Cloud computing jobs are at an all-time high, increasing at a rate of 55% every four years. Booming cloud computing stocks are causing people to take note of cloud computing. More businesses than ever are opting for cloud volumes and optimization.
But what does this all mean for businesses not yet involved in cloud computing? Let’s take a closer look at what you should know about cloud volumes and optimization.
What Is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access. That gains access to a shared pool of configurable virtual resources. These resources get released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.
These resources also refer to as cloud services. They include networks, storage, and other technology required to deliver common business functionality.
The term “cloud” itself refers to the infrastructure upon which these services run. Yet, it also often describes the set of services offered by those providing the cloud.
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Benefits of Cloud Computing
Cloud computing provides several benefits over traditional data center models. These include:
Elasticity
The elasticity gives more control over your IT environment than ever before. Scalability allows you to grow in size without having to invest in new equipment.
You can change how much processing power you need at any given time based on demand. That makes it easy to adapt to changing workloads. It also gives you the ability to scale up when needed and down when not necessary.
Security
Security is one of the most important aspects of running an enterprise-level operation. Cloud providers offer secure environments where sensitive information is unavailable to unauthorized parties.
That includes both physical and logical protections. Physical protection involves encrypting all traffic between clients and the server. Logical protections involve restricting who has permission to view certain files and folders.
Redundancy
Redundancy ensures that if one part fails, another will take its place. Thus, there is no single point of failure within the system.
Multi-Tenancy
A multi-tenant architecture enables many organizations to share the same hardware. They can do so while maintaining their data and software systems.
The benefits of this setup include cost savings through reduced capital expenditures. It also increases operational efficiencies due to higher usage rates.
What Are Cloud Volumes?
A cloud volume is an abstraction layer between physical volumes and logical volumes. A cloud volume represents a block device that appears like a local disk drive. Yet, it has no underlying hardware components.
Cloud volumes provide many advantages, including high availability, easy migration, and improved performance. They allow administrators to create many independent copies of a single physical volume.
They do this across different hosts within a cluster. That makes them ideal candidates for use when creating available clusters.
What Are Cloud Computing Optimization Services?
Many cloud computing services offer application optimizer services. These optimize the usage of existing cloud volumes.
For example, they may reduce input/output (I/O) overhead. They cache often-accessed files so that reads do not need to go back out to the cloud.
Other optimization services move large amounts of data off-site into cheaper bandwidth environments. There are two types of optimization services: static and dynamic.
Static Optimizations
Static optimizations apply only once during initialization. Static optimizations speed up start times or make sure resource usage is optimal.
Examples of these include moving databases from expensive storage devices. They move to faster solid-state drives and special file servers with RAID configurations.
Dynamic Optimizations
The service provider usually performs dynamic optimizations. These optimizations often occur throughout the life cycle of the application. Examples of dynamic optimizations include reducing I/O load on database servers.
It does so by using compression algorithms. It also adds throughput in web applications by using efficient protocols such as HTTP 2.0.
The Benefits of Cloud Volumes and Optimization
A cloud volume offers many advantages over local volumes. That said, they work best when used in tandem. Here are some advantages in more detail:
Performance
The most obvious benefit of cloud volumes is higher performance. They don’t rely on direct connections with storage arrays. Thus, cloud volumes can be closer together.
In turn, this reduces latency. Additionally, because they’re virtual, they can scale up as needed.
Reliability
Another advantage of cloud volumes is greater reliability. If a host goes down, other instances continue operating as usual.
Further, you can replicate cloud volumes across many servers. That allows for seamless transitioning should anything happen to one instance.
Availability
Because cloud volumes differ from the storage array, failure or corruption rates are lower. As long as the service provider maintains uptime, all cloud volumes remain accessible.
Further, cloud volumes allow data that’s accessible anywhere in the world. Users can access it through web browsers, mobile apps, and even desktop clients.
Security
Cloud volumes also help protect against security threats. The cloud can isolate sensitive information behind firewalls. That means organizations can make sure unauthorized individuals don’t gain access to data.
Affordability
One final advantage of cloud volumes is cost savings. By moving workloads onto remote infrastructure providers, companies save money.
This money-saving comes by avoiding expensive capital expenditures. Such expenses include server upgrades and power supplies.
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Choosing Cloud Volumes and Optimization Services
Choosing between cloud volumes and optimization services needs consideration. Think about what kind of application you’re running. Some applications need high availability.
Yet, others have strict requirements with how much I/O capacity must be available at any given time. For example, suppose an organization has a database that runs 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Then it would be better suited to use a dedicated solution rather than a shared environment.
Yet, suppose an app requires occasional bursts of activity. Then using a shared environment might provide enough scalability.
A hybrid approach involves deploying a few VMs in a private network where users connect via a Virtual Private Network (VPN). In either case, both types of environments offer benefits.
Employees can take full advantage of their own devices. At the same time, it provides redundancy and protection against outages.
Cloud Volumes and Optimization Benefit Your Business
The main advantages of cloud volumes include increased flexibility and improved performance. Not only that, but they provide enhanced security and lower costs. Yet, before making this transition, weigh the pros and cons of each option.
For more details on cloud volumes and optimization, check out some of our other posts.