Cloud computing is the internet-based delivery of IT services, such as servers, storage, and software, enabling on-demand access and scalability. In place of physical infrastructure ownership, users access technology services remotely, enjoying flexibility, innovation speed, and cost efficiency.
The infrastructure of building cloud computing systems accounts for more than a third of IT spending. This number indicates an increasing reliance on external infrastructure, management, security services, and applications. With the emergence of Generative AI, these capabilities will be built on cloud-ready platforms and infrastructure.
Spending on the more traditional version of in-house IT is decreasing, and workloads are gradually moving into the cloud, be it public cloud services or private clouds built by enterprises.
Cloud computing originated in the early years of the new millennium, but computing-as-a-service has been around much longer. It began in the 1960s, when computer bureaus would allow companies to rent time on their mainframes to accomplish vital computing tasks. The bureaus benefited by bringing in additional capital during what would otherwise be computer downtime, and the businesses renting the computing time enjoyed the cost savings of not having to purchase, install, and maintain expensive and bulking computer hardware.
Naturally, over time computers became smaller, more powerful, and much more affordable. The rise of the personal computer led to the increase of corporate data centers, which allowed companies to store vast amounts of information onsite. However, as data became more valuable, and more closely tied into nearly every aspect of business, the need for more advanced data centers and computing tools once again became prohibitively expensive.
To offset these costs while still enjoying the benefits of big data, businesses once again turned to the possibility of renting computer access. But this time, data and services would be available over the internet. Cloud computing was born, and SaaS providers quickly stepped in to offer advanced computing solutions via cloud-based platforms and tools.
Cloud computing originated in the early years of the new millennium,
but computing-as-a-service has been around much longer. It began in the
1960s, when computer bureaus would allow companies to rent time on their
mainframes to accomplish vital computing tasks. The bureaus benefited
by bringing in additional capital during what would otherwise be
computer downtime, and the businesses renting the computing time enjoyed
the cost savings of not having to purchase, install, and maintain
expensive and bulking computer hardware.
Naturally, over time computers became smaller, more powerful, and
much more affordable. The rise of the personal computer led to the
increase of corporate data centers, which allowed companies to store
vast amounts of information onsite. However, as data became more
valuable, and more closely tied into nearly every aspect of business,
the need for more advanced data centers and computing tools once again
became prohibitively expensive.
To offset these costs while still enjoying the benefits of big data, businesses once again turned to the possibility of renting computer access. But this time, data and services would be available over the internet. Cloud computing was born, and SaaS providers quickly stepped in to offer advanced computing solutions via cloud-based platforms and tools.
Customers are capable of using a website or a similar control panel to provision resources, such as additional computers, networks, or user email accounts without the need for human intervention or interaction between customers and vendors.
Users across a range of computing devices can access data and computing resources. The cloud is accessible from essentially any internet-capable device, including desktop, laptop, tablets, smartphones, etc.
Vendors use shared computers to provide cloud services. Virtual technologies and multi-tenancy mechanisms segregate and protect customers and their data from unauthorized access.
Cloud computing is capable of quickly and automatically expanding or reducing available processing, data storage and network bandwidth to meet user needs.
The cloud provides versatility across a range of use cases, extending capabilities beyond traditional infrastructure. This is particularly useful given the rise of platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and the need for rapid provisioning of resources for testing and deployment. Cloud-native technologies like containers and Kubernetes offer practical and scalable solutions, enhancing adaptability.
Customers only pay for computing services that they use, and they are able to monitor their usage.
Cloud computing is supported by several fundamental concepts—foundational ideas that shape the way businesses leverage cloud resources. Among the most prominent concepts in cloud computing are cloud containers, Kubernetes, and cloud native applications.
Cloud containers are executable, standalone packages that contain everything needed to run a piece of software (including the code, runtime, libraries, and system tools). Containers offer consistency and portability across different environments, making them ideal for deploying applications in cloud environments. Docker is a popular containerization platform widely used for managing and orchestrating containers.
