With cloud computing, you can access your data from any device, anywhere. But how do you access the cloud?
By using the cloud, companies can rent access to anything from applications to storage from a cloud service provider rather than owning their computing equipment or data centers.
In this post, we will introduce you to the cloud and show you how to access it. We will also give you a brief introduction to cloud computing and what you can do with it.
What is the Cloud?
Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of IT resources, services, including bandwidth, web hosting, data hosting and storage, processing power, etc., via the internet without requiring the users to run them locally on their own physical servers. So, when you opt for a cloud service, you can use the cloud resources via almost all web browsers, or some providers may have their dedicated mobile application to offer you better feasibility.
With the evolving technology, the use of cloud computing platforms is skyrocketing. In 2020, while 31% of organisations adopted the public cloud solutions, 28% prioritised hybrid models.
Some prominent cloud-based services that are revolutionising the way modern businesses operate are:
- Microsoft OneDrive
- Google Drive
- Apple iCloud
- Netflix
- Yahoo Mail
- Dropbox
Cloud Deployment Types
The cloud, being widely adopted by businesses today, offer three main deployment choices:
- Public Cloud: It is the most cost-effective approach to using a cloud that runs on a multi-tenancy system. It means multiple users share a single instance and supporting infrastructure for cloud resources, but each gets a secure and isolated place for data and application storage. So, despite sharing the same database, software, and server, a tenant cannot access or breach the data/files of other tenants. The third-party provider administers and maintains the public system and offers top-notch network and data protection.
- Private/Corporate Cloud: This deployment model is solely dedicated to a particular user and accessible over a private network.Though traditional corporate cloud models run on the user’s local physical server, cloud vendors also offer private cloud services located off-premises, hosted on third-party data centers.
- Hybrid Cloud: Hybrid cloud can comprise a public cloud with a private one or an on-premises system and a public model. It is excellent for leveraging a public cloud platform to offload your basic workloads while securing your sensitive web apps and data, hosting them on the private cloud. Hybrid cloud models come with orchestration and application portability to allow you to build a single cloud environment and shift workloads among multiple solutions for better elasticity and cost-optimisation. Some market-leading hybrid cloud providers are GCP, IBM, AWS, VMware, Microsoft Azure, etc.
In our guide, we discuss various methods to utilize cloud services effectively. For those interested in AWS’s specific offerings, our in-depth analysis of AWS instance types provides a comprehensive look at choosing between Dedicated Instances and Dedicated Hosts.
How to Access the Cloud
As we have already stated, cloud computing offers access to a centralised pool of highly configurable IT resources run on a system of virtual servers and allows you to provision and use them effortlessly, having zero/minimum physical IT infrastructure.
Of course, making those centralised resources available doesn’t mean making them available to everyone — controlling who can access what is just as critical as the infrastructure itself. This is where Identity and Access Management comes in. Cloud IAM policies and permissions define exactly which users, roles, and services are authorised to interact with specific resources, acting as the gatekeeper between your organisation and everything hosted in the cloud. Understanding this layer is essential before exploring the different methods through which cloud services are actually accessed.
But how is access to cloud services given?
Any user can access public cloud services over the public internet. They can be free/sold on-demand. If the application you want to access is created for the public cloud environment, you can use any compatible web browser (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome) to access it. For unstructured data storage in a public cloud platform, you may require a utility application.
A private cloud platform is a more secure option for data storage than a public cloud. It is available only for authorised users via their company’s dedicated private intranet network or VPN. External users, given access by the authorised user company, can enter the company’s cloud assets through a web interface over the public network. The private cloud system, dedicated to a single business, is usually run within the company’s own firewalls to restrict unauthorised logins.
To combine and access multiple cloud programs in a hybrid approach, you have several options:
- VPN: You can use a VPN to securely connect and access the cloud infrastructures and on-premises platforms in a hybrid model over the public network. A cloud VPN is specially outlined to restrict illegitimate access like a private intranet and allows the users connected over the VPN to communicate and access the company’s database, files, and applications remotely and more securely with a mobile app, desktop, or website.
- WAN: WAN connects the computers in a hybrid cloud located at a distance more securely than the public network. WANs can encrypt your system connections through a VPN.
In a hybrid cloud, using compatible API sets is inevitable to connect among databases, cloud platforms, and web applications for seamless operations. Once you send HTTP requests via an API, you can access and shift workloads among cloud solutions via the public network, VPN, or WAN.
While learning how to access the cloud is essential, equally important is understanding the forces behind these technologies. Find out who owns the cloud for a look at the companies and people who shape the cloud computing landscape.
Common Cloud Services
Cloud computing enables enterprises to operate more efficiently and stay ahead of the competition. Though a relatively new paradigm, cloud platforms are becoming extremely popular by the day over the last few years for the elasticity, scalability, and cost-optimisation they offer.
Let’s look over what you can do with the cloud:
Test and Development
If you are in the business of developing software or web applications in-house, you must know it is a long-winded task that involves huge expenditure for training the staff, setting up, and configuring a robust IT infrastructure with sophisticated hardware and software, and more.
Thanks to the cloud that has brought various ready-to-use software development and testing platforms tailored to your specific requirements at your fingertips. To enable you to design, test, and implement applications effortlessly without undergoing infrastructural complexities, cloud computing platforms offer various tools for constant integration and delivery and ensure automatic provisioning of virtual and physical resources.
Cloud Storage
Cloud services offer various storage facilities: file, block, and object storage, where your data gets saved in a centralised virtual pool hosted by a cloud vendor off-/on-premises depending on the regulatory compliance your business runs on.
But what makes cloud file storage so fascinating is it allows you to store data and access or retrieve it using a compatible web-based interface. So, you only need robust network connectivity, and you can access, edit, share, save or download files from any place with any device and even collaborate on a single file with your co-users in real-time. You can outsource the hassle of running and administering the storage infrastructure to the cloud service provider and opt for a pay-as-you-use scheme for maximum cost-efficiency.
Big Data Analytics
If you avoid big data analytics, chances are, your business will miss crucial information about the latest market trends, customer demands, and demographics, etc., resulting in decreased ROI.
Cloud computing can facilitate harnessing the power of big data by consolidating both structured and unstructured data from multiple sources into one place, processing them, and applying various predictive models to derive actionable insights. These cloud-based big data analytic platforms are not only efficient in fueling your business growth by identifying the behavioural pattern of the customers and current market, but they are also far less inexpensive than traditional data analytic software.
Data Backup, Retrieval, and Disaster Recovery
Unlike traditional data backup processes that involve consolidating data from various sources manually and dispatching them to drives for backup, cloud data backups are far more protected and effortless to use. They scale as your company expands. Moreover, you can schedule and encrypt the backup, send back up data anywhere via the internet, and more without undergoing the hassle of the manual process.
CDR (Cloud Disaster Recovery) provides you with a managed disaster recovery platform to mirror your website and data and configure the settings according to your industry specifications. So in case of a disaster, you can immediately regain access and functionality of your IT infrastructure in a secure virtual environment.
