Cloud Computing: Do We Need To Know About The Technology?

The cloud computing service consists of an online environment for storing all types of digital information, from simple files to complete software, content, and tools via the internet. Among the main characteristics are mobility, flexibility, agility in resource provisioning, storage and processing of large volumes of data, and access to innovative technologies (for example, Big Data, Internet of Things, and Machine Learning).

Security is also one of the critical elements. All major cloud providers generally have the main security certifications on the market. The technology can also represent a cost reduction because investments are associated with the use and speed of delivery of resources, and, with scalability, it is possible to resize cloud resources with just a few mouse clicks. The requested resources are allocated in a few minutes, and all services can be accessed remotely, over the internet, from anywhere, at any time, with any connected device, with no need for downloads or installation of programs.

After expanding and consolidating cloud services, a situation that has been happening since the middle of the last decade, we are experiencing a new accelerated migration period to the cloud. This acceleration was mainly motivated by the pandemic, in which many companies modified their way of working and felt even more the need for immediate advances in the digital transformation process.

The COVID-19 pandemic scenario was one of the factors responsible for driving companies to seek cloud computing solutions, mainly due to the requirements of social distancing and non-face-to-face activities. The accelerated digital transformation and the large volume of data we have today require technologies that support these demands.

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And, After All, What Does Cloud Computing Offer?

When we talk about cloud computing, we refer to a data center that is not physically in our company. Access is via the internet from different devices.

There are three cloud classifications, which refer to different ways of implementing technology infrastructure and applications. According to the characteristics of each type, institutions envision which model is most appropriate for their needs.

Public: supports multiple clients, the infrastructure can be shared between several organizations, offers publicly shared virtualized resources, has characteristics such as little possibility of customization, elastic cost (the client pays for the service they use), high performance, immediate access, and almost unlimited scalability.

Private: tends to be more common in government bodies, large companies, and financial institutions. The infrastructure is designed for a restricted audience, a company, and selected users linked to the organization that contracted the cloud service. In the case of the Santa Catarina State Information Technology and Automation Center (CIASC), for example, a private government cloud is used to meet the needs of the State’s public administration. The personal cloud format allows for the customization of resources, more flexibility, high scalability, improved security, and total customer control. It may have higher costs (mainly due to the initial investment in purchasing hardware, licensing, and services depending on the form of contracting). ). It guarantees that the data will be stored within the national territory (a critical issue for government organizations).

Hybrid: technology that mixes the environment of both types of clouds (public and private). It has resource optimization, application versatility, high performance, security and compliance alignment, scalability, and complete customer control.

Some companies precisely use the strategy of dividing data into different clouds to obtain both benefits and resources.

Furthermore, there are different models based on service architecture:

Infrastructure as a Service (Infrastructure as a Service – IaaS): a virtual machine, with servers and infrastructure, processing, storage, backup, and monitoring, hosted in the cloud.

Platform as a Service (Platform as a Service – PaaS): offers a development environment to create your applications, such as websites, databases, application servers, integration, development, and testing.

Software as a Service (Software as a Service – SaaS): the solution is hosted and runs directly on the cloud server, such as electronic mail, portals, social networks, office automation, Business Intelligence applications, and document management, among others. Others.

The Cloud Solutions That CIASC Offers

For more than ten years, the Center for Informatics and Automation of the State of Santa Catarina (CIASC) has been delivering virtualization services, and the company has been evolving towards the cloud, advancing in this process by optimizing the hardware to run many virtual servers. The company’s server virtualization solution is the foundation for public, private, and hybrid cloud services.

With the Data Center, we offer a controlled environment to store and process the most critical government systems and databases, ensuring high availability and security 24 hours a day. We also provide infrastructure and professionals to manage physical and virtual servers, methods, and databases and provide support, monitoring, management, and backup.

The CIASC VPS solution – Virtual Private Server in the Government Cloud offers high-performance private cloud infrastructure, a cutting-edge, modern, and secure service, hosting that can be managed, with more possibilities for customization and flexibility, technical support, and management (specialized, mainly in government institutions).

Furthermore, CIASC has signed integrated partnerships with reference companies to provide products for the hybrid cloud. At the end of last year, the company signed a protocol of intent to launch a notice that promises to reduce costs for using cloud computing in public administration. The document came from a collaboration between twelve Brazilian technology institutions and government data processing companies that are part of the Brazilian Association of State Information and Communication Technology Entities (ABEP-TIC), which came together to seek better solutions and hire cloud services jointly.

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