Public Cloud

The most recognizable model of cloud computing to many consumers is the public cloud model, under which cloud services are provided in a virtualised environment, constructed using pooled shared physical resources, and accessible over a public network such as the internet.

To some extent they can be defined in contract to private clouds which ring-fence the pool of underlying computing resources, creating a distinct cloud platform to which only a single organization has access. Public clouds, on the other hand, provide services to multiple clients using the same shared infrastructure.

Examples of Public Cloud

The most salient examples of cloud computing tend to fall into the public cloud model because they are, by definition, publicly available. Examples include:

· Cloud storage services

· Online software applications

· Cloud hosting, including website hosting

· Cloud based development environments

Public clouds are used extensively in offerings for private individuals who are less likely to need the level of infrastructure and security offered by private clouds. However, enterprises can still utilize public clouds to make their operations significantly more efficient, for example, with the storage of non-sensitive content, online document collaboration and webmail.

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LOCATION INDEPENDENCE

The availability of public cloud services through an internet connection ensures that the services are available wherever the client is located. This provides invaluable opportunities to enterprise, such as remote access to IT infrastructure or online document collaboration from multiple locations

UTILITY STYLE COSTING

Public cloud services often employ a pay-as-you-go charging model, whereby the consumer will be able to access the resource they need, when they need it, and then only pay for what they use

FLEXIBILITY

There are a myriad of IaaS, PaaS and SaaS services available on the market which follow the public cloud model and that are ready to be accessed as a service from any internet enabled device. These services can fulfill most computing requirements and can deliver their benefits to private and enterprise clients

COST EFFECTIVE

Public clouds bring together greater levels of resource and so can benefit from the largest economies of scale. The centralized operation and management of the underlying resources is shared across all of the subsequent cloud services whilst components, such as servers, require less bespoke configuration

RELIABILITY

The sheer number of servers and networks involved in creating a public cloud and the redundancy configurations means that, should one physical component fail, the cloud service would still run unaffected on the remaining components

ULTIMATE SCALABILITY

Cloud resources are available on demand from the public clouds’ vast pools of resource so that the applications that run on them can respond seamlessly to fluctuations in activity