1 year ago Oleksandr Kravets
The cloud has been trending since forever. You might have heard of the term, cloud or cloud computing and wondered what it is. The term cloud computing in its simplest terms implies that the data and programs are stored on the Internet instead of the computer’s hard disk, i.e. the local storage.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing
In cloud computing the data is stored or accessed on the Internet. It varies for the individual users and the businesses. For businesses, there are different structures of cloud which can be implemented as per their requirement.
In IaaS, the hardware and virtual operating system is provided to the customer. The customer can rent the infrastructure and pay on the basis of usage. IaaS enables the users to build and deploy PaaS, SaaS and web applications. For example, Amazon EC2, Rackspace, Microsoft and Google Engine.
In PaaS, the deployment and development environment is provided to the customer so that user can develop simple or complex apps. For example, Microsoft Azure, Google App Engine, Cloud Foundry whereby the charges depend on the utilized computing power (CPU hours used in a month). The customers get a platform where software can be developed and deployed and use resources as and when businesses require. It reduces the cost for businesses as they don’t need to invest in redundant resources. PaaS includes servers, storage, networking, middleware, BI services, database management system, development tools etc.
It is a type of cloud service where businesses sell application on subscription basis. For example, Google Docs, Salesforce, Dropbox whereby applications are offered on a web browser. The application hosting, maintenance (patches, upgrades) and infrastructure is handled by the cloud provides. Since, the software is deployed and maintained on a third-party, the cost of licensing and managing software is reduced for the business.
Now that the different models of cloud computing are clear, we move on to the benefits of using Microsoft Azure and how you can benefit from using PaaS.
The Azure app service can be beneficial for the company but the implementation needs to be done carefully. Before the implementation is done you must understand the problem you are trying to solve and choose the platform best suited to your needs. The Azure portal enables developers to use all the Azure services or manage services by using APis and templates. It also includes a content delivery network using networks like Akamai and Verizon. It is well integrated with Microsoft technologies and offers a lot of tools.
It is also important to experiment a little and see what works based on feedback. You also need to set expectations that can be achieved and measured in say a few weeks and check for the quality.
Azure stack also fixes the challenges faced in a hybrid cloud model. It allows customers to use Azure tools even if they are using their own servers and data centres. It has a unified ecosystem and developers can use Azure API and build/deploy application on Azure or Azure Stack. The development process is seamless and quick. With the Azure stack, developers get a reliable and quick model so that they can scale their applications easily and stay up-to-date with the current innovations. One more benefit of using Azure stack is the ability to choose hardware as per their requirements. With Microsoft Azure, you can build extremely sophisticated applications and also avoid any emergency scenarios.