More than ever, businesses of all sizes are turning to the cloud for both the internal functions and services they need and the services they offer to their clients and customers. But before you can plan how to use the cloud effectively, you need to understand what distinguishes the cloud from the on-premises IT infrastructure you’re used to.
AWS became the first mainstream cloud computing provider in 2006 when it began selling access to offsite data storage and computing resources. It defined what commercial cloud computing would look like.
Let’s take a look at various aspects of modern cloud computing. Take a look at his seven key characteristics of cloud computing and learn how to address the benefits and challenges of key approaches. These make cloud computing the world’s most popular way to build and deploy business applications.
Self-service on demand
What do providers like Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and AWS all have in common? First, they make resources available to users remotely, putting almost everything in place with just an API call or a mouse click.
We have data centers distributed around the world for easy and efficient access. And each has more computing and storage power than the entire world could claim just a few decades ago. This was a game-changer compared to the traditional method, which took months for his onsite IT team to bring new resources online.
But these are just on-demand resources. They are also self service. Most cloud providers have self-service portals that allow developers to select the tools and resources they need and assemble a new remote infrastructure in minutes. Almost anything is possible within the limits set by the local administrator.
Resource pooling
One way cloud providers use large banks of servers more efficiently is by pooling resources, or allowing a single physical server to handle the workload of multiple clients at once.
In most cases, a combination of hardware and software tricks (called abstraction layers in this context) are used to ensure that data is not mixed and that each user has access to exactly where that data belongs. make it possible.
However, for security reasons, or to ensure that the hosted resource doesn’t slow down during peak demand, let’s say you want to keep the entire server to yourself. In that case, some providers, such as Liquid Web, also offer dedicated server packages for a small additional fee.
Scalability and elasticity
The key to optimizing resource pools is to ensure that client resources are scalable, ideally automatic. Many clients are pay-as-you-go. If there is a sudden surge in users, the cloud-hosted resources will scale up as needed, so end user performance will not suffer. This is called rapid resilience and when it was first developed the cloud was a game changer for he resources.
On-premises architectures generally could not scale elastically or automatically simply because they had zero unused servers and there was no reason to develop software to distribute the load that way. Few companies wanted to pay for equipment that sits idle most of the time.
pay-as-you-go
One result of resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and near-infinite scalability is pay-as-you-go pricing. No more renting access to physical servers. Depending on your needs, a single device can handle a small corner or a large bank to handle the work.
In general, this is a positive development. Cloud providers can use pooled, elastic resources to serve more clients on the same physical infrastructure. A clever digital balancing act means that few resources are truly idle. We then pass those cost savings on to our clients.
But be careful. Since resource needs are not static, neither are hosting bills. Therefore, you should ensure that your setup is automatically sized appropriately. This means that it scales down when you don’t need it, just as quickly as it scales up under load.
![](https://res.cloudinary.com/lwgatsby/f_auto/www/uploads/2023/03/computing-resources.jpg)
Measurement service
Both cloud service providers and their customers need to know what resources they are using and what their costs are. VMs, bandwidth, processing cycles, and storage are all good metrics for many purposes. However, make sure that the metric you base your forecast on is the same metric your provider uses for billing.
resilience and availability
Downtime for hosted services and resources is a cloud provider’s worst enemy, and it’s also yours. Anything they can do to prevent downtime will result in better performance and a steady stream of income.
However, even with the best providers, outages and bottlenecks still occur. There are several things customers can do to prevent failures, such as having backup providers and platforms. This can be expensive, but it’s worth it to reduce that risk as close to zero as possible. This is especially true when alternatives can cost you millions of dollars in downtime.
safety
Businesses initially shied away from cloud computing due to potential security concerns. However, the enormous economies of scale sweeping this realm make it a very attractive option. Additionally, cloud providers invest in data protection beyond what a single client can afford, ensuring that customers get the best safety features at the lowest cost.
That said, as we’ve seen in recent years, clients still need to protect their public applications or risk becoming victims of expensive and high-profile data breaches. This is a reminder that proper cybersecurity measures are a very valuable investment for today’s organizations.
in the end
Understanding these seven characteristics of cloud computing is important in deciding which deployment model and provider is right for you. With so many options on the market, it can be difficult to decide which solution is best for your company.
From on-demand self-service to pay-as-you-go, the benefits of cloud computing cannot be ignored. Using the cloud comes with some challenges, but the cloud is a reliable and cost-effective solution for your overall business application needs.
Ready to deploy your private cloud?
Liquid Web’s VMware Private Cloud delivers cloud performance on a fast and secure enterprise infrastructure. It’s like having your own personal data center that is fully managed, easy to migrate, features personalized logins, and works on a simple and transparent pricing model. Perfect for software vendors, agencies, and enterprises.
A private cloud environment is built using multiple nodes, which provides redundancy to the environment, eliminates downtime, and greatly reduces disaster recovery time. These features allow Liquid Web to offer a 100% guaranteed service level agreement (SLA) for all private clouds.