Cloud Computing is the on-demand availability of computing resources which include most commonly data storage, computing power, infrastructure etc. without direct active management by the user. It involves charging customers on a pay-as-you-use basis, thus offering a cost-effective technique of automating certain functions of an enterprise.

Now, what are the features of Cloud Computing? Some of the major features are enlisted below:

1. Cost Reduction: As we don’t have to purchase hardware or software separately by ourselves, there is a great reduction in cost. We don’t have to think about up-gradation of software or its maintenance. These are taken care of by cloud service provider.
2. 2. Device and location independence: These Cloud Computing Services cater to the needs of customers and are very user-friendly. We can access Cloud Computing Service from any device such as laptop, desktop, tablet PC and smartphone etc. Also, we can access the services from any part of the world. Only pre-requisites for accessing are our device and high-speed internet connection.
3. On-demand self-service: We are allocated resources according to the demand of our project. We can create an instance at any time and it is a matter of few minutes to create and deploy an instance.
4. Scalability: This is one of the most important features of Cloud Computing. The instances are scaled up when the resource requirements are more and scaled down when the resource requirements get fewer so that server cost can be reduced. This feature can be leveraged by start-ups as they start off with fewer resources and when they grow big, they can scale-up their resources easily.
5. Resource Pooling: According to this feature, the resources are pooled together which can be used by multiple clients. It is done in order to maximize the benefit and minimize the risk.

From a beginner’s point of view, it might be an immediate question arising in mind that “What are the common use cases of Cloud Computing?”

Let us have a quick look on its top five use cases which will help you to gain clarity over the utility of Cloud Computing in an enterprise.

1. Video Streaming Platforms: The streaming of videos in the OTT platforms has been possible due to the application of Cloud Computing. The viewers want to enjoy rich and smooth viewing experience over these platforms without any lag or delay. The cloud storage and data benefits can be leveraged over these streaming platforms. The demand of online viewing of videos is not always uniform. At some instances, it may go up and at other instances, it may go down. This is possible due to scaling up and scaling down feature of Cloud Computing applications. The data and bandwidth consumption thus can be controlled using this feature.
2. Services for File Hosting: These type of services enable you to store your files online using cloud storage without wasting valuable memory space in your PC or laptop. There are a number of file hosting services such as DropBox, Microsoft OneDrive, IDrive etc. which offer these powerful features. Each of these services have their own pros and cons, but they are highly popular among users despite some of their drawbacks. These services offer third-party app integration for providing more features to their users.
3. Cloud-based Chatbots: Cloud-based Chatbots are a category of essential tools which make communication smooth and hassle-free. The technologies which are applied for developing interactive chatbot are Cloud Computing, along with Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing. These Chatbots are used for communication with customers to answer their queries regarding any service or product. The full process is automated and the result can be a simple text, a web page like Contact Us of the website or some audio to guide the customer. In this way, the company sales are increased and they can better handle the customer queries without engaging specialized manpower for the purpose.

In Cloud-based Chatbots, the resources are deployed in the cloud by the businesses. These resources are hosted on the premises of the service provider, so enterprises can use these resources independent of time and location.

4. Disaster Recovery: Data is the most important asset of an enterprise. The enterprises need to arm themselves with strategies which help them to recover their data wealth in case of a disaster. The Disaster Recovery (DR) plan is highly crucial for an enterprise to save its revenue, reputation and asset. Cloud-based Disaster Recovery plans take into account the infrastructure, vulnerabilities, the order of their recovery and workable DR strategies. DR plan can be designed with the integration of Cloud Computing services which enables an enterprise to automate each step of the recovery process.
5. Serverless Computing: It is a methodology or cloud computing execution model in which enterprises or consumers consume back-end services on a pay-as-you-use based strategy. The term is a little misleading, as there are still servers running in the back-end but the enterprises don’t have to worry about the underlying infrastructure. As the service is auto-scaling, an enterprise need not pay for a fixed amount of bandwidth or number of servers.

With all these use cases of Cloud Computing and many others, it gives an awareness among the beginners of Cloud Computing learners about its huge applications in the real world in recent times.

References:

1. 5 PRACTICAL USE CASES OF CLOUD COMPUTING IN EVERYDAY LIFE, https://www.criticalcase.com/blog/5-practical-use-cases-of-cloud-computing-in-everyday-life.html
2. Disaster Recovery In Cloud Computing: All You Need To Know, by Jessie Reed, https://www.nakivo.com/blog/disaster-recovery-in-cloud-computing/
3. Serverless Computing, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serverless_computing
4. 10 Important Characteristics of cloud computing, https://clouodo.com/characteristics-of-cloud-computing/