According to Gartner, ‘there is no business strategy without cloud strategy’. The report further says that by 2025, more than 85% of organizations will adopt a cloud-first organizational design and gain business benefits of cloud computing.
You can easily observe this trend in how businesses use hosted services such as servers, databases, networks, analytics, and other functions.
- What is Cloud Computing Infrastructure?
- What Does Cloud Computing Infrastructure Include?
- The Difference Between Cloud Computing Infrastructure and Cloud Architecture
- Essential Requirements of Cloud Computing Infrastructure
- Comparison: Public vs Private vs Hybrid Cloud Computing Architecture
- The Pros and Cons of Cloud Computing Infrastructure
- Step by Step Guide to Building a Cloud Computing Infrastructure
- What is Cloud Computing Infrastructure Management?
- Conclusion
In fact, cloud computing has revolutionized the way businesses are structuring operations and service delivery. With a cloud-first approach, they are designing products differently, analyzing a huge volume of data more intelligently, all the while strengthening their relationship with their customers. This has led to businesses that think and act faster than the competition, with significantly lowered operational costs.
However, to get the full benefit of cloud computing, it is essential to know the basic workings of cloud computing infrastructure. This article covers the basis of the cloud computing infrastructure an organization needs to implement to get the ideal results.
What is Cloud Computing Infrastructure?
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The infrastructure in cloud computing refers to the backend technology that a business needs to move operations to the cloud. This includes the tools for building applications, and the hardware & software resources for deploying and managing these apps in a cloud environment.
Cloud computing infrastructure offers similar advantages as a physical infrastructure but with additional benefits of cloud computing, such as:
| Cost-Efficiency | Reduced on-site operational expenses, including, lowered hardware and software acquisition, HR, and energy costs. |
| Better Security | Managed firewalls, automatic software updates, single sign-in, and private encryption keys hardens infrastructure security. |
| Enhanced Flexibility | Businesses can change services and scale resources within minutes. |
| Collaborative Global Access | Ideal for globally distributed teams that need round-the-clock access to data and processes. |
What Does Cloud Computing Infrastructure Include?
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Now that we have answered ‘what is cloud computing infrastructure’, let’s understand what this infrastructure is made up of, and how these components interact with each other.
The best thing about managed server with cloud computing infrastructure is the flexibility in combining various components to suit the requirements of businesses of all sizes from SMB to enterprises.
The Difference Between Cloud Computing Infrastructure and Cloud Architecture
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When we say infrastructure in cloud computing, we are talking about all the components- hardware and software that an enterprise needs to move and operate in the cloud. It includes cloud computing storage, computing power, services, management tools, and more.
On the other hand, cloud computing architecture can be defined as a blueprint or a roadmap that decides how all the components and technologies, individually and collectively, will be connected to create a cloud-enabled environment.
Essential Requirements of Cloud Computing Infrastructure
How successfully a business migrates to the cloud depends entirely on the way the cloud computing infrastructure is deployed. Since this infrastructure is meant to provide a stable foundation for business processes, it is important to get it right from the start.
Here are some key requirements of cloud computing IT infrastructure that a business needs to understand.
Clear Service Offering
The services offered to the users should be clearly defined. The documentation should lay out access and usage restrictions so that users can have a clear idea of what to expect. This clarity is also important for the businesses because it simplifies resource planning. The businesses can add the required resources or scale the cloud infrastructure as the demand rises.
Integration with the provider
While cloud computing is entirely virtual, the business still needs some level of integration with the cloud infrastructure provider. Certain business functions such as billing, deployment, and application management require the use of APIs.
Accurate Reporting
The level and accuracy of reporting is an important requirement for operating and maintaining cloud computing infrastructure. Without tracking system performance, ensuring quality customer service, billing, and compliances may become difficult.
With these essentials requirements you should follow the top trends in cloud computing to excel.
Comparison: Public vs Private vs Hybrid Cloud Computing Architecture
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Users of the cloud either can have individual access to the cloud infrastructure or use the infrastructure that’s shared between users. However, in most cases, the infrastructure they use is a combination of both.
There are 3 types of cloud computing deployment models-public, private, and hybrid infrastructures. Here’s a brief overview:
- Public: This is a multi-tenant third-party-owned cloud environment that is shared between different users. Public clouds are a great way of leveraging economies of scale and lower the cost of data storage and computing. The users generally pay for the services on a recurring basis.
- Private: A private cloud infrastructure has a single user with exclusive access to all resources. Usually, private clouds are deployed for businesses that need exclusive single-tenant infrastructure because of higher transaction volume, security, or data privacy requirements.
- Hybrid: This cloud computing infrastructure is a mix of public and private models that interact with each other through separate but interconnected systems. An enterprise may use a private cloud to maintain privacy for sensitive applications and a public cloud to expand its capacity or enhance flexibility.
The Pros and Cons of Cloud Computing Infrastructure
The benefits that a company gains by migrating to cloud technology are obvious. On the other hand, since not all cloud computing infrastructures are created equal, there are some drawbacks you should know before you jump on the bandwagon.
This table gives an overview of the
| Pros | Cons |
| Cost savings on the purchase of hardware and software. Businesses only pay for the resources they use. | Since cloud computing infrastructure is managed by a cloud service provider, users have limited administrative control and access to the backend cloud infrastructure. |
| Businesses gain the flexibility of choosing the best fit for software and hardware technologies | Cloud computing infrastructure is entirely dependent on the Internet. Outages directly impact the access to cloud services |
| Better disaster recovery and security, thanks to managed backups, updates, and security upgrades | When not deployed properly, security issues can creep up into the cloud infrastructure and affect business operations. |
| Better collaboration between globally dispersed teams with seamless data access on a variety of devices | Lack of oversight and process management can complicate operations in the longer run |
Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Cloud Computing Infrastructure
Creating an efficient and well-architectured infrastructure for getting the most benefits from cloud computing is surprisingly a simple process. While the specific differ from industry to industry, and the particular operational requirements of a business.
The following are the basic steps involved in building a cloud computing infrastructure:
- Decide which virtualization in cloud computing technology works the best for your business operations. Every cloud computing infrastructure type has its pros and cons that will affect how the infrastructure is managed and monitored in the long run.
- Determine the delivery infrastructure to ensure scalability and efficient use of the resources. You should also determine the capacity and performance requirements of the hosted apps.
- Prepare the network infrastructure and configure it with the network, storage, and hardware.
- Integrate all the pieces of the infrastructure to allow it to act on demand and automate the workflow.
What is Cloud Computing Infrastructure Management?
Cloud computing management is the overall control, administration, maintenance, and monitoring of the cloud infrastructure. It includes devising a consistent strategy and cohesive processes to ensure that the delivery of cloud infrastructure is consistent and optimized.
Generally, infrastructure management involves capturing data activity and its analysis on a dashboard. In most cases, both the business and the cloud infrastructure provider have access to the dashboard. However, in some private cloud infrastructure setups, this dashboard is exclusively controlled by the in-house team.
Migrating to the cloud is a gradual process for SMBs, where every step is completed after much debate. Red Switches, a managed bare-metal hosting service provider, makes this transition easier for businesses. We offer omnichannel support with round-the-clock monitoring and reliable service delivery.
Get in touch with us today to know more about our cloud services to help your business automate and manage cloud computing resources and everything and get you on the roadmap for success.
Conclusion
Cloud computing infrastructure, which includes the tools essential to implement cloud computing, will continue to evolve. This article is a good starting place to know the basics of it and get hands-on with adopting it to enable benefits of cloud computing including optimum resource management, cost optimization, and security for your business processes.
