Cloud Services: Meaning, Types and More

Shares

Cloud services include a range of services. All these services are there to provide easy and accessible access to applications and resources. For accessing such services, a user would need a computer device, an operating system, and a stable internet connection.

The way these services work is by providing a flow of user data from their computer, laptop, or tablet to the provider’s system. This flow takes place over the internet, obviously. There are cloud computing vendors who take care of these services for the users. Users don’t have to manage everything on their own.

Throughout this article, you’ll read about cloud computing services. Read till the end to find out the best cloud vendors based in New Zealand.

What are cloud-based services?

When you use cloud computing services, you’re essentially using services from a remote network. These services aren’t on your personal device or network. You access them from a remote service provider. When you opt for cloud computing services, you can manage and process your data through these hosts.

Cloud-based services are utilized by many businesses and even government entities. They require these services to use multiple applications like database, compute, CRM, and data storage.

There are four types of cloud services. They include the following:

Software as a service or SaaS: Through SaaS, the services get delivered to the user via the internet. There’s no software installment and management required with this type of service. Since there is no need to install any hardware or software, this service saves a lot of money for the user. Using this service, you’d have to pay when you’d use it.

Infrastructure as a service or IaaS: Here, infrastructure is provided to enterprises. This infrastructure is outsourced to them for using cloud applications and services. It’s also known as Hardware as a service and when you’re using this, you’ll have to pay-per-user basis.

Platform as a service or PaaS: PaaS provides the developers with a platform and environment to build cloud computing services. The PaaS services are hosted on the cloud and the users can access them with their web browser. When you’re using this type of service, you’ll have to pay on a per-use basis.

What are cloud data services?

The cloud data services again include a list of services under it, and they’re needed for all digital data. They’re a required backend as a form of service to work with the data. The need for the type of service from a third-party vendor may vary depending on the user or the segment.

Cloud data services may be delivered in the form of SaaS or Software as a service. Then, the SaaS may act as a WEB GUI on the browser of the user. You may also use it as an expert advisory for handling the on-premise data. You’d find that most people use it as a NoSQL or optimized SQL database as a service for running web software.

But why do developers and businesses need to cloud data services? If you do it traditionally, then you may use ElasticSearch, Grafana, or a virtual server for your needs. But these setups won’t help you in preserving a year-long database for a website that gets many visitors in a month. You may use them, but the number of log files by volume would be too much to interpret for a long time.

If you’re familiar with the working of MySQL, then you know that the MySQL full logging is kept off so that there’s no flooding of the log files. It’s also cost-effective for business enterprises and their IT departments to use a third-party cloud service. It is because these vendors can easily handle the big data files that IT departments can’t do well on their own.

The third-party vendors can offer you machine learning-based automation which comes integrated with analytics. Plus, when working with cloud data services, you’ll find that it’s much easier to use a database as a service backend.

Cloud Services

Image Credits

How do cloud services work?

You can think of a cloud as a system that stores and shares information through a network of satellites. All cloud computing services have a host or a hosting company. This hosting company is responsible for providing data security, storage capacity, and computing power. This data is of the users, the users send the data to the cloud and expect from the hosts that they’ll maintain it safely.

There are major companies that hold cloud computing services including Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Apple iCloud, and Google Drive. There are more companies other than these prominent and big ones that also offer such services to users.

Cloud services work by following three delivery models.

Public Delivery Model: Public delivery models are extremely common and major companies like Google and Apple use this model. The users can access the cloud anywhere with their login credentials and a web app.

Private Delivery Model: Private cloud computing services create a platform that’s solely dedicated to the end-user. They do offer a similar type of flexibility as the public model. The difference is that the infrastructure needs are provided by the hosting companies.

Hybrid Delivery Model: As the name suggested, the hybrid delivery model is a combination of both the other models. Here, the two cloud types are linked with each other over the internet and users can share resources when needed. So, if the private cloud reaches a capacity, the user can use the public cloud.

4 Best Cloud Services for IT consultants

If you’re an IT consultant, then you may opt for these cloud applications for your needs.

Kanda Software: Based in Massachusetts, USA, Kanda Software offers a variety of cloud consulting and engineering services to its users. With the help of this company, you may do cloud migration or opt for a cloud-native application. The cloud security services of Kanda Software would help you with data security and encryption.

Itransition: Itransition is based in Denver, Colorado, and it has many offices across the USA and Europe. The cloud services offered by this company include cloud migration and cloud integration. The company works with businesses and offers them a public cloud.

