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The 'cloud' is only a fairly recent innovation but has quickly become integrated in the day-to-day business of many companies. There a variety of different cloud services on offer and many businesses choose to utilise a mix of different options. The three main distinctions between different cloud services are 'public' cloud, 'private cloud' and 'hybrid' cloud services. When most people talk about 'cloud computing' they are often referring to a public cloud. A public cloud is where a cloud provider makes applications, storage, processing power or memory available to the public via the cloud. Utilising a cloud that is public can be very useful in business as there is a wide range of ways that it can be utilised.

The public cloud can be very helpful for carrying out development or testing of applications and websites. In most cases applications are tested on dedicated servers, this is so they are kept away from the live environments and cannot affect or impact them. This system may be appropriate for most forms of testing, but if you want to effectively test the scalability of an application the best place to do this is in a public cloud. In this type of cloud, resources can be applied so that the environment being tested resembles the live environment as much as possible without actually needing to affect the live application. In terms of development using a public cloud can be useful because data can easily be moved there and network latency is less of a problem. It can also be a cheaper option as you will only pay when you are using the cloud services.

Public cloud services are often used by companies who have remote workers - it means that they can access the business environment when they are not in the office. Another reason that companies may choose to use public cloud computing is for project management. Integrating the cloud and project management systems is a simple and easy way to create an accessible system that can be used in and out of the office. Many companies are also beginning to turn to the public cloud for their email requirements. The accessible nature of this type of cloud means that it is also perfect for collaborative projects. Inter-departmental projects or collaborations with other companies can be carried out in a much simpler way.

Utilising public cloud services does not have to be a long term commitment. As most service providers offer a payment plan that is dependent on the resources you use not a specific length of time, a public cloud can be extremely useful for one-off projects (that often involve large amounts of data). Instead of having to find and buy your own resources and servers in order to complete the project, that you will be stuck with after the project has finished, a public cloud can offer a temporary storage and resource solution. This also means that the project can potentially be done much faster as you can instantly have a large amount of processing power at your fingertips. You can utilise hundreds of servers to get the project done without having to actually buy the hardware.

Most businesses will have some form of back up infrastructure for if their usual platform fails or breaks. However, having some form of infrastructure on standby can be expensive, and in most cases can be fairly unnecessary. With a public cloud you can put this resource on standby in a much more cost-efficient way as you pay for what you use. Doing this means that you do not have to worry about organising and maintaining the back-up yourself, once you have organised it with the cloud provider, it will be on hand for you to use if you need it without using up your own office resource.

An important advantage of using a cloud that is public is its scalability. It can be great for providing extra resource or processing power when you need it. Some businesses find that they have peak times where they need extra resource; they also find that keeping excess capacity on hand internally is overly expensive. Through using a public cloud this extra resource can be available to you when you need it, and you do not have to pay when you aren't using it. A good example of businesses that could benefit from this is festival websites that often have a huge influx of traffic at certain times of year when tickets go on sale. In a similar vein, public clouds can be useful for new ventures that could be hugely successful or could fail. Rather than investing in the resource and capacity that you think you might need, you can simply pay for what you end up using. If your popularity grows quickly, your resource can easily match it. With a cloud that is public innovation is encouraged, your resource will match your needs and you will not end up paying huge amounts if your project does not work out.

© Izzy Evans 2012

If you would like to find out more about public clouds then you can visit " What is a public cloud?"