Cloud computing provides computing resources—such as servers, storage, databases, networking, and software—over a network, often with usage-based pricing. Instead of buying and maintaining every physical server, an organization can use services managed partly or entirely by a cloud provider.
SaaS: Software as a Service
SaaS delivers a ready-to-use application, such as email, accounting, customer relationship management, or document collaboration. The provider usually manages the underlying infrastructure and application updates. Customers still need to manage user access, data handling, configuration, and appropriate backups or exports.
PaaS: Platform as a Service
PaaS offers a managed environment for building and deploying applications. Developers can focus more on code and data while the provider manages much of the runtime and infrastructure. Teams must still understand supported versions, security settings, service limits, and portability.
IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service
IaaS provides virtual machines, storage, and networking that customers configure and manage. It offers flexibility but usually requires more responsibility for operating systems, patching, identity controls, and application security.
Shared responsibility
Cloud security is not automatically handled by the provider in full. Responsibility is divided according to the service model and contract. A business should know who patches systems, manages encryption keys, configures permissions, monitors logs, and responds to incidents.
Questions before choosing a provider
- Where is data stored and processed?
- What uptime, support, and recovery commitments apply?
- Can the business export its data in a usable format?
- What are the costs of storage, bandwidth, backups, and scaling?
- How are access, encryption, logging, and incident response handled?
Cloud services can improve flexibility, but poor configuration can expose data or create unexpected costs. Test backups and recovery plans rather than assuming they work. This article is educational and not a substitute for a security assessment.