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In this Video, I am going to discuss Public Cloud Computing in Detail. Please read our previous Video where we discussed the Advantages and Disadvantages of Cloud Computing. At the end of this Video, you will understand what is Public Cloud Computing and the advantages and limitations of the public cloud and when to use Public Cloud.
What is the public cloud?
A public cloud is a platform that uses the standard cloud computing model to make the resources such as virtual machines, applications, or storage are available to the users remotely or you can say over the internet. That means the public cloud is a type of computing in which a service provider makes the resources available to the public via the internet.
Some of the public cloud providers offer the resources for free, while the clients need to pay for other resources either by subscription or a pay-per-usage model.
The Cloud services are available to anyone i.e. individual users as well as organizations to start using public cloud resources and services. Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services are examples of a public cloud.
We need to access public cloud services and resources over the internet. So, we need an internet connection to access and manage the cloud services and resources. In order to manage the cloud services and resources, generally, the cloud service providers provide a web portal.
For the cloud services and resources, we use, we need to pay a monthly fee to the public cloud service provider. This monthly fee is like your utility bills like water or electricity. It follows pay as you go, model, meaning you pay for what you use.
The most important point that you need to remember is, anyone can use the public cloud whether it is an individual or an organization. So, multiple organizations or individuals will share the same resources as hardware, storage, and network devices in the public cloud. In cloud computing terminology, this is called multi-tenancy. In public cloud computing, it also may possible that your organization data may be stored along with other organizations data on the same storage device.
Advantages of Public Cloud
No upfront Capex: In public cloud, you dont require to buy any expensive hardware or set up your own data center. Everything is managed by the public cloud. So, no upfront capital expenditure. As the underlying infrastructure is shared across all individuals and organizations, the public cloud service can be implemented at very less cost in comparison to the private cloud. We will discuss the private cloud in our next Video.
It supports pay as you go model. The public cloud services implement the pay as you go model. That means, you only need to pay for what you use. Its something like your monthly water, or electricity bills.
No maintenance headaches. As a client, you dont have to worry about maintaining the public cloud i.e. replacing the failed hardware, installing the security patches, updates, etc. Everything is going to be managed by your public cloud service provider.
Location Independence: As the public cloud services are available over the internet, so the client located at any location can access and manage it. What the client need is only an internet-enabled device. This gives any enterprise or any individual or any organization the significant opportunities such as online document collaboration from multiple locations or remote access to IT infrastructure.
Highly scalable: You will never run out of resources in a public cloud. When a client requires more resources, platforms, or services, he just signs up with the public cloud vendor and gets access to the required resources whenever required. At the same time, the client also reduces the resources as per requirement. So, based on the business need the client can scale the resources up and down. Even though you can automate this by setting threshold limits.
Highly reliable: A public cloud is a vast network of servers. The total number of servers or networks for creating a public cloud and redundancy configurations indicate that any hardware failure, power failure, natural disaster, or other crisis do not result in data loss and the cloud service will continue to run without any issues. So, the main objective is, the public cloud is highly reliable.
Flexibility: There are several services provided by clouds such as IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS available, and all these services are based on the public cloud model and are always ready to be accessible over the internet. Almost all computing requirements are fulfilled by the public cloud and can be beneficial to private as well as enterprise clients.
Limitations of public cloud
Low visibility and control: The Public cloud infrastructure is owned by the cloud service provider. So, you dont have much more visibility and control over it.
Compliance and legal risks: In public cloud service, you are totally relying on the public cloud service provider to protect your data with adhering to local and international regulations. Your company may still be liable, if the cloud service provider, fails to live up to the task and if there is a data breach. So, a public cloud, may not be the most viable solution for security-sensitive or mission-critical applications.
Cost concerns: The Public Cloud in general, reduces the upfront infrastructure costs as the infrastructure is shared by all and allows the pay-as-you-go model. But depending on the site traffic, the plan you have chosen and the way scale the server resources up and down, determine the overall price you need to pay. Sometimes this overall price that you need to pay may be higher than what you expected.
When to use the public cloud?
Unlimited Scalability: You will never run out of server resources in a public cloud. If you require more resources, platforms, or service, you just need to signs up with your public cloud vendor and get access to the required resources. Even though if you want, then you can also dynamically scale up and down the server resources by setting threshold limits/
Varying Peak Demands: Businesses with varying peak demands greatly benefit from the public cloud. That means when there is a high demand for your business and getting more traffic to your site, just scale up the resources and when the business demand down or when you are getting low traffic to your site, just scale down. And you only need to pay for the resources you use.
Backup and Disaster Recovery Solutions: Businesses can also benefit from the public cloud by using it for backup and disaster recovery solutions.
