Prof. Richa Hinde , Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering,  Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education

With the present online mode of functioning being the new normal for most of us, we cannot have imagined our lives without the services that the cloud offers. The effect of Cloud based technologies is very well evident to us at point when we hardly have access to any hardware architecture that can provide us the required services.

Cloud computing is the technology for the new era and there are several factors to put analysis and reflect here. Internet and technology, information response services, storage devices with high capacities, distributed servers and social media pitching for a hold on our lives, cloud computing can be the one next- gen solution for the ever increasing demand for over the cloud services and hardware capable equivalents.

As individuals and companies we have got used to Google, AWS and Microsoft for their free and premium services respectively. With virtual classroom, such technologies have promoted the strong-workspace culture in educational institution where the students and instructors can avail the facilities a conventional classroom provided including classroom view, Q&A , media sharing, seamless streaming of live lectures or conduction of auto-graded assignments. Another cloud platform making its way into the digital marketing is the Salesforce Marketing Cloud. At times we often forget the impact cloud computing has on our lives. Similar situation is with the Google Photos services which allowed a free back up of all images and videos. Google’s recent decision to update the policy of Google Photos, has left the users wandering in search of an equivalent freeware.

The everyday cloud services that we benefit from may seem simple applications to the human eye. However beyond our imagination the cloud deploys several optimisations to overcome the hassles in traditional technologies and architecture. Several research projects are emerging to optimize the power usage with the help of cloud computing. Cloud computing solutions are also cost effective and free from system related queries when compared to the solutions offered by traditional computing. Not only from angle of cost efficiency but also from the environmental concerns. Conventional solutions are often associated with their carbon footprint and importantly water requirement. Ecosystem Restoration is the theme for the decade as declared by United Nations on the very recent World Environment Day 2021. Cloud computing is the greener solution at a time when we are striving hard to achieve sustainable development at a national and global level.

There are several take-ways that cloud computing services offer specifically when we face difficulties in terms of access, finance, security, ease of use, storage requirements and power packed performance. One great assets of cloud computing is the emerging growth of services such as “Software as a Service”, “Platform as a Service” and the new additions being “Function as a Service” and “Backend as a Service” utilizing the cloud to its best. Another offering of cloud computing is the cloud storage options with a demand increase and price drop. No doubt the exponential rise of global cloud storage is expected to hit 2.3ZB by end of 2021. The developers, start-ups and enterprises have adapted their strategies to improve efficiency by making use of server free technologies. Evolution of cloud based containers has given the technology age yet another disruptive innovation. Microservices built using containers have given an upthrust to cloud applications with easier and faster deployment. Docker, CoreOS, Mesosphere, rkt, Cloudius are the emerging players in container and supporting technologies. Even though many companies are playing with the container concept, the major projects worth mentioning here are Google’s Kubernetes, Apache Mesos and Amazon’s AWS Lambda.

To lead the way for a “disruptive innovation”, a completeness of vision can be considered as a major breakthrough in marking these companies as players, leaders or visionaries. If disruption process is defined by evolution, expansion, growth and innovation for a greener tomorrow then certainly cloud computing has the positive edge. Thus, qualifying cloud computing as the debated technology in the age of continuous disruptions.

Also Read: Great Learning launches its new PG Program in Cloud Computing with the University of Texas