In a general sense, the cloud refers to something which is very divine and present in the sky. It is a planetary body, a blessing from the almighty from heaven. In a similar manner, cloud and cloud computing could be understood. From a technology perspective, “Cloud” are the servers which are servers that are accessed through the internet and hardware and software run on those servers. Simply put, through cloud computing, an individual or a company can run the software and other applications without the need for physical servers.

So, individuals and companies switching to cloud networking or computing reduce IT costs and other database maintenance costs. As they use borrowed servers, the vendors of those servers will update and maintain them, it reduces the burden to maintain and upgrade the servers, and it is a cost-effective process. As some small scale business and companies cannot servers, they essentially use the cloud to store and can be accessed from any part of the world.

The shift to cloud computing from the traditional mainframe computing and servers are seen as a boon to the IT revolution. Some of the benefits of cloud computing are

• Cost:  To a large extend, cloud has reduced the capital expenditure of buying mainframe computers and large servers. Previously not all business could afford to buy those large servers. Moreover, it saved costs in terms of one-time installation cost and timely up-gradation costs. The benefit it does to businesses is that IT experts manage and maintain the cloud servers around the clock and ensure 24/7 electricity and colling of those clouds. It becomes hassle-free for the user.

• Global Reach: The benefit of cloud servers and services is that it can be scalable and has a global reach and outlook. A business owner or an individual sitting at a remote location and access the cloud servers at any part of the world. It also offers the user more storage and bandwidth, faster computing speed and geographical advantage.

• Performance: It is needless to say that large cloud servers are run on extremely safe and secured data centres. These wide networks of data centres are regularly upgraded and use the latest computer hardware version that is fast and efficient. It offers an added advantage over a single data centre. It improves latency and achieves more significant economies of scale.

• Security: Almost all cloud servers are highly secured, and a stringent set of policies governs all these cloud servers. The technologies that these servers use are technologically modernised, which controls and maintains the cybersecurity protocol overall, thereby protecting the data and applications from potential cyber threats and crimes.