By Isabel Ticlo / 13 Feb 2017 / Topics: Data and AI As a service Cloud
The term may seem daunting or vague, but in reality you probably already use cloud computing services on a regular basis.
Suppose you’re working on a major video project that requires collaboration across your marketing team. Since you’re located off-site, you create a Google document to draft a script that your co-workers can keep and edit in realtime. Once you’re satisfied with the format, you save the final copy and email it to the rest of the department.
After a few days of filming and editing, your production team uploads the finished product to your company’s social networking sites, where it can be shared and viewed time and time again. Congratulations! You have successfully completed your video project using cloud computing every step of the way — from editing your documents and sending emails to storing files and streaming content.
Most cloud computing services fall into three broad categories:
Over time, more businesses have adopted cloud practices to reduce costs, increase speed and productivity, and scale with an unrestricted, global reach. As depicted in Figure 1, the size of the cloud computing market worldwide is expected to reach $128.3 billion in 2019 — a significant increase from $30.73 billion in 2011.
Compared to the other “as a service” offerings, IaaS has the largest margin for flexibility and management. As a result, more enterprises can rely on external providers to manage security, servers, storage and networking on a pay-as-you-go basis. With fewer complexities and expenses associated with IT infrastructure upkeep, businesses are increasingly leveraging IaaS vendors such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure to achieve greater flexibility and agility.
Uses for IaaS, include:
Serverless computing, also referred to as Function as a Service (FaaS), is a model in which business developers are relieved from the need to worry about infrastructural and operational details. If an application is being developed with the assistance of an IaaS provider, the developer is still responsible for coding the new application, testing it, renting infrastructure and planning a strategy for scalability.
However, with FaaS, once the developer uploads the code, the provider takes care of the rest and handles all of the server maintenance and scaling. Together, Faas and IaaS cloud computing create a new level of efficiency where developers can spend less time and resources writing code from scratch.
From digital assistants to chatbots, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has evolved the ways consumers and businesses interact. In 2016, we witnessed a rapid influx of AI improvements due to the rising availability of inexpensive cloud computing services:
In the future, AI may help providers offer even better services around storage, security and optimization through IaaS.
IaaS enables businesses to quickly scale and launch applications without having to stress about purchasing and managing expensive hardware on premises. Additional advantages include:
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