Cloud and Cloud Service Providers

By PNC No comments

Ano nga ba ang CLOUD or Cloud Computing?  In this article, we’ll quickly discuss what is Cloud Computing and who are the known providers of Cloud Services.

Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power, without direct active management by the user. The term is generally used to describe data centers available to many users over the Internet. – Wikipedia

Meaning, you can access tools and storage, anytime anywhere with just your laptop or mobile device.

Maraming klase or category ng Cloud Service, these are:

  • Software As A Service or SaaS
  • Platform As A Service or PaaS
  • Infrastructure As A Service or IaaS

Software As A Service.  This is the most common cloud service that most of us are not fully aware of.  SaaS applications are ready to use apps in the cloud.  One of the common examples for this is Google Drive, Dropbox, at iba pang kilalang storage applications na pwede natin ma-access at mag-upload ng files as long as may access tayo sa internet.

Platform As A Service.  This cloud service is the most maximized service by developers.  Kung developer ka and you’re creating a specific feature of your mobile app in a specific cloud platform.  For example a Map or GPS feature, you can just call and integrate this service to your application quickly without building your own from scratch.  One of the well-known feature that falls under this cloud service category is Google Maps.

Infrastructure As A Service.  This cloud service is for I.T Administrators and System Administrators.  Why? Because instead of having an on-premise server or company infrastructure, by just availing this cloud service, may instant server na agad kayo.  No need to buy physical hardware.  All you need to have is a virtual server and your company is good to go to house your applications and can be access by your fellow employees anytime anywhere.

The 3 Known Cloud Service Providers

  1. Google Cloud Platform.  Sa pangalan pa lang, you’d know who is providing the cloud computing service.  Yup! This is the name of the cloud service that Google’s provides.
  2. Amazon Web Service.  The same as Google, obviously, Amazon is the provider of such service.
  3. Microsoft Azure.  Lastly and again, obviously.  Si Microsoft naman ang owner and provider ng cloud service nila na Azure.

Other Known Providers

  • IBM Cloud
  • Digital Ocean
  • Site Ground

Each cloud provider has its own pros and cons, pricing schema, and services implementation which we’ll cover and discuss briefly in our future articles.

For now, at least you now have a basic idea of what is a Cloud, and who are the top players of this incredible and convenient technology.