Cloud computing encompasses a vast number of services. They may differ from consumer services like Gmail or the cloud back-up of the photos on a smartphone, to the services which enable large companies to host all their data and run their applications in the cloud.
If you want to know about cloud computing and its different types in detail, you can read my previous posts written exclusively for these two subjects.
In this post, we are going to surf through some of the most important applications of cloud computing services and get to familiarize ourselves with some of the most prominent companies offering them.
(IAAS)
IBM
It may take several minutes to a few hours for IBM servers to be deployed. Located in Armonk, New York, IBM’s “bare metal servers” are capable of accommodating projects up to 3 terabytes. For scalable projects requiring flexibility, IBM’s virtual servers take only a few minutes to be deployed.
Ricoh, American Airlines and AppLift are among the notable beneficiaries of IBM’s IaaS platform.
DigitalOcean
Product teams can benefit from DigitalOcean’s platform to deploy, manage and scale their new projects. It’s IaaS platform empowers users to create multiple virtual machines in seconds and enables them to scale based on data storage and incoming traffic.
WeWork, Splunk and Slack are among the major subscribers to DigtialOcean’s IaaS platform.
Datrium
Datrium is a hybrid data management and cloud computing company located in Sunnyvale, California. Its IaaS cloud can provide enhanced cybersecurity tools such as blanket verification, built-in data back-up and data security measures.
Having recently scored a $60 million Series D funding led by Samsung, Datrium is now able to explore even more options in IaaS.
You can also read more about IaaS here.
(SAAS)
Slack
Located in San Francisco, California, Slack is an American based cloud service technology. Its tools and services are designed to facilitate internal team collaboration. Being essentially group messages, slack channels can keep everyone on the same page when it comes to communication and are easy to organize by individuals, teams, projects and topics. Integrating some of the other cloud companies, video chatting and PDF file sharing are also featured by the company’s SaaS platform.
HelloFresh, Airbnb, Target and even NASA are the well-known organizations using Slack.
Salesforce
Also placed in San Francisco, California, Salesforce owns a cloud based software-as-a-service model that can be utilized for both business-to-business and business-to-consumer commerce solutions. its Cloud combines A.I. and customer data, aiding sales teams to identify potential leads and close sales more quickly. The platform offers separate clouds for customer service and marketing.
The flexibility of Salesforce’s cloud-based solutions was a main factor in its being named as a SaaS leader by Forrester Research.
Zoom
As most of you are familiar with it, Zoom is a popular platform for both audio and video conferencing that uses cloud-based servers. The Zoom cloud makes it possible for users to record meeting and to have them saved, keeping them accessible for anytime and anywhere.
Uber, NASDAQ and Ticketmaster are among the users of Zoom. Slack, mentioned earlier as one of the cloud technology brands, also uses Zoom to boost its collaborations and to have the meeting saved for future needs.
You can also read more about SaaS here.
(PAAS)
Amazon Web Services
AWS Lambda is another service offering cloud-based servers. Located in Seattle, Washington, AWS helps developers run code without having to provision or manage servers by themselves.
The Seattle Times, Bustle, the Coca Cola Company and iRobot are among the distinguished companies using AWS services.
Heroku
Placed in San Francisco, California, Heroku is a multi-language cloud app platform. Reportedly, if developers are allowed to code in a language that they prefer and suits them best, the app development process can be handled faster than usual. Heroku’s PaaS service model is very flexible, offering Ruby, Java, Python, Perl and some other languages as usable options.
Lyft, Soundcloud, Macy’s and Charity: Water and Toyota are some of the significant brand names on the list of Heroku’s prominent users.
Acquia
Designed specifically for Drupal 8 sites and applications, Acquia is a Boston, Massachusetts based company with a developer-friendly PaaS technology.
Whole Foods, IBM, the BBC and Panasonic all use Acquia Cloud to keep their Drupal 8 sites updated.
You can also read more about PaaS here.
Popular file sharing and data storage services
Dropbox
San Francisco, California
The popular Dropbox offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and client software.
Box
Redwood City, California
Founded in 2005, The company provides cloud content management and file sharing services for various businesses.
Egnyte
Mountain View, California
A software company that offers a cloud platform for enterprise file synchronization and sharing. It also provides content and data governance for business customers.
DATA GOVERNANCE AND CYBERSECURITY
One of the critical aspects of cloud computing is its capacity to outsmart hackers and ensure the safety of a company’s information, keeping away the risk of data loss and ransomware.
Below are two of the prominent cloud-based security companies that safeguard organizations and their businesses in the face of threats. While they are generally similar in providing the customers with their security options, the names of special services offered by each company are also mentioned here.
Carbonite
The company features a product labeled as QuickCache that provides businesses with quick data backup, ensuring that nothing is lost in the happening of a breach.
Palo Alto Networks
The VM-Series secures private and public cloud deployments, while the company’s Traps guard clouds against zero-day threats.
