Technology growth has been on the rise for a while now. After the internet bubble which took the world from offline to online, we are now seeing the formation of a new bubble – the meta world. This means that the internet has now become commonplace and an integral part of daily life. For individuals as well as firms, the internet is to work what air is to breathing. It is thus natural that cloud working is now widely known and accepted.
The pandemic has only served to help increase this acceptance. With businesses all over the world shifting to remote models of working, cloud working has become more imperative than ever. Even though the first lockdowns were meant to be temporary, it instigated a change that has become permanent. As a result, businesses now prefer working remotely as it opens up a plethora of new options for them.
Google has been one of the foremost names leading the internet revolution. Since its inception, it has continued to be the favorite search engine all these years. Its brand is associated with trust and ease of use. Consequently, Google Cloud services is becoming the leading brand in cloud solutions. So what are the services provided by Google Cloud? The answer is everything. This article aims to provide a holistic description of all these services.
Infrastructure as a Service or IaaS
IaaS is an aspect of cloud solutions where the provider sets up hardware and software which is then provided to the user through virtual means. Businesses accessing these services are allowed to use capital without actually investing in its setup. This reduces their fixed cost considerably. Google Cloud Compute Engine provides access to virtual machines with costs that are applied on minutes used.
Google’s IaaS services include data analysis that requires powerful computing machines, servers for maintaining a backup, creating secure networks, website hosting, and testing of applications that are created by its customers.
These services are reliable, efficient, and easy to use. Google has backup storage and server accesses that allow it to move users to temporary machines in case of unforeseen circumstances. This ensures that as a user, your service is as uninterrupted as possible.
Platform as a Service or PaaS
This particular aspect of cloud computing is similar to IaaS. However, it has an additional layer called middleware which allows users a smoother interface to execute tasks such as building a website or creating a new app. As opposed to this, IaaS would help with hosting a new domain.
The key feature of Google Cloud services is online collaboration. This allows businesses to create a successful digital workplace where colleagues can make changes to the same document simultaneously. This is enabled by the middleware that PaaS offers. Other than online collaborations, PaaS helps users in creating online platforms. It offers readymade code for users who might not be experts in application or website development. Users can then modify and personalize this code to set up their own platforms.
Google Cloud’s App Engine is one such PaaS. It has ready-to-implement templates that help guide users through the entire process. This and other such PaaS offered by Google makes it a favorite with businesses at Traders Union looking to offer online services to their customers.
Software as a Service or Saas
This is the most commonly used Cloud offering. It includes backend solutions that offices implement to improve day-to-day functioning. It is analogous to supply chain management in the digital world. Examples of tools that would be a part of this category range from emails and web meetings to calendars and trackers.
SaaS offered by Google in the form of Gmail, google meets, google calendar, and so on is seen in almost every workplace. Its interface is easy to use and so common that almost every individual with access to the internet is familiar with it. Hence, in addition to being reliable and secure, it also becomes easy to implement.
SaaS is advantageous for businesses because just like IaaS they can avoid the fixed costs of developing such tools and managing them in-house. Instead, they can now incorporate it as a variable cost since they only need to pay rent or usage costs now.
Disaster Recovery as a Service or DRaaS
This service allows businesses to run their functions without any interruption. It also protects one’s data and processes from any sort of breach or crisis. Google Cloud’s DRaaS is extremely secure. As individual users of Google also, most of us can vouch for this fact. Over the years, while there have at times been disruptions of a few hours, Google has almost always continued to run smoothly. Moreover, there have never been any data losses associated with these disruptions.
Overall, Google Cloud allows businesses to store, access, and analyze data using its Cloud services. It provides SQL and NoSQL databases, allows businesses to run Big Data queries, build applications, websites and conduct sophisticated data analyses that require high computing power. And most importantly, it provides a secure and easy-to-use environment for all these functions.
It has multiple competitors in the form of Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, and so on. However, it has steadily climbed up to now be a part of the top 10 cloud providers in the world. It keeps updating its systems constantly to ensure a seamless experience and has been a favorite amongst users for years now. This is why, when Google’s services ever stop, the entire world feels it in an instant. That itself exemplifies its all-pervasiveness and is a true testimony to its quality and credibility.
