Cloud computing, or cloud computing, has long ceased to be a trend to become a necessity. After all, renowned companies that seek global growth such as Amazon, Netflix, Visa, Nubank and Google already carry out all their activities with the help of this tool, showing that the cloud is part of our lives without us realizing it.
Therefore, understanding how this feature works and its main advantages is of paramount importance for the best solution for your company. Understand, without complications, everything you need to know with this complete content that we have prepared. Follow along!
What is cloud computing?
Cloud computing will be one of the best resources that will drive companies in the digital world this decade. After all, it is crucial to keep corporate companies active and competitive in the current market. According to research carried out by IDC, in 2021 the investment in cloud exceeded more than 3.2 billion and the growth projection will be 31% between the period 2020 to 2024.
To understand better, Cloud computing is an intelligent solution providing technological environments through digital resources with data storage, website hosting and other networks and a shared environment over the internet, all in a remote data center managed by the cloud service (CSP). Therefore, the main objectives of this technology are:
to reduce the costs related to the technology by providing ease in the processes of installing, managing your infrastructure on-premise;
scalability to the company to bring fluidity in the management of peak demand issues, in addition to taking advantage of your cloud provider’s global network and bring functionality to any user on the planet;
better agility in allowing the use of corporate applications in a few minutes instead of having to wait weeks and even months for the support respond to request.
In short, the term cloud refers to the technology that provides the virtual infrastructure with system software operational and servers where your company’s data can be grouped without the need for physical hardware, but in a network. In this way, with the virtualization process, it is possible to take full advantage of the data center.
To have an idea of its great importance, 92% of companies in the world already use cloud technology, . Those who don’t give importance to this topic are at a great disadvantage.
How did cloud computing come about?
Although this technology looks like a “trend” of the digital age, know that it is quite old. It has its beginnings in the 1950s when the costs of computers were quite expensive, after all, they were true machinery and intended only for large companies. To better understand, one of these models occupied an entire compartment.
As information sharing was a necessity for better internal logistics, the central mainframe appeared, which was able to integrate the company’s computers with a large volume of information. However, it was in the 1960s that it gained greater proportions, especially after the American John McCarthy devised a new way to allow the use of information shared with more than one user.
Today, it is essential to live without this technology. That’s because it provides space savings, costs and centralizes crucial company information in one place. This way, everyone has access to applications (depending on the plan) that do not require installation and run on Windows, Android, IOS or macOS, requiring only an internet browser.
Why the name cloud?
Cloud computing is a technology that allows your data to be shared across six continents — including, you can access them in Antarctica, because there’s a small data center there — and it’s that versatility that makes it so interesting. It is as if it were available in the air, hence the association with the term “cloud”.
Thus, information and applications are suspended like a cloud, with no defined size and which may vary in shape. , in addition to being able to transport itself to any space on the planet. An example of a program that has a diffuse character and that its form can vary is the CDN (Content Delivery Network).
The cloud refers to the content distribution network that places important information — such as -commerce— best available with remote servers in different locations around the world, to meet demand and other factors.
When did it become commercially popular?
As we know, the beginning of the idea of cloud computing is old, dating back to the 50’s, however, it had not yet been deployed on a global scale and commercially as we see today. The assumption of uniting the processing power in several computers interconnected in a grid, originated the LCG in 2003. In fact, this “grid” format was already discussed at the University of Chicago as a stable and efficient system for data sharing, with the detailed research done in 1998 called “Bible of Grids”.
From then on, it only advanced. Although it was already widespread in the world, its commercial exploitation has no definite beginning. Thus, he had a milestone at Amazon with the launch of the Elastic Compute Cloud service, in August 2006. After all, this company is one of the most famous cases of the adoption of the cloud computing concept, since at the time, companies held processing and storing data on gigantic e-commerce platforms.
After the great success of Amazon, other global companies have also embarked on innovation such as Google and Microsoft. In summary, they had extensive networks that needed to be improved to keep up with the vast growth with technological innovations.
How does cloud computing work?
How do you As you already know, cloud computing can contribute to your company’s strategies to scale more fluidly, contributing with good cost-benefit, agility in requests in minutes and infrastructure savings. However, it is its structure that makes all the difference. Therefore, understand how the types work and their structuring, below.
Public Cloud
This is a computing resource provided by third parties, as are servers and stores. Thus, it is available for anyone to access the information and, finally, it will be the customer who will be responsible for sending the files and the cloud provider will be in charge of managing the resources.
That is, in public cloud everything is available, but in a standardized way. By providing a unified solution, it ends up becoming the cheapest and most suitable option for companies that want to start in cloud computing.
Private Cloud
The private cloud, as its name suggests, refers to its own internal domain, which is restricted to selected users. Therefore, it allows customizing the support according to the company’s needs. In addition, it follows data security and privacy guidelines. This model is ideal for government and financial institutions.
Hybrid Cloud
This option allows you to integrate the two previous functionalities and thus favors the sharing of applications and data, in addition to being able to customize for a certain number of users when necessary. Therefore, some important features can be used privately and public data, shared to everyone normally.
