What are Cloud Services?
Cloud services is an umbrella term for any service that is delivered via the internet — as opposed to being installed on a user’s computer or network server. Popular cloud services include networking, data storage, platforms for ecommerce applications and productivity applications such as email. Cloud-based services are usually offered by a hosting service provider or managed service provider like Rackspace.
Cloud services generally fall into one of these three broad categories of cloud computing:
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Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provides servers and storage
- Platform as a Service (PaaS), such as Microsoft® Azure®, which enables companies to develop and deploy apps
- Software as a Service (SaaS), such as Microsoft Office 365®, which facilitates collaboration between remote team members
Companies ranging from startups to Fortune® 100 giants all benefit from cloud services. Almost 50 percent of companies who took part in a North Bridge survey have a cloud-first or cloud-only business strategy, and 40 percent of them receive at least half of their revenue via cloud-based applications. Overall, nearly 80 percent of the companies derive some revenue from the cloud.