In the modern information and technology industry, cloud computing covers a wide range of services. Due to the trendy nature of cloud services, several providers have adopted the term ‘cloud’ to advertise services that do not fall under this category. Cloud providers supply their customers with various services. However, all cloud services fall under three categories namely, “Software as a Service (SAAS), Platform as a Service (PAAS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS)” (Kepes, 2013). Currently, there are several cloud providers who offer one or more services. This paper explores the services that are offered by some well-known cloud providers.
The NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) offers the simplified definition of cloud computing as “a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction” (Kepes, 2013). Several renown or giant tech companies such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Verizon, and Oracle are currently offering cloud services to customers. Some of these companies offer an array of cloud services because they have the capacity for provision.
For instance, Google offers booth SAAS and PAAS cloud services in the form of Google Apps for Businesses. Another mega corporation that provides cloud services is Amazon. Amazon’s cloud service is known as ‘Amazon Web Services’. Amazon Web Services is mostly an IAAS. Furthermore, Amazon is currently ranked among the top IAAS providers in the world. The United States government has currently contracted Amazon’s IAAS cloud services. IBM is currently Amazon’s main competitor in the IAAS cloud service business. However, IBM provides both IAAS and SAAS cloud services. Microsoft is another major player in the cloud provision industry. Microsoft mainly operates both SAAS and PAAS’ platforms and the company stands out because of its wide array of cloud services.
The services that are provided by both small and big cloud providers are tailored in a manner that satisfies the customers’ unique needs. An example of IAAS is the ‘Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud’ (Amazon EC2). The Amazon EC2 provides customers with a “resizable compute-capacity in the cloud and it is designed to make web-scale computing easier for developers” (Amazon Web Services, 2014). The elasticity of Amazon’s EC2 is attractive to customers because it provides them with a cost efficient way of managing unexpected data capacities. The current price for this product starts at $33 per month for up to 10GB of unexpected data bust.
GigeNET is another cloud provider that offers a wide array of services including GigeNET Proxyshield, Automated DDoS Protection, and Cloud Servers and Hosting. Proxyshield and DDoS Protection services are available for prices that range from $170 to $200 per month. The Cloud Hosting service is available for a price of $239 per month. GigeNET provides aggregated bandwidths for its cloud services. These bandwidths start from 10TB and they can reach maximums of 100TB. In addition, GigeNET’s cloud services are processed using CPU capacities of between 2.26GHz and 3.20GHz. Another cloud provider that offers a wide range of solutions is eApps. eApps provides PAAS cloud services that cost as low as $21 per month and increase in accordance with customers’ needs. eApps also provides a wide range of PAAS’ platforms including VPN, Email, and load balancing.
Cloud services are currently on high demand because they address the needs of businesses of all sizes. The current cloud service providers include tech companies of all sizes including global corporations such as Microsoft.
References
Amazon Web Services. (2014). Amazon EC2. Web.
Kepes, B. (2013). Understanding the Cloud Computing Stack: SaaS, PaaS, IaaS. Web.