Cloud computing moves your IT function to a cloud provider that maintains the hardware and software for your business and provides all the related management services. You can continue to run your own software and use the cloud as a platform but many cloud users prefer to use cloud computing applications which cost less to license and maintain and are also optimized for cloud use. The main benefit of using cloud computing is that it allows your business to take advantage of the latest and best technologies available without having to pay a large up-front capital cost or pay for staff to manage them. This means you can focus on your core business activities and increase competitiveness through cost savings, greater flexibility and optimal resource utilization.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is one of the fundamental cloud computing applications. It refers to the way that your data-center services are provided by the cloud vendor (such as servers, storage devices and network components). Platform as a Service (PaaS) is another where the cloud provider supports your computing platform (x86 or Unix, for example) that you use to develop, test and configure applications developed in house. Software as a Service (SaaS) enables you to use popular software in a version that is optimized for and hosted in the cloud.
Cloud computing facilitates backup and disaster recovery because, by its nature, the cloud stores your data in a data-center that is remote from your business location. However if you prefer to store your data on your own premises for security and only use the cloud for processing, you can periodically copy your data to cloud storage as a backup option. Many businesses also use the cloud as a storage option when they need to keep archived copies of data that is rarely used but must be available to meet regulatory requirements.
Cloud computing is also a convenient way to implement disaster recovery processes. Not only can the cloud store your data but it can also maintain a secondary data center for you that you can swap to in the case of a catastrophic failure. This is referred to as Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) and is one of the best use-cases for the cloud even if your business is reluctant to transfer trust its data to a third-party. The main reason is that recovery can be performed quickly to any location where an internet connection is available.
