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Types of cloud computing - Overview of Amazon Web Services

Types of cloud computing

Cloud computing provides developers and IT departments with the ability to focus on what matters most and avoid undifferentiated work such as procurement, maintenance, and capacity planning. As cloud computing has grown in popularity, several different models and deployment strategies have emerged to help meet specific needs of different users. Each type provides you with different levels of control, flexibility, and management.

Deployment models

Cloud

A cloud-based application is fully deployed in the cloud and all parts of the application run in the cloud. Applications in the cloud have either been created in the cloud or have been migrated from an existing infrastructure to take advantage of the benefits of cloud computing. Cloud-based applications can be built on low-level infrastructure pieces or can use higher level services that provide abstraction from the management, architecting, and scaling requirements of core infrastructure.

Private cloud (on-premises)

The deployment of resources on-premises, using virtualization and resource management tools, is sometimes called the private cloud. On-premises deployment doesn’t provide many of the benefits of cloud computing but it is sometimes sought for its ability to provide dedicated resources. In most cases, this deployment model is the same as legacy IT infrastructure while using application management and virtualization technologies to try and increase resource utilization. For more information on how AWS can help, refer to Use case: Cloud services on-premises.

Hybrid

A hybrid deployment is a way to connect infrastructure and applications between cloud-based resources and existing resources that are not located in the cloud. The most common method of hybrid deployment is between the cloud and existing on-premises infrastructure to extend, and grow, an organization's infrastructure into the cloud while connecting cloud resources to the internal system. For more information on how AWS can help you with your hybrid deployment, visit our Hybrid Cloud with AWS page.

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