Google Cloud Platform And Cloud Based Storage

Discussion: Cloud Based Storage

Discuss about the Google Cloud Platform and Cloud based Storage.

Cloud based storage is the storage of data where all types of digital data gets stored in various logical pools. It is managed by any hosting company. The providers of cloud storage are responsible to keep the availability and accessibility of data (Wang et al. 2013). The physical environment of the data remains perfectly protected and secured by the cloud storage. These services are accessed by any cloud computer service, API or various applications, which use API.

The following report demonstrates a brief discussion on the popular cloud based storage, namely, Google Cloud Platform. The report clearly depicts the definition, utilization and the different types of cloud based storage. Moreover, the experiences and use of cloud storage in IT infrastructure will be given here. The final part of the report outlines the various advantages and disadvantages of Google Cloud Platform.  

Cloud based storage can be simply defined as the computing model that is utilized for storing any type of confidential digital data. This data is properly stored within various logical pools and entire environment is managed as well as secured by the hosting organization (Yang and Jia 2013). The physical environment is absolutely safe and secured by the cloud storage providers and the data is kept available. This type of storage is completely based on infrastructure that is highly virtualized and on the resources, which are scalable, multi tenancy, elastic as well as metered.

Google Cloud Platform is an important example of cloud based storage, which runs on similar infrastructure that is utilized by Google. It gives several modular cloud computing services like data storage, machine learning, data analytics, cloud computing and many more (Google Cloud 2018). This particular cloud storage was developed by Google Inc. in the year 2011. It can also be termed as a specific type of web development. The several types of products of this Google Cloud Platform are App Engine, BigQuery, Cloud AutoML, Bigtable, Cloud Datastore, Compute Engine and many others.

Any specific cloud based storage is utilized for various significant purposes. This type of storage provides easy accessibility and utilizations of data without involving any type of complexities. Cloud based storage has various clients and customers (Ren et al. 2015). Yes I do use cloud based storage. I am a user of Google Drive. It is a product of Google Cloud Platform. This particular product of Google Cloud was launched in the year 2012 and it helps the users to store and share various files within the devices. This particular product offers several applications for the operating systems of Windows or MacOS. I have got various advantages from this Google Drive by encompassing the Google Docs, slides, and sheets. It has allowed me to collaboratively edit all the spreadsheets, documents, presentations, drawings and many more other things (Google Cloud 2018). I have created as well as edited by the office suite and have saved in the Google Drive. The most interesting fact of this Google Drive is that it offers around 15 gigabytes of overall free storage and around 30 terabytes of the optional paid plans. It is extremely safe and secured and there is almost zero chance of data hacking.

Utilization of Cloud Based Storage

Cloud based storages are utilized for the purpose of storing all types of data and for maintaining, managing and backing up them properly. There are several cloud based storages available in the market (Goyal 2014). They are utilized by various organizations of enterprises to reduce the overall complexity of their any type of data operation. Broadly, there are three types of cloud storages available. They are the private cloud storage, public cloud storage and the hybrid cloud storage.

The private cloud storage can be defined as the specific type of cloud that is solely designed and used for any one enterprise or company for fulfilling their requirements. The several kinds of cloud storage are present in two distinct formats. They are the on premise format and the externally hosted format (Yang and Jia 2014). The most significant advantage of this type of cloud storage is that the designing and the access to the information is strictly restricted to the users of that company. The most significant and popular example of private cloud storage is Google Drive storage.

The public cloud storage can be defined as the cloud service, which needs lower administrative controls and thus could be accessed through the Internet. This type of cloud storage allows the users of that particular organization and some users from outside (Stefanov and Shi 2013). This access is given to those users who are required within the business. The examples of public cloud storage are the Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services or AWS.

The third type is the hybrid cloud storage. It is the amalgamation of public and private clouds. The features of this can be customized according to the users’ requirements and thus could be easily termed as the most flexible cloud storage amongst the three (Goyal 2014). The data could be stored efficiently and effectively by saving both time and money. The example of this hybrid cloud is the combination of Google Doc and Google Drive.

I do have experience with cloud based storage companies. I have utilized Google Drive in my personal life. Google Drive is responsible for storing and sharing any type of file or data. My experience with this particular cloud storage company has always been extremely positive (Fernando, Loke and Rahayu 2013). This has helped me to share and store my confidential files and data securely and safely. My data have never been lost or hacked by this cloud storage. I have also utilized iCloud for storing and sharing data from my iPhone. It is again one of the most secured cloud storages amongst all others.

Different Types of Cloud Based Storage

Google Cloud Platform has various significant advantages. One of such important advantages is that it helps to build and maintain the IT infrastructure. It solely refers to the fact that this particular cloud storage helps to composite the software, hardware, various network resources and services of the IT infrastructure (Li et al. 2013). These resources are extremely important for the management, existence and operation of the IT environment. The cloud storage enables the organization for delivering various IT services and solutions to its staffs or customers and is deployed within the facilities.

The cloud based storage of Google Cloud Platform had several significant advantages and disadvantages. The most significant advantages of this particular cloud based storage are as follows:

1. Usability: The first and the foremost advantage of Google Cloud Platform is its usability (Stefanov and Shi 2013). This cloud storage enables all of its users to drag as well as drop the files within their local storage and the cloud storage.
2. Bandwidth: The second important advantage of Google Cloud Platform is its broad bandwidth. Due to this broad bandwidth, the users can easily check their files and data through only one click.
3. Accessibility: The third significant advantage of this Google Cloud Platform is that the data or the files could be accessed from anywhere through the connectivity of Internet (Terry et al. 2013).
4. Disaster Recovery: This is again one of the most important benefits of Google Cloud Platform. The data once lost can be easily recovered without any type of complexities and thus can be termed as the best answer to the disaster recovery.
5. Cost Effectiveness: The fifth important advantage of Google Cloud Platform is that it is extremely cost effective in nature and thus can be easily afforded by all small and medium sized enterprises.

In spite of having such vast advantages, Google Cloud Platform does have some of the most dangerous disadvantages within it (Stanek et al. 2014). The most significant disadvantages of this particular cloud storage are as follows:

1.  Data Security: The most dangerous disadvantage of this Google Cloud Platform is the security of their data. Often data is lost due to this lack of security. This creates a major problem for the users and even Google Cloud Platform cannot revive them. Although this cloud storage has a disaster recovery within it, when the data is lost, it becomes very difficult to revive the data.
2. Weak Architecture: The second significant disadvantage of the Google Cloud Platform is its weak architecture (Stefanov and Shi 2013). The architecture is not strong enough to take the pressure of bulk amount of data and thus if major amount of data is used through it, often it faces various problems.

Conclusion

Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that cloud based storage is a specific model of cloud computing where data is being stored on the remote servers and being accessed through the Internet. It is solely controlled, operated as well as maintained by the service provider of cloud storage on various storage servers, made on techniques of virtualization. It is extremely safe and secured and helps the data to be kept securely on cloud. There are various types of cloud based storages available in the market. Google Cloud Platform is one of those important and popular cloud based storages. The above report has highlighted the clear definition and uses of cloud based storages. Furthermore, it has discussed about the several advantages and disadvantages of this particular cloud storage. The experiences with cloud storage companies and the utilization of Google Cloud Platform in IT infrastructure are also provided here. 

References

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