Cloud computing is an industry of marked growth with large companies continuing to adopt and invest within the area. Due to its significant rise in popularity, there is an enormous amount of information available regarding the cloud. For businesses, considering the best cloud options can often be a daunting task and it can be difficult to decide which cloud options are best – if any at all.  

In order to determine the best cloud options for your business, it is important to be aware that there are three primary approaches to cloud computing: Platform-as-a-service, infrastructure-as-a-service and software-as-a-service. Info.isutility.com defined these approaches as:

Platform-as-a-service

Under PaaS offerings, cloud computing providers deliver the hardware, network and operating system. You, the client, provides the application code to the cloud provider and runs the application remotely.

Infrastructure-as-a-service

For IaaS, both hardware and network resources are delivered by cloud providers. Clients continue to control their own applications and operating systems. This can also be referred to as co-location.

Software-as-a-service

With SaaS, cloud providers control the hardware, network, operating system and select applications. Clients access the application via the Internet.

For businesses considering adopting cloud technologies,David Linthicum advised that business should consider the following. Firstly, businesses need to define and address the problems that exist within the company as underlying inefficiencies have a real cost. Secondly, businesses should try to move beyond the buzzwords to the heart of the problem. Once the problems and inefficiencies have been highlighted, only then can businesses consider how to utilise cloud technologies. As such when considering cloud technologies businesses need to define what’s wrong, determine how to fix it and only then can you clearly see how cloud computing can effectively address these problems.