Kubernetes (alternatively known as K8s) is an open-source container orchestration system or platform created to help automate the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications in the cloud. It provides tools for container orchestration, load balancing, and resource allocation, simplifying the management of container clusters. Kubernetes make it possible for organizations to automate day-to-day operations for container architecture and maintain ongoing service-health monitoring.
Cloud native operations describe the practices and strategies employed to maintain, manage, and optimize cloud-native applications and services. It encompasses automated scaling, continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD), infrastructure as code (IaC), and other techniques to ensure seamless and agile cloud operations.
Getting the most out of the cloud means understanding how best to utilize cloud resources while improving results from cloud-based services. These similar-yet-distinct objectives can be defined as “cloud management” and “cloud acceleration.”
Cloud Management encompasses the strategies, tools, and processes to orchestrate cloud resources effectively. It ensures centralized control, visibility, and governance over cloud assets, focusing on tasks like provisioning, security, compliance, and cost control. Cloud management is foundational, enabling businesses to leverage cloud scalability and flexibility while maintaining operational efficiency.
Cloud acceleration is dedicated to enhancing the speed and performance of cloud-based applications and services. It minimizes latency, improves data transfer rates, and optimizes content or service delivery to users. Techniques include edge computing, caching, and load balancing. Cloud acceleration prioritizes delivering a fast and responsive user experience.
Simply put, cloud management addresses governance and efficiency on a broader scale, while cloud acceleration fine-tunes application performance for a smoother user experience. Both are vital components of a comprehensive cloud computing strategy, ensuring businesses maximize cloud benefits and provide optimal service to their users.
While cloud computing describes any IT resource accessed over the internet, organizations and providers use and deliver cloud services in a number of distinct ways. There are four major types of cloud deployment, and three common service models.
Types of cloud
Public: Used by the general public and managed by a business, a third-party organization, or a combined organization. Public cloud stores data from many different clients on common servers, while using advanced security measures to ensure that data is only accessible to authorized users.
Private: Used exclusively by consumers from organizations, and managed by the organization. A private cloud caters only to a single organization.
Community Cloud: Provisioned for use by a community of consumers from organizations with mutual concerns. It may be owned and managed by organizations in a community, a third party, or a combination of the two.
Hybrid: Composed of two or more cloud infrastructures (private, community, or public) that uniquely services entities, but is also bound by standard technologies that enable data portability.
Multi: Involves the simultaneous use of services from multiple cloud providers, allowing organizations to diversify their cloud infrastructure.
Hybrid multicloud: Integrates services from diverse cloud infrastructures, combining elements of private, community, and public clouds. Most hybrid clouds are technically hybrid multiclouds, including private and public clouds from multiple vendors.
Service models
IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service is a system wherein vendors provide physical computer hardware and connectivity options. This can also be used across multiple tenants using virtualization technology. Customers can run systems and applications of their choice, while the vendor maintains the physical hardware.
SaaS: The vendor uses the cloud infrastructure to provide software applications to customers. Examples include email, documents, spreadsheets, etc. These services are usually accessed from a web browser and do not require the installation of software, though this is still an option.
PaaS: Platform as a Service includes IaaS with the addition of system and server applications. This allows customers to use the cloud infrastructure and software developed by the client with programming languages supported by the vendor. The vendor usually maintains physical computer hardware, OS, and server applications.
Cloud acceleration is dedicated to enhancing the speed and performance of cloud-based applications and services. It minimizes latency, improves data transfer rates, and optimizes content or service delivery to users. Techniques include edge computing, caching, and load balancing. Cloud acceleration prioritizes delivering a fast and responsive user experience.
Simply put, cloud management addresses governance and efficiency on a broader scale, while cloud acceleration fine-tunes application performance for a smoother user experience. Both are vital components of a comprehensive cloud computing strategy, ensuring businesses maximize cloud benefits and provide optimal service to their users.
