Exploring Cloud Computing: Essential Concepts Made Simple!
Tags: cloud, devops, tutorial, learning
Published: 2023-06-26 18:56:21

Unlimited operational resources, secure data storage, and unprecedented scalability! So this is what Cloud Computing has been offering, but what is it all about? How does it work? Let's explore some basic concepts of this technology and understand the benefits it provides.

Imagine you creating a company, starting a startup and you don't have to worry about buying expensive servers, preparing space, setting up a bunch of wires, and setting up this infrastructure.
In Cloud Computing the computing resources such as servers, storage, databases, all available as services on demand, you only pay for what you use, accessible at any time and from anywhere in the world.

## Cloud Service Models
As we begin to explore what is behind Cloud Computing, it is crucial that we understand the different service models used such as:

- SaaS - Software as a Service
- PaaS - Platform as a Service
- IaaS - Infrastructure as a Service

And each of these types of models plays a unique role and offers distinct benefits to companies and users alike.

**SaaS - Software as a Service**
To understand these models let's start with SaaS, the pioneer of the models and the most used and most present in our lives. SaaS is a model where applications and functionality are made available to you as a service through the cloud. This brings convenience, flexibility, and simplicity, as you don't need to install anything on your device and can access everything from anywhere.


![Saas Exemples](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ot90jq3eposnfl1gxw9w.png)

SaaS Example
To better understand how SaaS works let's imagine, you are an entrepreneur and you want to create an online store to sell your products. In the old days you would have to hire a development team and create a custom e-commerce system, but all this takes time and a lot of resources.

However, using a SaaS model, you can now use platforms such as Shopify, which offers a cloud service that provides complete solutions for creating online stores, providing everything you need while spending less resources and time.

**PaaS - Platform as a Service**
Next, we have PaaS, which emerges as an option for developers and IT teams, bringing the possibility to create, deploy and manage applications efficiently, using a complete platform provided by the Cloud, bringing as main benefit to let developers focus only on the code, without having to worry about management since it is managed by the cloud service provider.
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is an example of PaaS and how it works, suppose you are a developer and want to create a new web application. Instead of building and provisioning all the necessary infrastructure from scratch, such as servers, networks, and database, you can use GCP.


![Gcloud Image](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/vobtqbkpdgmgiepwn0ij.jpg)

**IaaS - Infrastructure as a Service**
And finally, IaaS is a model that revolutionizes the way organizations manage IT infrastructure. Using this model, companies can provision critical computing resources, such as virtual servers, storage and networking, all on demand. This model offers the most flexibility and scalability, allowing companies to quickly adapt to the demand fluctuations that happen in their services.
Now using Microsoft's Azure as an example, let's imagine that you are a company that needs to run and manage some servers to host your applications and data, and instead of buying your physical server, you adopt Azure as a solution that already owns everything and only uses what is needed. For example:

- Flexibility and scalability;
- Server management;
- Networking resources such as VPN Gatways and load balancer;
- Automatic backups and disaster recovery;

And best of all, pay-as-you-go.

## Benefits of Cloud Computing
And as if it were not enough so many interesting and important points that the Cloud offers us, let's understand some of them better!

**Scalability**, a very important concept in cloud computing, which basically refers to the ability to scale resources according to what we need, being able to adjust up or down according to the demand on our computing resources.
For example, Black Friday is coming and our company expects an increase in website traffic during this period, already knowing this, we can increase the capacity of our servers for a period of time to ensure that our website remains available and not overloaded, using only what is necessary.

**Flexibility** allows us as administrators to change the parameters of the services at any time from anywhere, by cell phone, notebook, without the need to be physically on site.
Cost savings, the thing that most appeals to us when we think of company management and use of the services.

**Cost savings**, which most delight us when we think of enterprise management and resource utilization. By opting for cloud services, companies generally eliminate the need to invest in their own physical infrastructure (which is already a huge savings). Not to mention the reduction in maintenance and upgrade costs and unnecessary overspending, because the costs of these cloud resources are charged only for what is actually used of the resources

**Availability** a key characteristic of cloud services. Cloud service providers, which are typically large technology companies, have a robust and scalable infrastructure to ensure high availability and uptime of cloud services. But we have to remember that correctly scaling the application is very important, because if it is not scaled well

Unlimited operational resources, secure storage, and unprecedented scalability, the cloud offers an efficient and cost-effective alternative to traditional physical infrastructures. It enables enterprises to save costs, optimize their resources, and focus on growth and innovation.

So get on this technological journey and enjoy all the benefits the cloud has to offer!

I will keep some more cloud topics around here! But leave me your vision, have you used it, had problems, or what solutions the cloud has already brought to you?

Thanks for reading and see you next time.