For Non-Computer Professionals – What is Cloud? – Part 1

If you are not a computer expert working with computers or tech-savvy individuals, you’ve likely heard the term “cloud” but may not fully grasp its meaning. In this article, I will help you understand this term without requiring you to read extensive material or oversimplifying the actual meaning of this technology.

Let’s imagine you have a small business and want to create a website. You hired a developer to build one for you and discussed where to host (make it available for online users) this website. You aimed for the most cost-efficient solution, so you asked the developer to deploy it (save it and make it available) on an existing computer in your company. The developer will likely guide you through the following discussion:

Dev: If you want to put your website on a computer that you own in your company, you must consider the following: first, this computer must be up and running 24/7 if you want your website to be available 24/7.

You: Easy, I won’t shut it down.

Dev: This computer must also be connected to the internet 24/7.

You: Easy, we already have internet access all the time.

Dev: Additionally, this computer should have a static IP.

You: What is that?

This isn’t the only difficulty you will face; it’s just the beginning. For now, we don’t need to dig too deep into technical details. Let’s focus on the first two points. If you had a business-critical website where you might lose money for every minute it is unavailable, would you respond the same way to the dev points? Probably no, instead you would though about the following

• What if there is a power outage in the office?
• What if someone accidentally shuts it down?
• What if the air conditioning where the computer is located fails and damages the machine?
• What if the office is robbed?
• What if there is a flood or an earthquake in the city where the office is located?
• Etc.

To overcome these challenges, you would need to secure a location for your computer, along with a reliable power supply and internet connection, in addition to adequate cooling. But what about natural disasters like floods and unexpected accidents like theft? How would you protect your business-critical website against all these things?

Now, I believe you have a good sense of the importance of a reliable solution in such cases. You are correct in thinking that the answer is the cloud. The cloud is the reliable solution for these situations. Cloud providers operate massive data centers worldwide with stringent security controls. These controls ensure that your machine (actually, it’s a virtual machine but let’s put this aside for now) will be up and running almost 24/7.

I know you may be concerned about catastrophic situations like floods and earthquakes. It's true that no cloud provider can guarantee that their data centers will never experience natural disasters. However, they use a technique called infrastructure redundancy, which allows for replica(s) of your computer and software to be available in multiple data centers across different regions. If one location faces a natural disaster, the others will take over, ensuring continuity.

As you can see, cloud providers implement extremely stringent measures to keep your computer safe and operational nearly 24/7. The next question that may arise in your mind is: how can I access a computer located in a cloud provider's data center if it could be anywhere in the world? Cloud providers allow you to access your computer securely via your internet connection and personal PC. You can install specific software or use the cloud vendor's website to connect to your machine and use it as if you owned it.

Another question you might have is; how you can purchase such a computer and whether it will cost the same as a physical machine. Interestingly, although you have full control over the computer in the cloud, you don't have to pay an upfront amount to use it. Instead, you rent it—yes, you read that correctly, you can rent a computer! Cloud providers offer this flexibility, meaning you only pay for the time you use the computer, with no upfront costs or long-term commitment. This model is an excellent solution for many businesses, from small startups to large enterprises. The diagram above shows the difference between the solution you offered to the developer which is technically called on-premises solution against the cloud one.

Is that all? Is renting computers (virtual machines) the only service cloud providers offer? Definitely not. It’s just a small part of the larger picture, which we will explore together in this series of articles “What is Cloud?” aimed at digital newcomer professionals.

Finally, before wrapping up this article, I want to clarify that cloud providers don’t rent out physical computers or machines; they rent out virtual machines. This distinction may not be apparent to the user, but it's important to understand as we move forward to the next article (What is cloud? Part 2)