From checking email to sending calendar invitations to accessing collaborative work documents available on different devices, cloud services now permeate both everyday business and personal life. Cloud services allow users to access a service or data that’s hosted anywhere in the world on another person or company’s computer. Rather than investing in on-site servers, businesses choose to implement cloud services for easier access to data and services for multiple employees on multiple devices.
What Is The Cloud?
The cloud refers to a network of computers and servers that allow information to be hosted and shared without the need for on-site hardware. Users can access their information over the Internet from various devices anywhere from secure remote servers. These servers host information and run applications, our clients can leverage the cloud as a basis to grow their own products and services.
What Are The Benefits Of Cloud Services?
Cloud services are beneficial to businesses that want to take advantage of existing tools to build their own products and scale quickly. Cloud services allow businesses to quickly access and share information across sales, operations, and other organizational teams while leveraging a variety of devices and without having to invest more time and resources into developing and maintaining the infrastructure internally.
Types Of IT Cloud Services
Some of the most common types of cloud services include the following:
Software As A Service (SaaS)
SaaS involves accessing computer software and applications that are hosted in a secure cloud environment. When subscribing to SaaS, the software and applications are delivered through remote connections to external servers. SaaS operators are responsible for operating and managing the servers as well as providing a secure/compliant infrastructure with secure connections to the software and applications. This is an advantage for organizations that use SaaS since they don’t have to worry about constantly updating and maintaining the software in their own on-premise environment.
Benefits Of SaaS
One of the many benefits our clients gain from subscribing to a Software as a Service solution is they no longer have to invest in the costly server hardware and maintenance, real estate, environmental, or air conditioning units. Instead, SaaS allows our clients to subscribe to software services while accessing the applications from any device connected to the internet. Another benefit is that clients do not have to worry about maintaining the software, which is operated and maintained by the party that owns the software.
Infrastructure As A Service (IaaS)
IaaS is a common form of IT cloud service that is generally used by small to medium-sized businesses. IaaS allows businesses to use computer servers, operating systems, and storage through virtualization technology. The servers and storage systems are hosted by an organization and businesses pay for the computing resources. IaaS is economical because businesses only pay for the resources that they use. This type of cloud service is excellent for businesses that want to scale their businesses in a manageable and sustainable fashion.
Benefits Of IaaS
Typically, our clients subscribe to IaaS services so they will not need to invest in a ton of expensive hardware. Our clients pay a relatively small fee to access as much processing power and data storage as they need. This is a great solution for those organizations that may need to scale up or down depending on business needs.
Platform As A Service (PaaS)
PaaS is a third form of IT cloud services in which organizations can use an outsourced server platform to host their own applications. The platform offered usually includes a server or server cluster, storage, firewall, and network connectivity. The organization usually leverages outsourced and internal resources to build or migrate their applications to the hosted platform provided by the PaaS provider.
Benefits Of PaaS
The Platform as a Service provides organizations with the ability to transition into the cloud using a hybrid approach, such as 24/7 hosted computing and storage for production, public cloud services for messaging, bulk data storage, and near-line business continuity services. The underlying hardware and software are ready to use and build upon. This allows our clients to avoid investing in costly equipment and PaaS includes the ability to scale the size of the platform as a business’s needs to grow.
Speak With A Professional Managed IT Services Provider
Every business has unique needs. At SeaGlass Technology, our cloud services professionals can assess and discuss your business’s needs and make the recommendations that will enable you to scale technologically quickly. Contact our experts at SeaGlass Technology to assist you with finding the right option for you.