What is Cloud Computing?
Modern computers are incredibly user-friendly. You turn them on, and the operating system (OS) boots up automatically, bringing you straight to your desktop, apps, and files. But what happens when you need to edit a file and can’t access your computer?
That’s where cloud computing comes in. It gives you the flexibility to access your work files and applications from anywhere. You could be on vacation in Brazil and still update your company’s budget spreadsheet—just by logging in online. Cloud computing is all about convenience, accessibility, and working without limits.
- Flexibility
- Improved Project Management
- Pumped Up Security
- Better Data Backups
- Easing the Strain on your Current System
Not only do you get access to your files from anywhere and be able to share project files and manage task lists with anyone, but the responsibility of backing up files, protecting information is no longer a task for your company to maintain.
The whole premise of the cloud is to be a reliable place for saving stuff. By implementing cloud technology you are cutting a lot on regular IT support. You might be wondering, aren’t clouds usually associated with public servers? The answer is yes.
But there are more secure alternatives available like SSL-certified clouds. When you move all your applications to the cloud, updating applications will be an easier task. After you refresh the cloud application, anyone who has access to that software will have the latest version. Once more, reducing the burden of IT maintenance on your business.
Characteristics of Cloud Computing
If you want your business to be dynamic and scalable, then you need to include cloud computing among your solutions.
On-Demand Self-Service
Self-service has never been so self. Now your customers can access computing resources without the need for human intervention from the service provider. This allows your company to control resource consumption and costs.
Broad Network Access
Available means AVAILABLE and this covers the whole world and any device. This, of course, improves collaboration, facilitates remote working and improves access to data in real time.
Resource Pooling and Scalability
Cloud providers pool resources to provide multi-user access while scaling up or down based on the needs of businesses. The ability to scale up and down is critical for efficiently managing variable workloads.
Use Cases & Examples of Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is fundamental to numerous business operations and provides comprehensive solutions, which offer efficient storage, computing power, and software delivery, among others.
Data Storage and Backup
The cloud will always be more secure than physical storage. It had to be said and it has been said. Companies have the capacity to store, back up and retrieve data. They can do this through AWS S3 or Google Cloud Storage.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
The less work the better. Software such as Microsoft 365 or SalesForce offer online services to companies with minimal installation, maintenance or updating needs.
Web Hosting and Application Deployment
Businesses host websites on cloud environments (like AWS or Azure) and applications, which grants scalability, high availability, and less infrastructure management responsibility.
What is Virtualization?
To add everything that the cloud is capable of, virtualization, it is the original form of cloud computing. First introduced by IBM in 1967, virtualization has since revolutionized the IT industry. The invention was based on “software that decouples the OS from physical hardware.”
By separating hardware from the operating system, it enabled us to run multiple virtual computers on a single physical machine. Have you ever watched someone boot a PC on their computerso? That is an artifact of early virtualization.”
A lot of progress has been made since its creation back in the 60’s, and in the present, through virtualization, we have a lot of multitasking features.
Characteristics of Virtualization
The features of virtualization aremany that contribute to being a great source for IT environments. These features improve performance, flexibility, and cost savings.
Resource Isolation
Virtual machines are isolated from each other, preventing problems in an individual VM from impacting others. This isolation increases security and improves prevision of resource allocation.
Hardware Independence: Virtualization provides a layer of abstraction on top of the physical machine, virtualizing the hardware so that apps can run on virtual hardware rather than depending on the physical hardware providing them compute. It facilitates hardware upgrades and maintenance without service interruption.
Hardware Independence
Virtual and scalability are almost synonymous. Of course, depending on the changing needs of your company. Now, without the need for massive changes to your infrastructure, you can quickly add or remove virtual machines.
Scalability and Flexibility
Likewise, we relate virtualization to flexibility and efficiency. If not, take a look at these success stories that we show you below.
Use Cases & Examples of Virtualization
Virtualization is widely used since it provides flexibility and efficiency to different industries. Here are a few examples of use cases where virtualization is important.
Server Consolidation
The usage of virtualization enables the organization to deploy multiple servers on a single physical server, which reduces the cost of hardware, power consumption, as well as space and improves resource utilization.
Test and Development Environments
A space for testing? Of course. IT teams create isolated environments to develop and test new programs, patches or updates. This allows for safe testing, so there are no repercussions on the live production environment.
Desktop Virtualization
Organizations deploy virtual desktops that employees can access remotely, improving mobility, data security, and centralized management of applications and user profiles.
The Difference Between Cloud Computing & Virtualization
Cloud computing is a more advanced version of virtualization. Contacts a hyperviser to create virtual machines. We use VMWare and Microsoft Hyper-V as our hypervises at TVG Consulting in our IT team. Cloud computing stores on public server along with other accounts.
And, in cloud computing, you don’t talk to a human; so instead we talk to an API. All of this communication to the hypervisor is automated by the API. As we stated earlier, virtualization is cloud computing kept on a private, off-site server.
With this, data can be handled in a much more secure manner and enables Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) related activities. GRC includes concepts such as the liability of storing various types of data and the government compliance potentially needed for the nation and region the information resides.
Although virtualization and cloud computing can consider GRC,Bloomberg notes virtualization can do it more even “efficiently and still maintain flexibility,” as a result of “its inherent data abstraction, integration, and data services capabilities.”
For finance industry enterprises, GRC can be particularly relevant. The cost savings may be critical for smaller companies in using cloud storage rather than virtualization, but be advised that public servers often do not offer much in the way of specialized support.
Which One is Best for Your Business?
Virtualization is different to cloud computing. Which should you choose? That depends on the needs of your company, your budget and your long-term IT strategy. Virtualization is suitable for companies with predictable workloads and those that want to maximize existing hardware but prefer on-site control. If your company needs complete personalization and data separation, then this is for you.
On the other hand, cloud computing is better for companies looking for flexibility, scalability and economic efficiency without extra costs that could significantly alter the budget.
It allows people to work remotely, collaborate more easily, and benefit from advanced technologies such as AI and machine learning. Review your organization’s growth strategy, data security needs, and operational goals to select the right solution for your business.
