When you stream your album online, shop at an e-commerce store or answer your work email from your home system, you are taking advantage of cloud computing.
What is Cloud Computing?
But do you really know what cloud computing is?
Cloud Computing is a type of computing in which networks, storage, applications, security, and development tools are all enabled through the Internet, as opposed to a local computer or an internal server in your company.
The field of cloud computing has been growing very fast for many years, as more companies look for remote working, enhance efficiency via automation and save money on IT structure. The spending of global end-user has been increased to 23.1% in 2021 to $3.23 billion from $270 billion in 2020 according to Report from Gartner.
With this growth, there are many career opportunities associated with it. If you plan to get started in this dynamic field, it is important to know the types of cloud computing and what can be done with them.
Types of Cloud Computing
Ranging from global brands to tech start-ups, organizations are searching for new ways all the time to use cloud computing to provide services, safeguard data, and run their businesses.
At present, there are mainly three types of cloud computing models:
- Infrastructure as a Service
- Platform as a Service
- Software as a Service
We will be explaining every one of them in brief in the below section:
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
As defined by Adam Goldstein, IaaS offers users access to hosted computing resources, like networking, processing power, and data storage.
It offers the basic building blocks for cloud-based IT, providing infrastructures like firewalls and virtual local area networks. The two most common examples of IaaS are Amazon Web Service (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
According to Goldstein, PaaS offers access to a platform with which users can develop and build custom software and applications.
With PaaS, developers can concentrate on the creative side of app development, without managing software updates and other structures. The coom example of PaaS is Magento Commerce Cloud and it is commonly used by e-commerce companies to curate and handle custom online stores.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
As said by Goldstein, SaaS lets the users subscribe to a fully functional software service that is run and managed by the service provider.
With Saas, the end-user just has to focus on how they will that specific piece of software win the business. They don’t have to think about the maintenance of the service or the infrastructure. Microsoft Office 365 applications are an example of SaaS, as applications are in the browser without installing them on the local computer.
What is Cloud Computing Used For?
There are many different types of cloud computing services that can be used across virtually every industry. 61 percent of businesses moved their work to the cloud by 2020, according to a report by Flexera. These trends will continue.
“Many companies, big and small, are migrating at least some of their IT infrastructure to the cloud,” Overmyer said. Often, it allows an organization to focus more on its core business by eliminating the need to manage its own data center.
So, what are some examples of how cloud computing is used? Cloud computing is behind many of the popular personal and enterprise services consumers use every day, according to Overmyer and Goldstein. Collaboration suites like Google Apps and Microsoft Office 365 are part of this group, as are school learning management systems, streaming services, and video games hosted on the Web.
Music streaming services, for instance, allow users to stream music files from a cloud service over the internet instead of accessing them from a local computer, said Overmyer.
Goldstein cited Amazon’s AWS as another example of cloud computing in action. Amazon.com, one of the largest e-commerce sites in the world, is run using AWS cloud services.
However, cloud computing is more than just shopping and music streaming. Cloud-based services are likely to be a part of many people’s daily lives.
“E-commerce, software services, applications, large and small databases, gaming, data warehousing, and internet of things are just a few of the things people are doing in the cloud,” said Goldstein.
Who Uses Cloud Computing?
The wide variety of applications of cloud computing across so many industries has also led to a wide range of jobs that rely on it every day.
According to Goldstein, almost all IT jobs will have some interaction with the cloud. “System administrators, network engineers, software developers, IT architects, database administrators, and cybersecurity engineers use cloud services regularly.”
According to statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics(BLS), opportunities are increasing in this field. The jobs for database administrators can increase to 10% by 2029. Not only this, jobs for software developers and computer network architects can increase by 22% and 5% respectively.
Along with traditional roles in computer science and IT, there are a growing number of opportunities in the field of cloud computing specifically, said Overmyer.
“You can become a cloud practitioner, a cloud solutions architect, a virtual network engineer, a cloud cyber security specialist, and just about anything else you can imagine in computer science, information technology, or business computing,” he said.
Overmyer said an entry-level employee might work as a cloud administrator or developer within an existing cloud architecture. After gaining additional experience and certifications, they could eventually become the chief cloud architect, providing technical direction to the platform and application development teams.
According to Goldstein, experienced cloud administrators could also take on more specialized roles such as cloud security analysts or API developers.
Cloud computing careers could even lead to a chief information officer position for an organization, said Overmyer.
The right education and training will be key if you wish to pursue any of these fast-growing career paths.
“Cloud computing is growing rapidly and there is a need for trained individuals to work in the field,” said Goldstein.