“Hello my fellow technology enthusiasts, I wanted to speak about a subject that is recognized in its true nature by all but seldom understood. The topic is “Cloud Computing” and will be addressed in series. So, let ‘s dive into the world of cloud computing. In this blog I am going to focus on Public cloud.
What is public cloud?
How public cloud works?
Public cloud vs private cloud vs hybrid cloud
Benefits of public cloud
Limitations of public cloud
Choosing the right provider for business
What is public cloud?
The public cloud is an IT model where a third-party vendor provides on-demand storage resources and assets and connects them with various organisations using the public Internet. Cloud-based applications such as infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service ( PaaS), or software as a service (SaaS) can be provided by public cloud service providers to customers for either a subscription or pay-per-use charge, removing the requirement for users to access these applications on-site in their own data centre. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), IBM’s Blue Cloud, Google AppEngine, Sun Cloud, Microsoft Azure are some of the well-known public cloud providers.
The public cloud company maintains and operates the data centres where the workloads of clients operate. Service providers are responsible for the management of both hardware and equipment and have network coverage with high bandwidth to ensure easy access to software and data. The cloud company handles the underlying infrastructure for virtualization as well.
Since public cloud platforms are elastic and quickly flexible, many companies shift aspects of their computing resources to the public cloud, adapting flexibly to meet changing workload requirements. When consumers just pay for what they use, most are drawn by the prospect of better productivity and less expended money. Others are also looking to minimise spending on hardware and on-site utilities.
How public cloud works?
In order to expand the IT infrastructure of a company, a public cloud relies on a virtualized environment , allowing the company to manage some elements of its infrastructure and resources on virtual servers that are offsite and operated by a third party. Since public cloud servers exchange data from different businesses, public cloud protection is another issue that IT administrators may want to consider. A simple way to ensure better protection is to encrypt files.
Many various technology, functionality and functions are included in the public cloud model. However, at its heart, a public cloud consists of the following main features:
- on-demand computing and self-service provisioning
- resource pooling
- scalability and rapid elasticity
- pay-per use pricing
- measured service
- resiliency and availability
- security and
- broad network access.
Public cloud vs private cloud vs hybrid cloud
Public cloud
An organization uses one vendor’s cloud infrastructure used by many other organizations and other members of the public over the internet. This model offers the maximum potential return on economies of scale. However, this model has several risks that need to be considered.
Private cloud
Cloud Infrastructure and Services used is managed on the organization’s premises or off-site and managed by the organization or vendor. Compared to the public cloud model, the private cloud model has reduced the potential for cost. If the private cloud is properly implemented and maintained, it reduces the chances of security. A well-developed private cloud, managed by a vendor, can offer many benefits to the public cloud, but has greater control over security.
Hybrid cloud
Hybrid clouds connect public and private clouds, connected by technology that allows data and applications to be shared between them. By allowing data and applications to move between private and public clouds, a hybrid cloud helps your business optimize for more flexibility, more deployment options and your existing infrastructure, security, and compliance.
In general, if the following are valid, the public cloud is a safer option:
- Scalability and elasticity, the ability to quickly or immediately add capability in response to unforeseen traffic rises, are important to you.
- You would like to avoid upfront capital investments and favour continued running expenditures that are more stable.
- You want unrestricted access to a public cloud service to unique services that are available.
However, if you want full leverage of the cloud environment and feel that the workloads have repetitive user habits, if you have highly specific security, regulatory, or technology requirements, a private cloud or private cloud-like service might be a better fit.
For any of their workloads, most enterprise cloud adopters turn to hybrid cloud environments to have the ability to select the right cloud environment (public or private) or switch workloads between clouds as their needs shift.
Benefits of public cloud
Cost effective
One of the public cloud’s top assets being an exceptionally competitive price system. Most public cloud vendors provide organisations the option to pay by the hour. It allows firms, especially small and medium-sized organisations, to closely manage their costs by paying for the infrastructure solely based on their needs. Without agreeing to a fixed cost for servers, equipment, configuration or repair, companies can run their web applications.
Maintenance responsibility
The servers and infrastructure used to run their services are entirely managed by public cloud providers. Which means the customer never has to think about ending up with hardware repairs. This reduces the running costs of physical device management, but also removes the time spent fixing problems with device. The benefit of this is evident as opposed to a private cloud architecture, where the customer builds a server and hardware on their premises.
Flexibility
Public cloud storage allows the ability to access storage anywhere in the world, any amount of storage, any sort of storage, increasing storage, diminishing storage, automatically scale, among many other functions. Again, there is absolutely no question of matching needing to have and customise on-site storage with the public cloud ‘s simplicity and comfort. This style of versatility enables business customers to provide storage of the shapes, sizes, and locations required to enhance their disaster response plans immensely.
Agility
Today, to be profitable, organisations need to be faster and more dynamic. They need to actively develop their systems, instruments, technology, and strategies to strengthen them. Being agile helps organisations to take better actions and prioritise the job correctly to maximise customer satisfaction. Businesses enjoy streamlined internal processes with the public cloud, easier distribution, better coordination, quicker introduction of new business strategies, and increased capacity to capture and interpret data.
Limitations of public cloud
Loss of control
It is out of your hands as you outsource your software to the public cloud. Physical and cybersecurity, configuration and other IT management elements are left to teams of persons who are well away from the company’s regular operations. For many enterprises, the use of additional technological assistance has been common practise for years. And companies may consider getting out of the IT market entirely with the advent of cloud computing.
Security
Although public clouds are more reliable than other SME IT infrastructures from reputable vendors, there is a trade-off. First, you can only configure safety considerations at the level of the operating system-protection at the physical level is under the responsibility of the supplier. Second, by default, public cloud servers are available throughout the internet. This has been shown to contribute to improved levels of remote vulnerability scanning.
Click Here to know more about cloud computing security issues
Lack of support
Support is a distinct contract in the public cloud model, and certain vendors cannot even provide the level of service required by an enterprise system. This method of hosting, in the case of the use of virtual computers, is not ideal for all environments, even existing systems, for many reasons like, virtualization is not allowed by some systems and must be on dedicated physical servers, some certificates cannot be reused. It is then necessary for the business to purchase licences or upgrade to a new version, and many systems can be very resource-intensive and need to have reliability that can be ensured only by dedicated servers.
Lack of customization
The public cloud multitenancy environment will restrict or limit any customization. For enterprises who have a dynamic development process or complicated network infrastructure, this may be disastrous.
Compliance issues
It is no secret that corporations concerned with classified information are controlled by the government. When they place their IT infrastructure on the cloud, this becomes more demanding. For financial institutions, this is, especially a concern. To ensure protection and adequate maintenance, facilities delivered can be subject to a wide variety of regulatory and business rules. That is why, for their vital apps, many businesses focus on private cloud solutions.
Choosing the right provider for business
As more and more IT systems are externalised, it has become important for long-term sustainability to ensure that you choose the right cloud providers.
However, the available competition is huge, with an even greater range of offerings being provided by a multitude of suppliers. From industry leaders such as Microsoft, Amazon and Google to smaller niche companies who provide personalised services.
Click Here to know more about how to choose the right provider for business
So, let us see the characteristics we need to pick the best. We need to compare different vendor traits, so we can prevent expensive decisions.
- Company Requirements
- Security
- Technology Advancements
- Manageability
- Pricing
- Support
- Certifications and standards
- Downtime history
