cloud computing. It’s one of those terms that’s used almost daily for a myriad of computer-related topics, but the background that most users aren’t really familiar with. For this reason, in this article we want to explain what it really consists of and why it is a subject on which you would be interested to know more.
“The cloud” is this concept that many of us have that “something” is in a distant place, but to which we have access (paradoxically, contrary to what happens with clouds); In the cloud there are, for example, services like Netflix or Prime Video, but there are others like Google Drive or Dropbox… in any case, we always talk about that “something” that we mentioned earlier is digital. But what about cloud computing?
What is cloud computing?
We mentioned earlier that video streaming services like Netflix are actually in the cloud, as is remote storage with services like OneDrive. This means that, taking these two examples, the data is on servers physically hosted in another site, and from which you receive information via the Internet, whether it is the photos of your holidays saved in Dropbox, or the latest series that you watch on Disney+.
Obviously the data for the series you watch on Netflix is actually hosted on a physical server (or hundreds, thousands of them) only that it’s away from you, and that’s the concept you have to take into account to understand what it is, cloud computing.
Cloud computing refers to a service delivery model in which data processing (computation) is delivered over the Internet remotely, and this is what enables services such as NVIDIA’s GeForce Now or the upcoming Project Q for the future portable console from Sony: the computational load is carried out on servers far from you, and what you get is simply the result.
This allows, for example, to be able to play triple A titles on a low-power and already relatively old laptop, which is exactly what GeForce Now offers and which Sony will offer with Project Q.
Public, private and even hybrid
With what we’ve told you before, you’ll basically already understand what cloud computing really means, but it’s also interesting to know that it’s not only used for the services we’ve given as an example, and is that in fact we can divide it into three types: public, private and hybrid.
This division essentially depends on the physical location of the cloud infrastructure, as well as how these services are made available to the user:
- audience: This is the most common model, where a service provider makes its infrastructure available to users (usually in exchange for a monthly payment), usually via the Internet. The most important examples are Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure, as well as Google Gloud Platform.
- private: Private cloud computing is generally for the business environment. This way, a company can have its own server infrastructure, with its own configuration and optimization and behind its firewall so that it can only be accessed by them. You could set up a CMS or an ERP yourself on a computer at home and have cloud computing (since the idea is to be able to access it from anywhere) but only accessible by you.
- Hybrid: in this type, generally también usado por empresas, se contrata un modelo de computación en la nube a una empresa de terceros (como AWS, como hemos mencionado antes), quienes ponen a su disposición la infraestructura pero la configuran a su gusto y solo accesible for them.