StackOverdrive: StackOverdrive was founded in 2014 and it’s a DevOps consulting company. IT consultants may use this application for their multiple cloud needs. StackOverdrive offers you the to design your own new private cloud. Throughout this process, they help you with everything that you need.

Avenga: Avenga is a digital transformation consultancy and global IT company. The company is located in Germany and has offices in US states as well. They offer their users secure, scalable, and highly elastic cloud solutions. The cloud transformation plan of Avenga is customizable, so you can move forward easily.

4 Best cloud computing service providers

Here’s a list of the best cloud computing service providers.

PhoenixNap: PhoenixNap is a global IT services provider that offers secure and stable IaaS solutions to its users. The company provides you with a data security cloud, a virtual private data center, and managed private cloud.

Indium Software: Indium Software provides you with many digital solutions, including cloud computing. Their cloud computing services include cloud advisory, cloud testing, cloud migration and modernization, and so on.

pCloud: You can use the platform of pCloud for all your cloud storage needs. With this cloud computing service provider, you may store, share, and work on all your files. This is a scalable system that’ll provide you with unbeatable security for $9.99 a month.

Kamatera: Kamatera is a service provider that’s low maintenance, but its services are high performance. You may get these services for just $4 a month. With Kamatera, you can get cloud consulting, migration to alternative architecture, cloud security, and more.

Top 3 cloud computing consulting services

These are the top cloud computing consulting services that are favoured by many people. They offer many solutions to people who are facing difficulties with their data management and security.

Consultadd: Consultadd is a cloud consulting service that works with Amazon Web Services. The company was established more than a decade ago. For these 10 years, Consultadd has been offering many technological resources and cloud solutions to its users.

12 Tech: 12 Tech is a cloud DevOps agency that also helps in custom software development. They offer cloud-native development so you have scalable and resilient applications. With that, they also offer digital transformation in all three cloud delivery models of cloud.

IT Outposts: IT Outposts offers many consulting and cloud services to its users. They offer these cloud computing services: cloud migration services, cloud architecture design services, cloud assessment services, and cloud implementation services. IT Outposts offers consulting services for DevOps transformation services, DevOps outsourcing services, and so on.

The 3 Best companies providing cloud solutions

Following are some of the best cloud service providers.

ScalaHosting: When you use ScalaHosting, you can get access to SPanel. This is a cloud management platform that allows website owners to have fully managed cloud VPS at an affordable price. They assure you that you can work on the cloud very well because they take care of its speed and reliability.

Cloudways: Cloudways is one of those cloud services platforms that offers its services to agencies, stores, and SMBs. The business enterprises that work with Cloudways don’t have to worry about their cloud security needs because that’s managed by the company. The company provides you with dedicated firewalls as well as bot protection.

OVHcloud: This is a public cloud platform that works well on a large scale and big hardware. However, you may also host your private cloud with the OVHcloud services. Here, you’d be ensured with dedicated hardware infrastructure and secure isolation. With public services, you can compute, network, and use storage facilities.

Who sells cloud services in NZ?

Following are some of the best IT companies in NZ for your cloud maintenance and services.

OmniNet: OmniNet is a cloud computing company based in New Zealand. The company offers a variety of cloud solutions to its users. When you use their services, you’re guaranteed that you’ll have a reliable platform for your data and other needs. OmniNet has a cloud system that runs smoothly and works without interruptions for its users.

Cyber Infrastructure Inc.: The team of Cyber Infrastructure Inc provides the most innovative cloud solutions to many businesses in New Zealand. Their cloud solutions simplify the process of sharing, storing, and accessing data. You may use their cloud migration services for running the applications to the cloud infrastructure. Using their cloud ecosystem, you’d be migrating your data the right way. By paying a monthly fee, you can access the latest servers and data storage.

Code Blue: Based in New Zealand, Code Blue is a cloud company that provides cloud solutions to many small businesses across NZ. This company offers unique services to all its users. When you’re using Code Blue, you ensure the agility, reliability, and flexibility of cloud computing services.

In Conclusion

In simple terms, cloud services include many types of services. All these services help you to run your business smoothly and successfully. When you opt for any cloud computing platform, you do it for the security of your data.

Besides that, these platforms also offer you big volumes of storage to keep that data protected. You may use this data as and when you need to use it. Many IT developers and businesses need cloud computing platforms because they can’t store these big files in their systems.

Cloud computing systems have enough capacity that they can store data files for more than a year in them. These systems may work with one or all three cloud delivery models. The private model is solely for the use of the end user. The public delivery model just needs the login credentials of the person using them. The hybrid model combines both these models.

When you’ve figured out your cloud needs, you can opt for a company that provides you with great deals.

Cloud Services