Types of Cloud Computing Platforms

Cloud computing platforms have become the preferred architecture for many organizations’ digital transformation strategies. Cloud service host providers include Amazon, Alibaba Cloud, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft, NTT-Japan, and Infosys.

Within these cloud providers, various cloud computing platforms are available for clients to leverage, including public cloud services, private cloud services, and hybrid cloud deployments.

In this article, we’ll define what constitutes a cloud computing platform and review the different types of cloud computing platforms.

What is a Cloud Computing Platform?

Cloud computing gives users on-demand access to computing resources and services via the internet. 

Clients use the internet to connect to cloud platforms where they can request and access computing services. Cloud computing platforms are comprised of software and hardware for servers deployed within one or more private instances. Each instance is capable of large-scale software deployments. And each instance has remote access to computing power, virtual machines, and other services.

What is a Public Cloud?

Public clouds offer on-demand computing services to individuals and organizations via the internet. These services are distributed by public, third-party providers like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, and Google. These providers offer cloud-based solutions with several underlying infrastructure options and flexible contracts.

What is a Private Cloud?

Private clouds are cloud computing environments that are designed for a single company. With a private cloud, companies have single access to their own cloud infrastructure, software application, and virtual servers.

Companies can use different private cloud platform providers and use a secure connection via VPN or other WAN connectivity to establish network bridges.

What is a Hybrid Cloud?

Organizations wanting to develop a cloud strategy while maintaining existing on-premises data centers will establish a hybrid cloud design. Hybrid clouds run applications by combining computing and storage services of both public clouds and private clouds. 

They help clients migrate their on-premises workloads into the cloud by private virtual connectivity between the two instances. This digital bridge allows for data migration, future business continuity, and failover.

Types of Cloud Computing Platforms

Today, there are several cloud computing services available including: Iaas, PaaS, SaaS, and FedRAMP.

IaaS

Infrastructure-as-a-Service is a cloud computing service that delivers essential compute, network, and storage resources to users via the internet on-demand, on a pay-as-you-go basis. To access these resources, users will connect to the IaaS provider instance to load their virtual instance, applications, security protection layers, and databases.

IaaS provides several benefits to organizations and individuals, including:

• Flexibility
• Reliability
• Security
• Reduced maintenance
• Cost savings (on hardware)

A great example of IaaS is Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS is one of the market leaders in the IaaS space and offers over 200 services from data centers around the world.

PaaS

Platform-as-a-Service provides development teams and DevOps engineers with a cloud platform that allows for cost-effective application development, testing, deployment, and scaling. Like IaaS, PaaS resources are purchased from a cloud service provider (CSP) on a pay-as-you-go basis and accessed via the internet.

PaaS providers, including Microsoft and Salesforce.com, will establish client instances in their cloud platforms. The client developers will access the PaaS instance and develop their applications using the provider’s libraries and IaaS components, including computing, memory, and storage.

These resources help teams:

• Effectively manage the application lifecycle
• Reduce coding time
• Enhance development capabilities
• Develop for multiple platforms easily

SaaS

Software-as-a-Service is a cloud-based software delivery model that gives users access to applications over the internet. SaaS applications are hosted on remote servers and made available to users through APIs, mobile apps, and browsers. Users will often pay for subscription-based licensing to use SaaS providers’ hosted applications.

There are many subscription-based SaaS applications on the market today, but a few of the most well-known offerings are:

• Microsoft Office 365
• Google Workspace
• Oracle Cerner
• Mailchimp
• Zoom
• Slack
• Adobe Creative Cloud
• Netflix

Some of the main benefits of SaaS are:

• Lower infrastructure costs
• Accessibility
• Scalability
• Security

FedRAMP

The FedRAMP cloud is specific to members of the United States Federal government, military, and defense contractors. 

This cloud holds a rigid security framework and compliance requirements. Many legacy government applications still live within on-premises data centers. The FedRAMP cloud allows these agencies and departments to migrate these legacy systems to a highly secure cloud environment. Google Cloud, Microsoft Cloud, and Amazon Cloud offer FedRAMP-certified instances.

Why do Organizations Need High-Availability in the Cloud?

Application and data resilience is top-of-mind for organizations moving into a hosted cloud platform. High availability in the cloud denotes a computing infrastructure that will allow a system to keep functioning, even when certain components fail.

Legacy data center infrastructures also used high availability design and failover between sites at a considerable cost. With multi-cloud and hybrid cloud offerings, providing a separate GEO-located instance is more cost-effective than legacy physical hardware architectures.

Knowledge for Today and in the Future

The cloud is critical for organizations looking to fuel their transformation strategies and growth. Companies looking to be cloud-first will need to hire cloud engineers and architects to help deliver on their strategic vision.

Interested in becoming a cloud engineer or wanting to increase your knowledge of the cloud? The first step in a successful cloud career is developing a keen understanding of cloud technology. The following programs can help you start that journey:

• Applied Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Information Systems–Cloud Concentration
• AWS Developer Associate Certification
• AWS Solutions Architect Certification
• Microsoft Azure Administrator Certification

Book an appointment today with one of CIAT’s expert Admissions Advisors to discover which program path can help you unlock your potential and achieve your education and career goals.