Public Cloud Computing as a Utility is Gaining Popularity
5th Oct 2016
Public Cloud Computing as a Utility is Gaining Popularity
As it turns out, the idea of public clouds being deployed to offer up specific cloud services on an individual pay-as-you-go basis is apparently a very attractive proposition to quite a lot of people. The really good news is that it isn't just businesses that are interested this time around; the general public is starting to show interest in cloud computing, and in significant ways.
We should all already be familiar with public clouds / services like EC2 (Amazon's elastic compute cloud), after all it's been around for while now. EC2 actually provides a solid model that can be used to explain how a public cloud can be used. Customers pay a certain tiered price for access to varying degrees of computing resources and power. Alternatively, some pricing models may be based on usage (pay-as-you-go pricing). Because cloud computing services are literally pumped straight into your home (via your current connection the net) they function in a nearly identical way as public utilities.
Just what can a public cloud do for you? Currently, the two biggest uses for public clouds are (online) storage and access to specific applications. Most of the applications being deployed through public clouds are very specific, and are often tailored for precise uses. This is not to say that one couldn't use a public-cloud-deployed app in any way they saw fit, just that most resources were created with very specific purposes in mind.
Experts have been predicting that public clouds would rise in popularity for a number of years now; it seems that their predictions have finally caught up with us. But it should be noted that the general citizenry are not the only ones with a piqued interest in public cloud computing.
Businesses are also supplementing their current level IT programs with a la carte' cloud services via public clouds. In fact, businesses have been right there all along, touting the many benefits of cloud computing every step of the way. Most people seemed puzzled when they learn that there are big businesses out there that actually prefer to purchase public cloud access in lieu of building a private cloud. First off, private clouds are expensive, may take years to set up properly, and often require the addition of new specialized personnel.
[/caption]Public clouds on the other hand, are comparatively cheap, can be deployed like a utility, and can be implemented on (your) non-cloud system. Many organizations are opting for hybrid clouds as a means for gaining access to cloud resources without changing or jeopardizing the content or autonomy of their current systems. It is an elegant way to ease into cloud computing very slowly, whilst maintaining current standards, and gaining access to new types of resources, services and/or applications.
Here are a couple of reasons that explain why public clouds are becoming all the rage. One, there are no additional hardware costs, maintenance, or software purchases to speak of when you're talking about accessing a public cloud; all of this (and more) is covered by your service provider. Two, your service (deployed from the public cloud) will actually scale itself automatically to perfectly suit your needs and requirements. This will prevent things like overdrafts from occurring.
Arguably, one of the biggest selling points of public cloud computing has been (and continues to be) its pay-as-you-go pricing model. In other words, you only pay for what you actually use. Individuals and businesses are tired of paying exorbitant sums of money on an annual basis just so they can upgrade hardware and software; which, to add insult to injury, they also have to spend even more money to set up and maintain (and if they're a business, they might also have to spend additional capital to train employees on new systems / software).
The point is, there are large sums of money being thrown around to pay for things that aren't paying for themselves. Public cloud computing (as a utility) is the perfect solution to this quandary because service providers are the ones actually covering these setup and maintenance costs. Now the users are free to concentrate on their respective tasks at hand.