While cloud computing is an umbrella term that encompasses all forms of remote IT resource access, cloud management is something different. Cloud management describes the strategies and tools designed to optimize cloud infrastructure resources and services for the benefit of a specific organization.
By changing how organizations approach essential IT services, cloud computing delivers clear advantages—far too many, in fact, list comprehensively all at once. The following are among the most noteworthy benefits of cloud computing:
Cloud computing eliminates the need for hefty upfront investments in physical infrastructure. Users pay for services on a consumption basis, reducing capital expenditure. Operational costs are streamlined as cloud providers handle maintenance and updates.
With cloud services, users can access applications and data from anywhere with an internet connection. This fosters collaboration, allowing teams to collaborate effortlessly across the globe. Additionally, the automatic updates and maintenance carried out by cloud providers free up valuable IT resources, enabling a greater focus on strategic initiatives.
An additional aspect of scalability, cloud computing empowers businesses with the ability to provision resources on-demand, rather than up front. When unexpected changes in business activity occur, this ensures that the organization can respond elastically to shrink or grow capacity on extremely short notice.
Cloud providers invest heavily in advanced security measures to protect the data entrusted to them by their clients. Data encryption, access controls, regular security audits—in many cases, cloud providers offer a more secure environment than on-premises solutions, particularly for smaller businesses with limited security resources.
As cloud computing has become increasingly ubiquitous in industries around the world, its technology has become engrained in various services and solutions. Cloud computing is central to each of the following:
Organizations can offload the responsibility of managing physical storage infrastructure to cloud providers, ensuring data availability, durability, and easy retrieval. This helps protect vital information from regional dangers and localized disruptive events—a fire or a flood (for example) at an organization's home offices will not impact data availability.
Cloud computing facilitates efficient data analysis by providing scalable and powerful computing resources. Businesses can leverage cloud-based analytics platforms to process vast volumes of data, extract crucial insights, and make data-driven decisions without the need to invest in extensive on-premises infrastructure.
Cloud services support the development and deployment of machine learning, AI, and other intelligence models. Utilizing intelligent cloud-based tools and frameworks, businesses can enhance their decision-making, engage more directly with customers, and drive innovation.
Cloud computing provides a conducive environment for developing and running mobile, web, and API cloud-native applications. Developers leverage cloud services, (such as containers and microservices) to build applications that are scalable, resilient, and easily deployable across essentially any platform.
Cloud platforms provide a flexible and cost-effective environment for testing and building applications. Developers can leverage cloud resources to simulate various environments, conduct testing at scale, and accelerate the application development life cycle.
Cloud computing makes it possible for organizations to provide direct software updates to their customers. By offering solutions via SaaS, companies improve the user experience.
Another aspect of cloud management is cloud governance. Cloud governance describes overseeing and regulating issues such as cost, operations, security, risk, budgets, and compliance across multiple clouds. In cloud governance, the focus is on cost, security, and operations, where cloud management often focuses on resources. Naturally, there is a significant amount of overlap between the two terms.
When working with a range of cloud providers, businesses face unique challenges. Specifically, there is no standardization of operating models between providers, and each option brings with it its own proprietary provisioning tools. This leads to increased operational complexity, and makes effective governance extremely difficult.
An effective cloud governance solution empowers businesses to create a unified framework for provisioning and governance in a multi-cloud environment, while still promoting increased cloud agility and without restricting individual cloud-vendor capabilities.
Effective cloud governance demands a reliable optimization and provisioning solution. ServiceNow ITOM Optimization makes it easy to provision on-demand cloud services while maintaining acceptable cloud spend. With ServiceNow, you can enjoy the full capabilities of every cloud provider, and create a manageable, unified operating model across all of your entire cloud ecosystem. Benefits include:
- Standardized multi-cloud service catalog
- Non-intrusive policy guardrails
- Empowering self-service options
- Consistent modeling
- Accelerated delivery
Managing multiple clouds can be difficult, depending on the number of clouds involved—both from a cost optimization and technology perspective. Customers tend to subscribe to various cloud services to avoid a dependency on a single service. A better approach is to select a public cloud, analyze the features they offer, and then integrate them.
