There is absolutely no doubt how efficient and effective computer is. Computers have become a daily part of our lives as it is being used in almost every sector. Big organizations such as Google and Microsoft very easily tackle problems when it arises. But for a small company affordability is the main factor which has to be taken into consideration. Problems such a machine failure, bugs, hard disk crash increase over time. So, what is the solution? Well, the perfect solution to this problem is resolved using cloud computing.

Cloud computing is a network based on internet which is made using large servers. Cloud has a lot of information stored in it and it provides various services to its users. Many big organizations such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, IBM and Amazon have started providing cloud services to their users. The leader in providing these services is Amazon. Many people have used cloud services provided by these companies. Whenever we take a picture with the help of iPhone, the photo immediately gets saved and gets added in iCloud. So, whenever we want the photo and if our iPhone is not available, we can still access the photo as it is uploaded on iCloud which can be accessed from any device. Even Google provides this facility on android phones with the help of Google Drive.

We can classify clouds based on various factors such as location, service which the cloud is offering.

Classification of cloud based on location:

1. Public Cloud: In simple words, Public cloud is basically internet. The whole computing infrastructure is located on the premises of a cloud computing company that offers the cloud service. This type of cloud uses the pay-per-usage model. However, this cloud is not suitable for every organization as this cloud provides limited security. Examples include Amazon Elastic, IBM Blue Cloud, Google App Engine and Windows Azure Services.
2. Private Cloud: Private Cloud is a cloud service which is being used only by one organization/customer. The services are not shared with other parties and it is hosted externally. This type of cloud is mainly used by large organizations. So, security is very high in this type of cloud. Top vendors for this type of cloud are VMware, Red Hat, OpenStack.
3. Hybrid Cloud: Hybrid cloud is a mixture of both public as well as private cloud. Companies can oscillate between both public as well as private cloud depending on their purpose.

Classification of cloud based on services:

1. Infrastructure-as-a-service: Provides virtualized computational resources over the internet.
2. Platform-as-a-service: Provides a platform which allows the users to develop, run and manage their own applications.
3. Software-as-a-service: The cloud provider hosts the application and makes it available to the user over the internet. The software being provided to the customer is made available on subscription basis and it is hosted centrally.

Cloud computing has totally changed the way in which people are looking at IT. Cloud computing saves the organization a lot of money as well as effort to maintain the servers.