In this article, one of our engineers explains how Cloud works, why it emerged, and the key benefits it offers. The article will be useful for anyone new to Cloud technology or for businesses considering moving to Cloud adoption.
Cloud, or Cloud computing, refers to a broad range of services that allow users to access IT resources such as computing power, databases, storage, and applications on demand via the internet from a Cloud service platform.
（Source: https://aws.amazon.com/jp/cloud/）
Before Cloud computing emerged, businesses needed to buy and manage their own computer systems to run essential applications. These systems were typically located on-site and maintained by in-house IT specialists. Often, each major application was deployed on its own dedicated servers or infrastructure.
However, in reality, only a small portion of these systems were running at full capacity, and a large portion of allocated resources went unused.
The concept of virtualization emerged in the 1960s as a new way to utilize server hardware. It allows a single server to run multiple operating systems and applications simultaneously. By consolidating multiple workloads onto fewer servers, virtualization improves server utilization and can reduce costs. This technology became widely adopted from the late 1990s through the early 2000s.
Servers in data centers are no longer dedicated to a single application or virtual machine and instead, began sharing multiple servers and storage resources with CPU, memory, and storage provided on demand. This shift allowed customers to run virtualized applications on the provider’s infrastructure instead of their own hardware. In this way, Cloud was born, and Cloud services began to be widely adopted after 2006.
Here are the key benefits of adopting Cloud services, proposed by AWS.
In the past, businesses had to invest heavily in data centers and servers upfront. With Cloud services, you pay only for the resources you use.
Cloud services can provide lower variable costs than operating your own environment. Since providers like AWS support hundreds of thousands of users, they can take advantage of economies of scale to offer more affordable pay-as-you-go pricing.
With Cloud, resources can be scaled up or down as needed, eliminating the need to predict maximum infrastructure capacity in advance. Setting capacity before deploying an application can lead to wasted resources or limited functionality. Cloud services allow you to adjust resources and scale up or down within minutes, so these issues are no longer a concern.
In Cloud environment, new IT resources can be provisioned easily. What used to take weeks can now be done in just minutes, allowing developers to start building right away. As a result, the time and cost required for testing and development are greatly reduced, leading to significantly improved organizational agility.
With Cloud, you can focus on business-differentiating projects instead of managing infrastructure. It eliminates the heavy work of installing, connecting, and launching servers, allowing organizations to concentrate on activities that directly serve their customers.
With only a few clicks, you can easily deploy applications across multiple regions around the world. This simple process, combined with minimal cost, helps reduce latency and deliver a better customer experience.
At Avaxia, we value our customers’ voices and provide end-to-end support from on-premises migration and service selection to implementation and maintenance. Leveraging the scalability and speed of Cloud, we are committed to making every project a success. If you are considering Cloud or facing challenges with your current setup, please feel free to contact us for a consultation.
In our next article, Avaxia’s engineer will share an AWS project he worked on, offering real-world perspectives on how he addressed challenges and made the most of Cloud technology in practice.
