Clouds vs The Cloud?
- Shannon Pepi
- Mar 22, 2018
- 2 min read
The cloud - A tech term that seems to be very trendy as of late and yet, few people can actually explain what 'the cloud' is. What is the cloud? When are we using it? How does it actually benefit my business? All questions we here at NQBE receive all too often.
So, what is the cloud exactly?
First and foremost, the cloud is not a physical thing. It is a network of servers, each with its own function. Some servers use computing power to run applications or deliver a service.
As an example, a few years ago Adobe moved their entire creative services offering into a cloud based Software-as-a-Solution (SaaS). This meant, instead of spending money on an expensive suite of programs that comes in a box, you subscribe to each service with a monthly fee.
Then there are other servers in the same network that are responsible purely for storing data.
For example, taking a photo on your phone stores it in the phones internal storage however when you upload that to instagram or facebook, it's stored in their cloud.
Okay, well what are the benefits of working in the cloud?
A businesses decision to move to the cloud, in our experience, in very often financially motivated. Traditionally, companies had to buy their own hardware and equipment. Not only does this have a initial cost but the value of the hardware depreciates quickly. With the cloud however, companies are now able to pay for exactly what they're using. This new model means that its easy and quick to scale up and down as a company grows or shrinks.
This is the main reason 'the cloud' seems to be everywhere today. Not only does it give us all the opportunity to show off how extravagant our lunch is but it also helps companies save thousands of dollars every year.
If all that data is in the cloud, how big IS the cloud?
This is an interesting question we get asked all the time and the honest answer is, No one knows exactly just how much space cloud based services such as Google or facebook can offer; however according to this infographic, around 1 Exabyte, which is such a huge number without visual representation, it's hard to picture.
Summing it all up. The cloud is a network of servers with varying uses from computing power to storage solutions. The main selling point for businesses switching to the cloud is the scalability and cost savings associated with the service. If this is something you're interested in hearing more about contact us to speak to one of our professionals about moving your business into the cloud and we'll show you just how much you could benefit.
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