Page 55 - Cloud Computing (Elective – III)

Cloud Data Storage Service

We are living in an age of technological innovations which have come to
revolutionize the way we interact, communicate, socialize and work. Change is
the only constant in such a scenario and with every breakthrough, new challenges
are born. One such challenge faced by the global industry today relates to the
efficient management of data arriving from different sources. Technological
advancements have made it possible to gather real-time data related to business
processes, financial transactions, business-to-business interactions, and customer
interaction data among other things. To store and process these massive amounts
of data is simply not possible with the help of conventional methods.
Usually, corporations invest a great deal in managing extensive physical IT
infrastructure for its data storage and processing needs. However, the pace at
which data is being accumulated these days has made it near-impossible for
business to scale up their physical infrastructure to match the storage and
processing needs. To fill this gap, cloud computing has emerged as an innovative
and sustainable solution for modern data management needs. To understand what
exactly is cloud computing about, it is essential to grasp the concept of a
virtualized infrastructure.

What is Cloud Computing?
Usually, cloud data storage service is offered by vendors who manage the
physical infrastructure and provide online access to specific software or other
computing resources to its customers. This remotely located physical
infrastructure includes a network of servers and other physical resources,
sometimes even spread out geographically. Anyone can buy limited access to
specific software through the cloud and scale up or down the resources in keeping
with their needs.
This allows corporations to do away with the need to manage extensive physical
resources and focus on the operational aspect and spend more time on improving

their efficiency. Today, an increasing number of businesses prefer utilizing a best
cloud data storage service instead of managing on-premise infrastructure for
meeting their specific needs. Cloud computing affords a host of advantages to
users including increased levels of flexibility, scalability, ease of access and cost-
effectiveness among other things.