What is the cloud?

The cloud provides storage space, computing power, and ex­ecut­able software in a remote data centre. The term takes into account the fact that the server is not phys­ic­ally ac­cess­ible or directly visible to the user.

Nowadays, efficient business man­age­ment requires computer capacity to be flexibly adaptable so that it can be used by external employees without any problems if necessary. In addition, this flex­ib­il­ity also generally allows the booked service to be adapted depending on demand. In contrast, a rigid, in­tern­ally-es­tab­lished IT structure ties up personnel and financial resources. Under certain cir­cum­stances, it may not be able to keep pace with changing re­quire­ments. A freely scalable al­tern­at­ive is, therefore, often the better choice.

This fact has led to the de­vel­op­ment of storage space that is remote from the actual server in work­places; data is out­sourced to the cloud, also called the “data cloud.” The storage space and programs used in the cloud can be also adapted to a company’s in­di­vidu­al re­quire­ments in a process referred to as “scalab­il­ity.”

The story of cloud computing began as early as the 1950s. Since the beginning of the internet age, the pos­sib­il­it­ies of cloud computing have con­tinu­ously increased.

The trend will continue as the latest internet security standards have sig­ni­fic­antly reduced previous concerns about using cloud services. It is expected that by 2025 almost two-thirds of the world's stored data will be stored and managed in a cloud solution.

When you use the cloud, data, programs, and computing capacity are out­sourced to storage spaces outside of the user’s location. To do this, several servers are made available in a remote location. Cloud storage offers include renting storage space and the use of computing power – in principle, the complete in­fra­struc­ture of a data centre. In this way, companies and private users can use programs directly via the browser, for example, without having to install them locally. Others use the cloud only for ad­di­tion­al storage. Cloud computing is also popular among teams: many col­lab­or­a­tion tools are based on the cloud.

Access takes place via a securely encrypted internet con­nec­tion. The re­spect­ive users must identify them­selves in order to access the storage space. The principle is similar to a company network, but the physical distance between your workplace computer and the server is usually much greater.

Which storage size, which computing capacity, or which software is used by the cloud provider for which period of time is con­trac­tu­ally de­term­ined. In this way, companies can flexibly choose to increase services at a later date without having to invest in ad­di­tion­al hardware or expensive software. It also allows them to forgo regular updates while be­ne­fit­ing from more computing power and storage space. For private users, many services can even be used free of charge.

Via the cloud, users can store and retrieve data. Ap­plic­a­tion programs (software) can also be used via the cloud: This ranges from word pro­cessing and spread­sheets to complex programs for design tasks or image pro­cessing. The con­trac­tu­ally booked software is kept up-to-date by the cloud service provider.

Various apps are already available to syn­chron­ise data in the cloud between several sta­tion­ary or mobile devices, so that the latest version of a file is always available to all au­thor­ised users. In addition, several people with access rights to a project or company can work with the data in the cloud at the same time.

An important component of cloud computing is data safety (backups). The highly-secure server farms are not only equipped with redundant storage, but are also well secured phys­ic­ally and thermally. In effect, all data is stored in a well-protected location and is available to users around the clock.

When companies provide their employees with their own servers for cloud computing, this is called a private cloud. In this way, the user has direct access to the company server on which data and services stored are not publicly available. This means that sensitive data remains ac­cess­ible only to the company. In Europe, certain data may not leave the company according to the GDPR. However, a private cloud places very high demands on ad­min­is­tra­tion and is con­sidered time-consuming and costly.

A public cloud makes its services available to the public via the internet. The system is monitored, main­tained, and always adapted to the needs of the users by this provider. This elim­in­ates the costs of setting up, main­tain­ing, and con­tinu­ally adapting a company's internal server ar­chi­tec­ture.

A com­bin­a­tion of both of these solutions is known as a hybrid cloud, in which sensitive data is saved in the company and other, less sensitive data is saved on a publicly-ac­cess­ible platform.

In cloud computing, data is stored on the hard disk of a computer in the same way as on the hard disk of a computer through read and write access. For users, the dif­fer­ence is that next to the hard disk drive, for example drive DATA (D:), there is a cloud drive icon for opening and saving data. In other words, the same options are available in the cloud as on the user's own hard drive: the creation and deletion of folders and sub­folders as well as the upload, saving, updating, moving, renaming, or deleting of files – and this applies to all file types. It is, therefore, also possible to safely store backups of databases or mobile devices such as smart­phones or tablets there.

The data in the cloud itself is encrypted and stored re­dund­antly (i.e. multiple times). Trans­mis­sion to the cloud server and from there to the users is also carried out via a secure and encrypted con­nec­tion. Internal data man­age­ment between servers and security servers as well as regular backups of customer data is the re­spons­ib­il­ity of the cloud operator. With server locations within the EU, providers of cloud services are subject to the EU General Data Pro­tec­tion Reg­u­la­tion, meaning that users can assume the highest security standards.

There is no straight­for­ward answer like “A company needs a cloud when using X gigabytes of data.” There are many factors that speak for or against using a cloud. The cost-benefit cal­cu­la­tion must compare financial factors including main­ten­ance, repair, de­pre­ci­ation, and IT in the company with the costs of using the out­sourced data and programs. This also includes a forecast of how the computing capacity in the company must develop in order to be prepared for future re­quire­ments.

When using cloud services, storage rental costs usually include a flat rate for the main­ten­ance and backup of the servers. The hardware in the cloud is always up-to-date, including the latest data and physical security measures. Fur­ther­more, the provision of licensed software (e.g. Microsoft Office 365) via cloud computing elim­in­ates the need for the costly purchase of in­di­vidu­al software licenses and updates in the company.

Most cloud providers offer some of the available storage space free of charge or via hosting contracts. This allows companies to test a cloud solution before deciding on large-scale, paid solutions.

However, the use of cloud computing adds a great deal of re­spons­ib­il­ity for au­thor­ised users, as they must strictly adhere to the company's security standards to protect company secrets from un­au­thor­ised access. It is, therefore, advisable to define rights clearly and to keep proper doc­u­ment­a­tion.