CCS differs from other historical IT models in that it focuses primarily on services, rather than technology. As a result, the delivery of cloud computing services is analogous to a traditional supply chain in which services are offered to users in terms that they understand, and the underlying technical details are abstracted away from them.

Uses of cloud computing
You’re probably using cloud computing right now, even if you don’t realize it. Here are a few of the things you can do with the cloud:

• Create new apps and services
• Store, back up and recover data
• Host websites and blogs
• Stream audio and video
• Deliver software on demand
• Analyze data for patterns and make predictions

Top benefits of cloud computing
Cloud computing is a big shift from the traditional way businesses think about IT resources. Here are 6 common reasons organizations are turning to cloud computing services:

1 Cost
NO MORE capital expense of buying hardware and software and setting up and running on-site datacenters—the racks of servers, the round-the-clock electricity for power and cooling, the IT experts for managing the infrastructure, etc.

2 Speed
Typically, with just a few mouse clicks, giving businesses a lot of flexibility and taking the pressure off capacity planning.

3. Global scale
Ability to scale elastically. In cloud speak, that means delivering the right amount of IT resources—for example, more or less computing power, storage, bandwidth—right when it’s needed, and from the right geographic location.

4. Productivity
On-site datacenters typically require a lot of “racking and stacking”—hardware set up, software patching, and other time-consuming IT management chores. Cloud computing removes the need for many of these tasks, so IT teams can spend time on achieving more important business goals.

5. Performance
The biggest cloud computing services run on a worldwide network of secure data centers, which are regularly upgraded to the latest generation of fast and efficient computing hardware. This offers several benefits over a single corporate data center, including reduced network latency for applications and greater economies of scale.

6. Reliability
Data backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity easier and less expensive, because data can be mirrored at multiple redundant sites on the cloud provider’s network.

Types of cloud services: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS
Most cloud computing services fall into three broad categories: infrastructure (IaaS), platform (PaaS), and software (Saas). These are sometimes called the cloud computing stack because they build on top of one another.

Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS)
The most basic category of cloud computing services. With IaaS, you rent IT infrastructure—servers and virtual machines (VMs), storage, networks, operating systems—from a cloud provider on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Platform as a service (PaaS)
Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) refers to cloud computing services that supply an on-demand environment for developing, testing, delivering and managing software applications. PaaS is designed to make it easier for developers to quickly create web or mobile apps, without worrying about setting up or managing the underlying infrastructure of servers, storage, network, and databases needed for development.

Software as a service (SaaS)
Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is a method for delivering software applications over the Internet, on demand and typically on a subscription basis. With SaaS, cloud providers host and manage the software application and underlying infrastructure, and handle any maintenance, like software upgrades and security patching.

Types of cloud deployments:

Public cloud
Public clouds are owned and operated by a third-party cloud service provider, which deliver their computing resources like servers and storage over the Internet.

Private cloud
A private cloud refers to cloud computing resources used exclusively by a single business or organization. A private cloud can be physically located in the company’s on-site datacenter. Some companies also pay third-party service providers to host their private cloud. A private cloud is one in which the services and infrastructure are maintained on a private network.

Hybrid cloud
Hybrid clouds combine public and private clouds, bound together by technology that allows data and applications to be shared between them. By allowing data and applications to move between private and public clouds, hybrid cloud gives businesses greater flexibility and more deployment options.