Currently, nearly 70 percent of Internet users in America utilize the cloud for one function or another. Although some may be unaware that they are engaging in cloud computing, this is creating significant growth within the cloud market, as well as increasing demands for service providers.
According to a Pew Research survey of over 2,000 adults, 69 percent of Americans use the cloud for email, data storage or another Web-based capability. For example, of these individuals, 56 percent connect with Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo mail or another email platform based in the cloud. Another 34 percent store photos in the cloud, and 29 percent use cloud-powered applications like Google Docs or Adobe Photoshop. Although a majority users connect with these types of endpoints on a daily basis, many are unaware that this falls under the cloud computing category.
“Most Internet users are unlikely to be aware of the term ‘cloud computing,'” Pew Research pointed out.
Furthermore, these users are oblivious to the important role that service providers’ data centers play in the cloud computing market, and the boosted demands these organizations are responding to.
Cloud computing impossible without service provider data centers
The bulk of users are attracted to cloud resources for several benefits, the main advantages being availability, scalability, resiliency and security. While individuals enjoy being able to connect with Web-based programs from anywhere with an Internet connection, freeing up space on their own devices, many don’t realize the demands this puts on service providers’ data centers.
“In a sense, large scale data centers are what made cloud computing viable,” noted TechRepublic contributor Thoran Rodrigues.
Without these facilities supporting the huge amounts of hardware and infrastructure requirements needed to power the cloud and store data, the cost of these systems would likely prevent users from connecting with these endpoints.
“Not only would the cost of offering high availability be prohibitive for most customers, it might have very well impossible to do so,” Rodrigues wrote.
In this way, the current cloud computing sector, which has had a significant and undeniable impact on not only individual users but organizations across nearly every market, would not exist without the support of service providers’ data center facilities.
Addressing current and future needs
A main feature that encourages users to utilize cloud resources is the availability of these services, which can be accessed from nearly any location with an Internet connection. However, in order to make this type of resilience and access possible, service providers must ensure that their data centers have the best possible uptime.
Another attractive aspect for individual and business clients is scalability. Cloud resources offer the ability to expand capabilities almost infinitely, however, where this simply means adding endpoints for customers, service providers must make resources available for current demands, and ensure room to grow.
“Taken to its limit, the idea of (almost) unlimited scalability offered by a cloud service provider means that they must be constantly increasing available capacity, in order to be able to handle any increase in demand,” Rodrigues stated. “Infrastructure providers need to be adding hundreds or even thousands of servers every single day to their data centers, not only to replace failing equipment, but also to provision against future demand.”
And with each existing and new server comes the need for data security. As customers trust their service providers with their data protection requirements, these organizations must be sure that their systems are impervious to cybercriminals. Vendors can utilize a solution like Deep Freeze Server to protect their servers and offer the necessary data protection.