Jonathan Rueffer
Science Editor
The cloud is an integral part of every online experience: omnipresent, intangible and can magically back up the photos on your phone. But what exactly is the cloud? The cloud is a network of servers on the internet that provide on-demand access to computing resources. Whenever you look through your Gmail or stream a movie on Netflix, you are accessing the cloud.
Cloud computing refers to the access to resources in the cloud, which includes physical servers, data storage, application development tools, software, AI-powered platforms and many more. It gives customers the ability to utilize computing power or storage without requiring them to own or manage the physical hardware. In this regard, cloud computing is first and foremost a marketable service provided by a cloud services provider (CSP) that makes the resources available on a pay-as-you-go basis or through a monthly subscription fee. For example, the storage capacity of a user’s Google cloud storage can be increased to 200GB with a $2.99 per month subscription, without any additional managerial responsibilities for the user.
To make cloud computing possible and efficient, there are three main components of the modern cloud architecture: data centers, which are owned and operated by CSPs that house the physical hardware; networking capabilities, which are the necessary high-speed network connections that connect users with the the data centers; and virtualization, which refers to the software that enables CSPs to efficiently share their physical hardware among many customers.
Today, the main commercial cloud computing service is Software as a Service (SaaS), which is a delivery and licensing model where software is accessed online (through a browser or desktop client) via a subscription, rather than bought and installed on individual computers. Since all aspects of the software (servers, data security and the application itself) is accessed through the cloud, a myriad of benefits arise, including cost, scalability, automatic upgrades and data loss protection. According to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), the global SaaS market size was valued at $273.55 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow to $1,228.87 billion by 2032. A primary example of SaaS is ChatGPT, since the model lives in the cloud and is delivered as a service over the internet. Many commonplace apps, like Word and Spotify, are hybrid SaaS that can work offline but sync to the cloud with an internet connection.
A cloud can either be public or private. A public cloud provider owns, manages and assumes all responsibility for the data centers, hardware and infrastructure that all customers share. The leading public cloud vendors include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud. A private cloud is an environment where all cloud infrastructure and computing resources are dedicated to one customer only. Government agencies, healthcare organizations and financial institutions often opt for private clouds when dealing with confidential documents, intellectual property, medical records, financial data or other sensitive information.
A major drawback of cloud computing is the fact that millions of clients operate through a single public cloud provider. For example, on Oct. 20, there was a 15-hour disruption to AWS, resulting in 1 million total outage reports. The disruption was caused by a backlog of server requests when an integral routing function failed. AWS’s customers include government departments, universities and businesses like Venmo, Netflix and Snapchat. Since it debuted in 2006, the company has grown to control 38% of the cloud computing infrastructure market. Although the issue was resolved in a relatively short amount of time, it nevertheless underscores the risks of having the world run on just a few cloud computing providers.
