Module I·Article V·~2 min read
Cloud Technologies: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS for Business
Digital Transformation and AI
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What is the Cloud
Cloud computing is the provision of IT resources (servers, storage, applications) over a network (typically the internet) using a pay-as-you-go model.
Before the cloud: the company purchased its own servers, maintained them, incurred fixed costs. With the cloud: resources are like electricity—you pay for what you use.
Three Models of Cloud Services
IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service): rental of virtual servers, storage, networks. Control over the OS and above. AWS EC2, Azure VMs, Google Compute Engine. For whom: IT teams, developers.
PaaS (Platform as a Service): a platform for developing and deploying applications without managing the infrastructure. AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Google App Engine, Heroku. For whom: developers who do not want to manage servers.
SaaS (Software as a Service): ready-to-use software by subscription. Salesforce, Office 365, Slack, Zoom, SAP S/4HANA Cloud. For whom: all business users.
Key Cloud Providers
AWS (Amazon Web Services) — leader (32% of the market). The widest set of services (200+), a huge partner ecosystem.
Microsoft Azure (22%) — integration with Microsoft products (Office 365, Teams), strong in enterprise.
Google Cloud (11%) — leader in AI/ML (TensorFlow, Vertex AI), strong analytical tools (BigQuery).
The Cloud and Data Security
Key security issues: (1) Where are the data physically stored? (regional requirements — GDPR requires EU data to be stored in the EU); (2) Responsibility model: the provider is responsible for the security of the cloud, the client—for security in the cloud; (3) Encryption of data at-rest and in-transit; (4) Identity & Access Management (IAM).
Practical Task
A small company (50 employees) is planning to move IT into the cloud. Current IT infrastructure: file server (documents), mail server, on-premise CRM, accounting (1C). (1) For each component, propose a cloud alternative (IaaS/PaaS/SaaS). (2) Evaluate the total cost of ownership (TCO)—compare current expenses with cloud expenses. (3) What are the migration risks?
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