What Every Product Manager Should Know About Cloud Computing
Unraveling How The Web Works
Computing has developed a lot over the last few years. We have moved from an era where computers were only for government use to a scenario where we have extremely powerful machines in the palm of our hands.
A few years ago, the internet was only used to connect research labs when it was only available in the academic environment. Nowadays, it is possible to buy a trip to another side of the world or order your lunch with a few clicks.
But looking at the more technical context of the thing, would you know what infrastructure is needed for the internet to work, and how messages can travel around the world in a fraction of a second?
Well, that’s what we will talk about in this post :)
The Internet
First, let’s start with the basics before getting into the context of cloud computing. Simply put, the Internet is a large global network of computers that transmit a variety of data through the devices that are connected to it.
When you search for a particular piece of information in your browser, for example, this request is transmitted through data packets that travel through several computers until it reaches the one that has the desired information.
When found, the message is returned to your browser in a fraction of a second.
Client-server comunication
For the Internet to work, a relationship between two entities, client and server, must occur.
While clients and servers are both applications that communicate over the Internet, clients are “closer to the user” because they are more user-oriented applications like web browsers, email clients, or smartphone applications.
Servers are applications that run on a remote computer that the client communicates with over the Internet when needed. In other words, if you are accessing this text via a cell phone, for example, your browser is the client and the server that is hosting this article is the server.
- Client: They initiate requests to servers, receive the servers’ responses, and interact directly with the servers through a certain software/application;
- Server: waits for a request from a client, fulfills requests, and then responds to clients with the requested data, may connect to other servers to fulfill a specific client request.
What is the infrastructure that makes the Internet work?
For the entire Internet to function, a very complex infrastructure is required. It ranges from giant data centers all over the world to kilometers of cables that run under the oceans.
The primary purpose of this infrastructure is to allow communication between the entire network of computers to occur as expected.
Communication between computers on the network occurs, in many cases, in a “physical” way. Where one computer on the network passes the information on to another, and so on, this is why there is a need for cables connecting this network all around the world.
We can separate some of the most important elements that make this whole network work:
- The routers: They route data packets to different computer networks based on their destination. We can think of routers as traffic managers, which ensure that data packets are destined for the right places on the Internet;
- Web servers: These are specialized high-capacity computers that store and deliver content (web pages, images, videos) to users, as well as hosting applications and databases. Most servers are maintained in large data centers located around the world. These computers will hold the information you search for on the Internet and send it to you.
Of course, for the maintenance of the entire worldwide network, several other devices are required. But by and large, these are the main components of the infrastructure.
Cloud services
AWS, Google Cloud, and Oracle are some companies that provide cloud services to other companies and individuals around the world.
Through them, you can hire different types of services to be used within your organizational context. When we talk about cloud services, we are referring to a vast series of features that can be hired.
Each of these services has a purpose which can be from performing a certain task to storing the information of its users. For example, we have services most commonly used as computing, storage, and databases.
In addition, there are also services aimed at emerging technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, data lakes, blockchain, and the Internet of Things.
Who uses cloud computing?
Well, directly or indirectly, EVERYONE on the Internet
Organizations of all types, sizes and industries use the cloud for a wide variety of use cases, such as data backup, virtual machines, software development, and testing, data analysis, and customer-facing web applications.
Even the cloud companies themselves use their services to market other services (confusing, right?).
For example, companies in the financial sector use the cloud to execute transactions and store histories. Education companies use the cloud to make their study materials available and communicate with their students. In general, everything is in the cloud.
Since we are in a world where we aim to perform many of our daily tasks through a computer, it becomes necessary for companies in many sectors to make their services available through the Internet, and for this, they need to use the cloud as a means to do so.
Global infrastructure
It may sound strange to hear, but when a company contracts a service from a cloud provider, it is most likely accessing a computer on the other side of the world.
Cloud computing is the delivery of IT resources on demand over the Internet with pay-as-you-go pricing.
Instead of purchasing and maintaining physical data centers and servers, you can access technology services such as computing power, storage, and databases on an as-needed basis using a cloud provider.
These cloud providers own a number of data centers around the world so that they can offer their services to customers regardless of where they are.
This network of data centers is capable of running cloud services uninterrupted with high speed and availability. In addition, they usually have strict security layers in place since they are dealing with large volumes of information.
Why do we contract cloud services?
Generally speaking, cloud services provided by companies like Google and Amazon have several advantages over using your infrastructure.
I could make several points here, but I have brought up the main factors that weigh when deciding to contract cloud services:
- Building and maintenance cost: The cloud allows you to trade fixed expenses (data centers and physical servers) for variable expenses and pay only for the IT consumed. What’s more, the variable expenses are much lower than what you would pay on your own due to economies of scale;
- Scalability: Through cloud providers, you can quickly generate new resources as needed, from infrastructure services such as computing, storage, and databases;
- Adaptability: In the cloud, you can instantly scale these resources up or down to adjust capacity according to changing or declining business needs.
Moreover, cloud providers are famous for having more security in their services, since many teams around the world manage these.
Conclusion
For many reasons, cloud services have become essential to many enterprises in recent years. It makes it possible to deploy technology services in a matter of minutes and go from idea to implementation very quickly.
In this way, companies have the freedom to experiment, test new ideas to differentiate customer experiences and transform themselves further.
Understanding these technologies is critical to comprehend how they can help your company grow, reduce costs, and innovate effectively.
See you in the next post.
The Technical Product Manager
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