How does the Cloud work?

Instead of using a physical hard drive to access and store data, cloud technology enables us to do so through the internet. More well-known cloud storage services include Google Drive, iCloud, and Dropbox. They save all of your data completely online, allowing you to free up space on your device by not having to store it locally.

Cloud computing implies that a company’s IT infrastructure is housed in a data centre that the cloud computing provider manages and maintains remotely. A business cloud provider is responsible for maintaining the IT infrastructure of the client, integrating applications, and creating new features and functionality to stay up with market needs.

Explaining how the cloud works

When you store data in the cloud, it is stored on dedicated servers and storage units in facilities at distant physical locations that can be accessed from any device that has access to the internet.

Cloud service providers own the data centres and are responsible for maintaining the servers. These data centres can be based in different locations around the world.

Virtualisation is a fundamental aspect of the cloud. In order to build virtual machines, software is used to split the computational power, memory, and storage of a single computer into numerous smaller units, each of which runs its own operating system. It’s possible to effectively share and distribute computing power throughout the cloud thanks to virtualisation.

The word “cloud computing” may be broken down into three subcategories: When huge corporations such as Amazon and Apple rent out their vast computer resources to other organisations, it is called Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Platform as a Service (PaaS) is an online place where developers construct web applications for particular groups of consumers. Software as a Service (SaaS) is a model in which customers access and utilise software over the internet.

There are two main types of cloud computing — private and public.

An example of a public cloud is one in which the complete computer infrastructure is housed on the premises of a cloud provider, with the cloud provider delivering services to customers through the internet. Customers are freed of the responsibility of maintaining their own IT infrastructure and are able to swiftly scale up in terms of users or processing capacity as required.

Anyone may access a public cloud. Third-party vendors, like Gmail and Youtube, own and operate these publicly available infrastructures, which are used by a range of organisations and other users.

Private clouds are those that are only accessible by a specific organisation. Depending on the cloud provider, the IT infrastructure may be placed on the customer’s premises or in the provider’s own data centre. Businesses that use private clouds have access to a more personalised level of service.

Some companies opt for a combination of private and public clouds. In this case the company will store essential and confidential data in-house on their own servers, while storing less indispensable data with the cloud storage provider at a location they will specify, such as ASG’s cloud-hosting services in South Africa

Concerns about the cloud

Reliability and security are the two most important issues when it comes to cloud storage. Customers are unlikely to trust a corporation with their data unless they can be guaranteed that they can access it anytime they want and that no one else will be able to get their hands on it.

Cloud services utilise authentication mechanisms like usernames and passwords to restrict access and data encryption to safeguard data that is stolen or intercepted en route to ensure that your data is safe from unauthorised users. However, encryption keys can be accessed and passwords can be hacked by unscrupulous operators.

Reliability, the second major problem, is equally as critical as security. A cloud storage system that is prone to failure is a concern. Keeping data on a faulty system or with a corporation that isn’t financially sound is a huge risk.

ASG is one of the leading IT companies in South Africa. To find out more about our outsourced IT services and Cloud PBX solutions, get in touch with our team.