What are the Different Elements of Cloud Computing?

‘What does the term cloud computing mean?’

This is one of the most asked questions in the IT world. At its core, cloud computing delivers secure, hosted and configurable services over the internet. This is an alternative to running them on a PC, server or corporate network. Applications and on-demand resources like data centers, applications, networking, software, storage and analytics are all available. You only pay for what you use and users can easily scale up or scale down to match their needs.

This practice allows you to create a complete IT infrastructure with enterprise-class benefits. The reason is it involves low upfront investment with simplified hardware and application installation. A reliable internet connection and a network built to meet future use cases are all you need for a great strategy.

Let’s not forget how competitive IT is these days. So, you must keep up with the latest tech developments and cloud computing is one of them. What exactly should one expect from adopting this platform? It offers end-to-end information security governance and compliance to secure data, applications and IT systems. Companies must be able to access the same resources and applications online as they would on PCs. Keeping these in view, there are certain elements which make up a powerful cloud computing plan.

Public Cloud

This model makes resources like storage space, networking, interfaces, applications and VMs available to the general community online. Shifting storage and IT assets to the public cloud frees up onsite space and other resources in the data center. It enables you to:

• Boost performance.
• Run mission critical programs and focus on analytics that help achieve actionable results.

What’s more, the public cloud offers enough compute power and resource pools to fulfill different IT needs. So, you do not need to buy extra servers or other on-premises equipment to facilitate transient applications and workloads. The reason is simple. You only have to manage the cost of temporary resources in these cases. This beats investing in hardware or software that may stay idle and become redundant over time.

All in all, this solution supports variable user demand and system needs. It boosts operational agility and responsiveness to changes in business activity. This is especially useful for companies that deal with seasonal peaks.

Virtual teams can always access public cloud services anytime and on every web-enabled device. Such remote access to IT systems and resources boosts productivity. This is done by optimizing real-time collaboration among users who work in different locations.

Moving on, another vital feature is the vast flexibility this platform offers. Users can fulfill small and large-scale needs by accessing SaaS, PaaS and IaaS services on any device across this model. Knowing how these three differ from one another helps find the best solution to match your unique demands.

In Software as a Service (SaaS), third party service providers centrally host software and applications. They then make them available to customers online on the subscription-based pricing model. SaaS eliminates upfront costs and reduces the overall TCO. This is because you do not need a dedicated IT team to set up, manage and upgrade software.

Platform as a Service (PaaS) facilitates setups where service providers manage the OS, server hardware, software and network infrastructure. This helps users focus on building, running and managing applications and scale up resources based entirely on need. In this way, you do not need to invest in unnecessary hardware.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) delivers on-demand, metered and scalable virtualized resources which users can order for enterprise-level projects. IaaS is often considered as the most versatile solution for cloud computing best practices. The reason is it offers exceptional business agility by not only scaling compute on demand. It is useful when you need added security to customize your application’s underlying software or hardware. In this case, IaaS works well as it enables you to secure operating systems and set user authorization.

We advise you to weigh your options so that you can easily select between the SaaS, PaaS and IaaS platforms. All in all, your choice depends entirely on which solution best fits your goals.

Private Cloud

This distributes IT assets over private infrastructure to fulfill user, client and partner goals in a single company. To begin with, it offers a highly secure internal environment. The reason is simple. IT can configure network, hardware and data storage to prevent access from other clients in the same data center. With this system, you can customize storage, hardware and network performance in the cloud to meet changing user demands.

Why is this option suitable for medium and large enterprises? To start with, it offers the highest level of control, transparency, physical data proximity, privacy and security. This is on account of stack visibility where the cloud-enabled setup offers end-to-end insights into all systems. In this way, IT can easily track every application, infrastructure and virtualization layer.

It goes without saying that there are times when users have workloads which contain more sensitive data than usual. In many cases, they often work with customer data that should never be compromised. So, users demand quality standards from the exclusive virtual access which private clouds offer. Overall, all these factors play a key role in helping companies make smart and quick business decisions.

Hybrid Cloud

This type uses a mix of public and private clouds to perform specific roles in the same company. The process is done by enabling information and application sharing between both platforms. Using this model, you can get the best of both private and public clouds which retain their individual properties. IT can use the former to secure sensitive data and draw resources from the latter to run data-dependent applications. In this way, you can choose between the two for different workloads and use cases.

Another major feature of this model is that it helps users customize a dedicated private cloud to meet demands. At the same time, it facilitates public cloud usage in cases where workloads exceeds compute capacity of the private cloud. As a whole, the hybrid solution boosts efficiency and drives maximum productivity at all times.

Further Thoughts

Whether you lean more towards the public, private or hybrid cloud is a matter of individual choice. The thing is: you can only get the desired result when service providers ensure reliability, scalability, elasticity and billed usage. Luckily, you can use a short or long-term cloud service and add resources from a self-service portal when needed.

We have seen how all three solutions present the advantage of cloud, each in its own way. They offer every user a unique identity management system to access applications, data and IT resources anywhere and anytime. This delivers business continuity in workplaces especially those that involve high risk. Common examples include government, healthcare, research and military agencies. These are places where delays are unacceptable and quality responsiveness must be maintained at any cost.

Cloud Computing and VDI

Virtualization supports cloud computing resources by facilitating all three private, public and hybrid platforms. Most importantly, IT can combine Thin Client solutions with cloud computing to maximize performance in VDI setups. The remarkable ability and IT capacity of Thin Clients make use of the data intensive features of cloud computing. This is done by optimizing performance in running complex applications. In this way, you can deliver even more scalable services through smart software tools and networking solutions.

Feel free to get your Thin Client Free Demo unit to see how these devices support VDI and cloud applications. Let’s look at an example. The C3Pi device uses Cloud Desktop OS which includes support for CITRIX HDX, VMware Horizon, Microsoft RDP, and many virtual desktops. With this, you can centrally oversee Thin Clients that connect to hosted desktops, cloud hosted desktops and centrally-hosted applications.

Please contact us if you need more details on everything cloud computing and VDI.