Cost control and management-overhead reduction can be reconciled by using cloud management platforms (CMPs) and/or cloud service brokers (CSBs). Both help you manage multiple clouds in one location. But these services can limit customers to common-denominator services, ignoring the unique advantages of individual cloud service providers.
Cloud computing is often considered an alternative to edge computing. However, edge computing moves local computing to local devices in a distributed system that is usually layered around a cloud computing core. Cloud is typically involved in orchestrating all the devices, then collects their data, analyzes it, and acts on it.
Protecting data from access by a third party
Your choice of cloud aligns with your organization’s risk tolerance.
You understand the privacy laws of the countries that will have access to your data.
The vendor sanitizes media storage at the end of its life.
Users can access and store important data only through trusted operation environments.
Auditing is available for the vendor’s security or access management for the systems you access.
ACSC-approved encryption protects your data at all times.
Protecting data from access by the vendor’s customers
The vendor you choose carefully separates your data from data used by other organizations.
You have the option to access computers dedicated to your exclusive use.
Use of the cloud does not weaken your security posture.
Deleted data is sanitized before it is reused.
Protecting data from access by the vendor’s employees
Vendor employees and personnel are adequately vetted.
Every action performed by a vendor’s employees is reviewed and logged.
The vendor data centers use cable management systems to identify any tampering.
Your password or key for data decryption are not known by the vendor.
Any visits to the vendor’s data centers are identified and escorted.
How to handle cloud security
Ensure that the vendor provides timely responses and support for any security issues.
The vendor has a good, strong security plan.
You will be notified of any security incidents.
You can audit logs and any information needed for a forensic investigation.
Adequate compensation for security breaches will be provided.
Employees are trained to detect and address any security incidents.
Cloud computing in the future will be widespread and will continue to rapidly grow. In fact, it is predicted that 95% of new digital workloads will be deployed on cloud-native platforms by 2025 (source:Gartner).
Software development agencies will find an advantage in the agile frameworks they follow, as they will be able to continuously integrate the process and speedy delivery of cloud systems. Online security firms will let users work remotely from anywhere around the globe as they transition to zero-trust security models from Google, rather than continuing to use traditional firewalls. Data analytics firms will continuously focus on improving data analysis to make informed decisions, and the continuity of the analysis will be crucial.
A cloud center of excellence (CCoE) is a fusion of cross-functional teams, like DevOps, CloudOps, Infrastructure, and Finance. CCoE provides the opportunity for these teams to manage cloud strategy, governance, best practices, and to be a location for cloud leaders within the organization.
Cloud-centered organizations like DevOps, Security, and Finance who need to ensure that the diverse business sets within a business unit are using best practices.
Larger, multi-cloud organizations who demand a standardized series of processes and tools to work across cloud service providers (CSPs) for security, operations, cost control, and governance.
Managed service providers (MSPs) who develop cloud centers and are focused on creating best practices for customers.
- Interdepartmental communication
CCoE bridges departments that use, fund, or measure cloud operations. The departments and stakeholders need to be on the same page regarding goals, budgets, and timelines for cloud operations. - Technology expertise
It’s imperative that the CCoE have strong expertise in the cloud technology used by the organization, as they are the drivers of innovation within the organization. - Governance
Authority and standardization are two major elements important of governance. An effective CCoE should be granted authority to create policies and standards for cloud security, cost control, and compliance. The expectation is that everyone in the organization will adhere to these policies.
- Repeatability and automation
After the establishment of policies, the deployment process will need to be repeatable with reference architectures, as well as available tools and platforms in place for cost control and governance. - End-user buy-in
It’s crucial for the CCoE team to develop a sense of engagement in the teams, or the new structure will not succeed.
