What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing has made much of today's digital efficiency possible. You’ve likely already experienced cloud computing's impact on your day-to-day life, from streaming your favorite workout on your smart TV or playing your favorite game online, to your fraud detection subscription or your healthcare provider’s online check-in service.

Companies these days deal with a lot of data. From storing the data properly according to government regulations, to protecting it from various threats, data management is standard in today’s business operations. Many companies turn to cloud computing to meet these data management needs.

In this digital age, it’s likely that everyone uses the cloud. You can find cloud computing utilized across just about every industry, including:

• Healthcare
• Financial Services
• Video Games
• Manufacturing & Infrastructure
• Fitness
• Real Estate
• Media & Entertainment

There are many advantages to using cloud computing including:

1. On-demand Availability - Consumers can access resources without administrator support
   
   
2. Accessibility – Resources are available wherever there is an internet connection, using standard devices such as mobile phones, laptops, workstations, etc.
   
   
3. Agility – Computing resources are pooled to serve multiple users at once, with capacity planning happening dynamically to assign and reassign resources as needed
   
   
4. Scalability – Delivery models make data provisioning capabilities practically unlimited, allowing for any quantity of provisions to be provided at any time
   
   
5. Analytic Capabilities – Resource utilization can be monitored, controlled and measured through an automated metering capability typically built into cloud systems

While there are many benefits to cloud computing, there are also challenges to consider. Specifically, the cost of migrating to the cloud could outweigh the potential return on investment.

For example, some applications that are critical to a business may not have been originally built for the cloud. The migration of these applications could end up requiring significant cost to rework the code and adapt the application to the cloud environment with full functionality, or risk compromising the application’s performance by retrofitting it to work with a cloud deployment model.

Additionally, remaining competitive in application performance becomes increasingly difficult as cloud computing becomes more pervasive.

With various businesses utilizing the same cloud computing providers and services, differentiating yourself from competitors becomes less about the speed of capabilities and more about what is produced. If your IT infrastructure is managed in-house/on-premises and your capabilities aren’t performing as quickly as your competitors, it’s going to be harder for you to compete online without migrating to the cloud.

Today, there are a lot of well-known companies in the cloud computing space, including:

• Microsoft Azure
• Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Google Cloud
• IBM Cloud
• Oracle Cloud

There are a variety of job opportunities within the cloud computing space in areas such as customer support, development and engineering and architecture and administration.

Cloud computing job titles include:

• Cloud Support Specialist
• Cloud Services Associate
• Computer Network Support Specialist
• Entry-Level Network System Administrator
• Network Technician