Preface – This post is part of the Cloud Computing series.

Introduction

Cloud Computing is the virtual platform that delivers services such as computing, storage, memory, data security, management and artificial intelligence (AI), etc., via the Internet. Cloud allows network-based access to communication tools like emails, calendars, messaging, video calls, etc. For organizations of every size and type of work, cloud services are used for disaster recovery, software development, testing, Data analytics, and data backup.

Cloud servers are located at different places and are managed by cloud service providers. Cloud service providers offer three service models Software-as-a-service (SaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), and Platform-as-a-service (PaaS). Here we will learn about the characteristics of Cloud computing.

Characteristics of Cloud Computing

• Easy payment structure
  Cloud computing offers a Pay-as-you-go payment method that charges based on usage. With this method, there are no wasted resources since users only have to pay for services rather than provisioning for a certain amount of resources.

• Automation
  The ability of cloud computing to automatically install, update, auto-provisioning, configure, and maintain a cloud service is known as automation in cloud computing. It involves using cloud management tools to achieve tasks without human interference. It improves efficiency and productivity with less human oversight.

• Security
  Security plays a vital role in preventing cyber threats, data leakage, and the privacy of sensitive information. Thus, cloud computing has various concerns, like data stored in encrypted form. And to restrict accessing of files, proxy and brokerage are employed.

• Flexibility
  Cloud computing is a fundamentally flexible IT solution, enabling businesses to access storage and software that scales to meet their needs in real-time and achieve targets. Users have freedom when they host their data on a cloud platform.

• Scalability
  With the help of scalability, we can add or delete resources according to people visiting our application. It helps us to retain quality throughout expansion without sacrificing the efficiency or quality of your customer service and internal operations.

• Resource pooling system
  In the resource pooling model of cloud computing, the service provider serves multiple clients simultaneously with scalable and provisional services. They use a multi-tenant model to handle and deal with such clients(Tenant is a group who shares common access). In cloud computing, resource pooling is done flexibly without any technical challenges.

Conclusion

Many characteristics of cloud computing have helped gain the popularity of the technology in the market. The technology has provided security to the data and maintained integrity. It has become easy to deploy the data on the platform and process the same. It has provided scalability and flexibility for choosing services and payment packages. It also provides a free trial package for experiencing the services and then expanding the needed services.