Cloud Computing: Models, Types, and Choosing a Provider

Public, private, or perhaps hybrid? Cloud from Amazon, Microsoft, or Google? IaaS, SaaS, or PaaS? Cloud computing is becoming widespread and evolving, and the market for its implementation and service portfolio is becoming increasingly complex. This does not make it easy to decide which specific cloud to implement or how to do it.

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing is a collection of technologies that enable access to software (applications), data, and computing power via the Internet. This applies to resources such as private photos on Google Drive or movies on streaming services, as well as business applications, data, and environments that enable work and the execution of entire processes. Resources are located in an external environment managed by a separate operator and made available on user demand. Interestingly, the term cloud computing has a fairly long history. Its emergence predated its use by Amazon and Google (2006) by a decade, as early as 1996, when Compaq Computer, while discussing the business future of the Internet, outlined a vision of a “cloud” very similar to today’s reality, from which data and programs would be called . Depending on who owns the resources and who controls them, we speak of three basic types of cloud.

• Public cloud computing is offered by an operator that commercially makes resources (infrastructure, environment) available to all interested parties.
• Private cloud by definition, provides resources, such as infrastructure, exclusively to one company, where it is used by many departments and users.
• Hybrid cloud is an architecture that combines both of the above models: a company uses the public cloud model for some tasks while some resources remain in the private cloud model, and data and applications can be moved between environments.

In turn, cloud services that are called from the cloud can be divided according to their scope.

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), is a service providing hardware infrastructure, software to manage it, and maintenance (e.g., security) and links to the centers where these physical and virtual servers are located. This is the basic, simplest form of service. At the same time, according to many experts, it offers the fewest benefits from an innovation perspective but frees the company from capital expenditures on hardware and its maintenance.
• Platform as a Service (PaaS), is a service consisting of providing not only infrastructure but also a ready-made environment with a set of systems and applications, proprietary languages, and a portfolio of services for building unique solutions. In this case, customers can take full advantage of modern technologies, often ready-made, rapidly developing innovative services, e.g., based on AI. At the same time, it requires building one’s own competencies to effectively use cloud resources.
• Software as a Service (SaaS), is a service for delivering, maintaining, and developing a complete solution (e.g., a CRM or ERP system, but also, for example, office applications).

In the case of IaaS and PaaS, it is possible to settle with the provider based on actual usage (pay as you go) or a subscription. In the case of SaaS, these are usually subscription-based settlements. Learn more: DevOps services for companies 

Advantages and challenges of cloud computing

As estimated by the research firm PMR Research in 2022, more than half of large companies in Poland use at least one cloud model. In turn, in 2021, the research firm Gartner predicted that within 5 years, 80% of companies would move their data and systems from local servers to cloud computing. Why is this happening?

The key benefits that using a cloud computing model brings to a company are:

• access to state-of-the-art solutions, e.g., based on artificial intelligence and machine learning, which they could not create on their own;
• cost savings due to the use of resources according to needs (Pay per Use);
• scalability of the IT environment – flexibly, according to the needs reported by the business;
• a previously unattainable level of security and organizational resilience, for which the cloud provider takes responsibility – in a simplified sense.

Cloud computing also creates many new opportunities – providing ready-made answers to new challenges brought by regulations, for example, in the area of CO2 emission reduction. According to the research firm Pike Research, the widespread adoption of the cloud model, which offers shared infrastructure usage, could lead to a reduction in global energy spending in data centers by up to 40%. Cloud computing implementation projects also involve challenges, which include, for example:

• a deficit in the labor market of competencies necessary for the effective use of cloud solutions,
• the need to learn new skills, such as controlling the costs of using cloud computing,
• the need to ensure compliance with regulations, primarily regarding personal data protection.

Many of them are organizational in nature – because, in the opinion of many managers, the success of cloud computing implementation projects depends on cultural changes. Knowledge about an effective, efficient, and secure transition to the cloud computing model is the domain of companies that provide the necessary support in such processes.

What should guide you when choosing cloud computing?

A study by PMR carried out in cooperation with Netia in Q3 2021 shows that only one in ten companies in Poland independently deals with the implementation and maintenance of the cloud in the enterprise. Cooperation with a provider that represents a neutral and flexible approach eliminates many of the challenges mentioned above, ensuring independence and enabling the effective use of cloud computing. Such an approach will result in the creation of an appropriate cloud culture, the selection of the right cloud computing model, and its proper development. An important aspect of choosing a specific solution is adopting a business perspective: do regulations allow data to be stored in the cloud? What is the speed of data access? How does the time of the cloud migration project relate to performance improvement?

What are the most popular solutions available on the market

Among the leading cloud computing providers, the three so-called “hyperscalers” dominate: Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. Their dominance applies to IaaS, PaaS, and hosted private clouds. Consistently for many years, the largest share of the global market has been held by the Amazon Web Services platform, which includes, among others, Amazon EC2, VPC, and RDS clouds. In Q2 2022, it amounted to 34%. Why do companies choose AWS? The size and versatility of the cloud services portfolio offered by AWS are of decisive importance. Amazon Web Services outperforms its most important rivals in terms of functionality and is also the most dynamically developing platform – services are constantly being added, and existing ones are also being continuously developed. As a result, AWS customers include both small companies and large corporations.

Key differences between private cloud and public cloud

While most small companies decide on a single cloud computing provider (and more willingly – a public cloud), tying their business fate to it, larger organizations tend to strive for cloud diversity. They choose different architectures (public and private – combining them into a hybrid construction) and more than one provider (multicloud). Diversification is intended to ensure greater business resilience, although it is an operational challenge. Cloud services are comparable in terms of operation and quality, the price of cloud computing at different providers is also the same, but they require separate sets of skills. The most interesting dilemma in the hybrid cloud model, which is currently the most popular approach (as declared, for example, by 80% of respondents to the Flexera “State of the Cloud Report 2022””), is deciding: which services and which resources to move to the private cloud and which to the public cloud. Which cloud to choose, private or public? Here are some basic differences:

• Public cloud computing does not require maintenance costs
• Private cloud is intended for a specific client, its parameters are tuned to their expectations and needs, including in terms of support.
• Public cloud strives to simplify, standardize the offer, and all complexity; its operators want to have the most universal product possible.
• Private cloud is by principle customized, and therefore in some respects – unique, which implies specific benefits and limitations. Tuning serves its performance – in turn, public cloud primarily provides access to technological and process innovation.
• Public cloud means unlimited scalability and flexibility. Valued features, but not always possible to use in regulated environments. By definition, compliance with regulations is one of the assumptions of a private cloud.
• The basic difference, of course, concerns control: in the case of a public cloud, every customer is basically treated the same and has no influence on the available services or the infrastructure that supports them. Private cloud is by definition subject to user control – from design to use.