Howdy, cloud beginners. This article is for you if…

• You're sure clouds are made of water, not data.
• You've heard positive things about the cloud, but you're not sure exactly what those things mean.
• You own or work for a business that wants to dip its toes into the cloud.

Fear not. We're going to tell you all about the cloud, its benefits and a few of its flavours.

No jargon. That's a promise.

So what is this cloud thing anyway?

Computers are important, right? They make the business world go round.

You're probably sitting at a computer right now. Or you're reading this article on a tiny, portable computer called a smartphone.

That computer is a self-contained technological sandwich. It contains all it needs to be a computer and do the things a personal computer needs to do. We're talking…

• A CPU: the brain. The computing powerhouse. A CPU performs millions of calculations every second so you can enjoy a fast, seamless computing experience.
• Memory: where the computer stores things while it's thinking about them.
• Storage: the hard drive or SSD. Long-term memory that keeps your documents and software safe.
• Software: the applications that help you get work done (or avoid it).
• Networking: hardware that lets your computer talk to the internet or to other computers.

This is enough for small-time computing. Your computer doesn't need to outsource any of these functions if you're browsing the web or writing a Word document for personal use.

But what if you want to branch out? What if you'd like to share documents with colleagues or create a network of computers for, say, 100 people in separate branches?

Your personal computer isn't cut out for these kinds of tasks. You'll need help from a special computer called a server, which can take the load off your PC and dedicate itself to a handful of demanding functions.

Traditionally, businesses would use an on-site data centre to do these sorts of things. This is a roomful of powerful servers that connects everyone's personal computers. Using a data centre lets you create complex computer networks and share storage and software among hundreds or thousands of colleagues.

Crucially, though, these servers are located on-site (or "on-premise"). Your business owns the hardware and the software that runs on it. You're responsible for all the upkeep, upgrades and mammoth energy bills.

This is where cloud computing comes in. Cloud computing means outsourcing any of those functions – CPU, memory, storage, software or networking – to off-site data centres. These are huge buildings with hundreds or thousands of servers inside.

In cloud computing, you typically rent storage or computing power or software from a cloud provider. You're not responsible for upgrading or maintaining the hardware yourself. (Unless you run a private cloud, but that's a subject for another article.)

When people say "the cloud", they're referring to one of two things. They either mean the off-site data centre that stores their stuff or the concept of cloud computing itself.

What are the benefits of the cloud?

Now that we're clear on the cloud, let's examine a few of its benefits. If you've followed along, you can probably guess a few of these already.

1. Cost

On-site data centres are expensive to maintain. They guzzle energy like anti-Lucozade – and they need regular hardware upgrades to keep pace with demand.

And they go wrong. Often. So if you want to keep your business running, you need a crack team of IT engineers who can fix problems as they arise.

Not so with the cloud. When you sign up with a cloud provider, you pay a monthly subscription to use its storage, networking or computing facilities. The provider deals with all the faff and all the costs that come with it.

Does this actually work out cheaper? It depends on your industry, your expansion plans and what on-site hardware you choose to keep.

Even if it works out more expensive at first, though, you might decide that the wider benefits of the cloud outweigh the short-term costs.

2. Convenience

Here's a biggie.

Using the cloud means saving time as well as money. And time is money, as a million managers say every day.

So when you weigh up the cost of the cloud, ask yourself this: "what will I gain from freeing up time for my IT team? What if they could focus on everyday troubleshooting and business development, rather than gnashing their teeth in a server room?"

The answer might be "more than you think".

3. Scalability

Is business booming? Do you want to expand your computing potential to accommodate new staff or customers or business ventures?

If your data centre is on-site, you're limited by several factors: budget; staff; the actual, physical size of the hardware and the room it's in. (Curse you, Euclidean geometry.)

Cloud providers, on the other hand, have plenty of room. They might have millions of square metres of space, filled to the brim with server hardware that's ready to start churning your data.

Need more storage or computing power or whatever? Cloud providers can instantly scale up to suit your computing requirements. That's why the big providers like AWS and Microsoft Azure are called "hyperscalers".

Of course, you might need to scale down too. In an on-premise environment, this would mean maintaining or deprecating hardware that's no longer useful.

But many cloud providers work on a pay-as-you-go model, where you only pay for the resources you use. This makes scaling down relatively simple and risk-free.

4. Security

It's easy to assume that on-premise data centres are more secure than the cloud. But this often isn't the case.

Explaining why would require at least another blog post. Perhaps a book. But to keep things simple, we'll focus on one factor: homogeneity.

"Homogeneity" sounds like jargon, but it's quite simple really. It just means "everything is the same".

When you implement security on-site, you'll probably use several technologies from several manufacturers that speak several languages. These technologies can be difficult to integrate, which can lead to security vulnerabilities. Not good.

But when you use a cloud provider, you can expect their security to be homogenous. The same. It all speaks the same language and works towards the same goal: keeping your data safe. Very good.

This is a huge simplification of a complicated topic. And the real-world security benefits of the cloud will depend on exactly how and why you're using it.

At the very least, the cloud should be just as secure as an on-site data centre. And that's cause for celebration, in our book.

At Ascend Cloud Solutions, we provide cloud consultancy and migration services to businesses of all shapes and sizes. Total beginner? Don't worry – our experts are here to make the migration process as smooth and simple as possible. Get in touch to get started.