What Is the Cloud?

Why are so many companies moving to the cloud? In a word, agility. Businesses need to act quickly to stay ahead of today’s global competition. The cloud provides all the services you need on demand—everything from data storage and applications to networking and greater processing power—so your business can catch, match, or outpace your competitors. With this short ebook, you’ll learn how the cloud enables you to pivot quickly when market conditions change.

Author Bill Laberis explains how the cloud follows in the footsteps of previous computing paradigms such as mainframes and client-server models. You’ll explore various cloud options and examine case studies that reveal how Airbnb, Heineken, American Airlines, Colgate-Palmolive, and Schneider Electric leverage cloud services from Amazon, IBM, and Google.

• Delve into the business case for using cloud services
• Understand the differences between the private, public, and hybrid cloud
• Examine the cloud’s payment model that lets you pay for services on an as-needed basis
• Explore cloud options such as SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, and serverless computing
• Learn about the security concerns of the public and private cloud