Introduction to cloud based services

Cloud based services provide information technology (IT) as a service over the Internet or dedicated network, with delivery on demand, and payment based on usage. Cloud based services range from full applications and development platforms, to servers, storage, and virtual desktops.

Cloud Storage Services

Dell Technologies Cloud Storage Services combine cost effective scalable and resilient data storage with native public clouds.

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Who uses cloud based services and why?

Corporate and government entities utilize cloud based services to address a variety of application and infrastructure needs such as CRM, database, compute, and data storage. Unlike a traditional IT environment, where software and hardware are funded up front by department and implemented over a period of months, cloud based services deliver IT resources in minutes to hours and align costs to actual usage. As a result, organizations have greater agility and can manage expenses more efficiently. Similarly, consumers utilize cloud based services to simplify application utilization, store, share, and protect content, and enable access from any web-connected device.

How cloud based services work

Cloud based services have several common attributes:

• Virtualization - cloud computing utilizes server and storage virtualization extensively to allocate/reallocate resources rapidly
• Multi-tenancy - resources are pooled and shared among multiple users to gain economies of scale
• Network-access - resources are accessed via web-browser or thin client using a variety of networked devices (computer, tablet, smartphone)
• On demand - resources are self-provisioned from an online catalogue of pre-defined configurations
• Elastic - resources can scale up or down automatically
• Metering/chargeback - resource usage is tracked and billed based on service arrangement

Among the many types of cloud based services delivered internally or by third party service providers, the most common are:

• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) – software runs on computers owned and managed by the SaaS provider, versus installed and managed on user computers. The software is accessed over the public Internet and generally offered on a monthly or yearly subscription.
• Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) – compute, storage, networking, and other elements (cloud security, tools) are provided by the IaaS provider via public Internet, VPN, or dedicated network connection. Users own and manage operating systems, applications, and information running on the infrastructure and pay by usage.
• Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) – All software and hardware required to build and operate cloud based applications are provided by the PaaS provider via public Internet, VPN, or dedicated network connection. Users pay by use of the platform and control how applications are utilized throughout their lifecycle.

Benefits of cloud based services

Cloud based services offer numerous benefits to include:

• Faster implementation and time to value
• Anywhere access to applications and content
• Rapid scalability to meet demand
• Higher utilization of infrastructure investments
• Lower infrastructure, energy, and facility costs
• Greater IT staff productivity and across organization
• Enhanced security and protection of information assets

Dell Technologies Cloud Storage Services

Dell Technologies Cloud Storage Services provide Storage-as-a-Service that’s directly connected to multiple clouds for disaster recovery, analytics, test/dev and other use cases. Cloud Storage Services free IT teams from system management while delivering enterprise-grade data security, capacity, replication, performance and availability in the public cloud. With this Dell Technologies offering, enterprises can easily leverage their preferred clouds and switch easily between them at any time based on the needs of applications. Cloud storage services help to avoid vendor lock-in as data is independent of the cloud.

FAQs: What is cloud data storage?

What is cloud storage?

Cloud data storage is a technology for storing data in which data is transmitted via the Internet and stored on remote systems that may span multiple servers and locations. Cloud storage may be delivered by a service provider or installed on premises in a company’s own data center, or some combination of both.  

What is cloud object storage?

Cloud object storage is a format for storing data in the cloud, where data is managed as objects that contain data, metadata and a global identifier. Object storage is ideal for cloud applications because of its ability to scale massively and for its accessibility through common APIs. 

What is hybrid cloud storage?

Hybrid cloud storage is a way of managing cloud storage that relies on both on-premises and off-site storage resources. Hybrid cloud storage connects on-premises systems with cloud storage and can be managed as a single, homogenous storage solution.