- Innovations
Taken all together, the CCOE exists to enhance innovation throughout the organization. It does this by enabling other departments or parts of the organization to focus on innovation and development without having to dedicate time and resources to the basic tasks of setting up or managing cloud resources. Essentially, it streamlines cloud processes so that other teams can concentrate on creating value through innovation rather than getting bogged down in operational details.
The cloud stack for AI represents a specialized infrastructure and ecosystem tailored to meet the demands of artificial intelligence and machine learning workloads. Unlike traditional cloud computing, which serves a broad spectrum of applications, the cloud stack for AI is designed to cater specifically to the unique requirements of AI and machine learning algorithms.
This stack typically includes dedicated hardware accelerators like GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) and TPUs (Tensor Processing Units) that excel at the parallel processing needed for AI computations. Additionally, it offers optimized software frameworks, libraries, and development tools that facilitate the training and deployment of AI models at scale. Cloud providers often offer pre-configured AI services, making it easier for organizations to leverage machine learning capabilities without the need for extensive expertise.
This allows organizations to harness the power of AI without having to build or manage a complex underlying infrastructure.
ServiceNow provides a powerful generative AI solution with Now Assist. This enhances tool runs on the ServiceNow's cloud platform, empowering users to leverage capabilities such as case summarization, conversational exchanges, content creation, and code generation—all without haveing to worry about infrastructure overhauls.
Leverage your existing ITSM processes, quickly creating a unified management framework across both multi-cloud and non-cloud environments.
Easily define new types of cloud services using cloud-native templates and offer them through a unified service catalog. Provision cloud services in real time, responding instantly to requests from DevOps and other cloud users.
Establish non-intrusive policy guardrails, including quotas, available cloud service types, naming conventions, workload placement, and more. Automatically manage approvals for policy exceptions while instantly fulfilling compliant requests.
Deliver a streamlined, responsive user experience with an intuitive self-service portal where users can create and manage their cloud resources.
Take advantage of integrations with configuration providers and other vendors, including Terraform and Ansible Tower.
New / different technologies require a different approach—one that is built to handle the ephemeral world of the cloud. Attempting to build a monitoring practice with legacy monitoring tools for a cloud-native environment will leave organizations with visibility gaps as the sheer volume of data necessitates a solution built for cloud native. The best way to take advantage of the new capabilities that cloud entails is by adopting a different development model leveraging microservices to improve resiliency and performance. This requires organizations to adopt different monitoring practices and begin leveraging solutions built for the scale and complexity that cloud-native environments entail.
Control cloud costs and track hybrid cloud spending across SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS. Analyze and act on resource provisioning and usage levels to reduce waste. Empower FinOps leaders to stay on budget and maintain cloud governance throughout the lifecycle.
Gain visibility of your multi-cloud environments event-driven discovery and service mapping, allowing teams to stay ahead of changes causing any licensing, compliance, and security issues.
Monitor vulnerabilities in the container environments while also overseeing configuration drifts leading to data breaches. Establish a security posture capable of ensuring the safety and integrity of data structures and cloud resources.
If you are interested in making cloud computing a central aspect of your business, ServiceNow Cloud Accelerate is here to help. Delivering a suite of features designed to optimize your company's approach to the cloud, Cloud Accelerate gives you the capabilities to orchestrate your traditional and hybrid cloud services while significantly reducing spend. Employ cloud resource governance to manage provisioned assets and track related resources. Create standardized service catalogs, providing users with a clear and consistent picture of service availability across multicloud environments. Automate cloud–based deployments and resource operations. Provide developers with vital resources on demand built from proven cloud templates. And through it all, minimize business risk by giving your organization the support it needs to get the most out of the cloud. ServiceNow makes it possible.
Contact ServiceNow today, because with cloud computing backed by cloud management solutions, the sky is the limit!