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

IaaS, short for Infrastructure as a Service, offers the foundational infrastructure in the cloud. This allows numerous cloud service providers to manage SaaS tools without the burden of self-maintenance.

It acts as the entire data center framework, lowering the necessity for resource-intensive, on-site installations. With the convenience and instant availability of hardware configuration, users can develop systems based on the workload of their applications. Users can also easily develop highly available systems with minimal downtime.

Examples of IaaS:

• EC2 on Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• VM on Microsoft Azure
• GCE on Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Cloud providers will handle the maintenance of storage servers, networking hardware, and additional features like load balancing and application firewalls. It's worth noting that numerous renowned SaaS providers operate on IaaS platforms.

Platform as a Service(PaaS) 

Platform as a Service (PaaS), is a model that provides a web-based environment encompassing the entire development and deployment process in the cloud. This includes development, testing, quality assurance, debugging, and deployment tools and services.

PaaS enables developers to create applications without the hassle of setting up a development environment. It streamlines cloud-based software development by providing ready-to-use resources and eliminates the need for maintaining underlying components. Moreover, numerous Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) vendors offer PaaS services.

Examples of PaaS cloud service:

• Google App Engine
• Heroku
• Microsoft Azure App Service

What are the benefits of Cloud Services? 

Cloud services are essential for modern businesses, providing advanced capabilities, flexibility, and cost savings when compared to traditional on-premises infrastructure.

• Cost Optimization: Cloud computing can help you better utilize your IT costs. You don't need to buy your own hardware or software, and you only pay for the resources you use.
• Scalability: Cloud computing is scalable, so you can easily add or remove resources as needed. This is great for businesses that experience spikes in demand.
• Flexibility: Easily procure services on an on-demand basis. You can easily cancel the subscription or shut down the service when you no longer need a specific application or platform.
• Agility: Cloud computing makes deployment of new applications and services in a short time smoothly. Helping you stay ahead of the competition.
• Security: Cloud providers offer a variety of security features to protect your data. This can help you reduce your risk of a data breach.
• Global reach: Cloud providers have global data centers, enabling users to access your applications from anywhere in the world.

3 Types of Cloud Computing Models

Cloud services primarily have three models, depending on the level of control and development required by users. The three cloud service models are:

1. Public Cloud

2. Private Cloud

3. Hybrid Cloud

Public Cloud Services 

Public cloud services, including SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS, are services provided by a provider to multiple customers over the internet.

Benefit of using public cloud-based services

The primary advantage of utilizing public cloud services is ability to efficiently share resources at scale, empowering organizations to provide employees with extensive capabilities.

Private cloud services, on the other hand, are exclusive offerings designed for internal use, catering to the specific needs of the organization.

Private Cloud Services 

In the private cloud services model, the platform and software cater exclusively to the company and are not accessible to external users.Organizations can directly make apps and data available through their internal infrastructure. The platform and software cater exclusively to the company and are not accessible to external users.

Benefit of using public cloud-based services

The healthcare and banking industries frequently opt for private clouds due to their handling of highly sensitive data. By leveraging advanced security protocols, they can ensure the protection of this data. Moreover, private clouds allow these industries to expand their resources in a virtualized environment as required.

Hybrid Cloud Services

Hybrid cloud is a mix of public cloud, private cloud, and on-premises infrastructure, allowing data and apps to move between the public and  private environments.It provides a unified and adaptable computing environment for organizations to efficiently run and scale their workloads.

Hybrid clouds are commonly employed in use cases that want to store sensitive data in a private cloud while enabling users to utilize apps and resources in the public cloud for everyday communication and collaboration needs.

Benefit of using hybrid cloud environment

A hybrid cloud environment offers you a unified and flexible distributed computing setup, empowering your organization to run and scale both traditional and cloud-native workloads using the most suitable computing model.

By utilizing hybrid cloud solutions, you can achieve your technical and business objectives more effectively and cost-efficiently compared to relying solely on public or private clouds.

With a hybrid cloud, you have the flexibility to choose the optimal cloud computing environment for each workload and seamlessly move workloads between public and private clouds as needed.
 

Top Cloud Service Providers: AWS vs. Azure vs. Google Cloud

Top cloud service providers like  Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Alibaba, and IBM offer all cloud services. 

There is fierce competition in the cloud market. The table below compares the top 3 cloud computing providers: AWS, Azure, and GCP. Each platform offers unique features and advantages that set them apart from one another.

AWS vs. Azure vs. Google Cloud: The Key Differences

AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform are sweeping the new digital world with a new storm of technology based on remote servers. There is fierce competition in the public cloud market, and here is what sets each platform apart:

Cloud computing is rapidly expanding its applications in the corporate world. If you're looking for a partner to help you navigate the ever-changing world of cloud computing, GreenTomato, the official partners of AWS ,Google and Azure is here to help.