Public cloud is considered a
cost-effective solution because you
don’t need to buy or install physical servers. Public cloud also frees you from operation and maintenance (O&M) of servers, reducing the total cost of ownership (TCO). This allows you to develop your website or applications without worrying about O&M or purchasing additional hardware as you would with a
private cloud solution. Public cloud also works on a “pay-as-you-go” model, which allows you to pay for only the resources that you need.
Everyone can benefit from using a public cloud solution in their IT infrastructure, but the benefits may vary based on the scale of your business. Public cloud helps small and medium sized businesses to speed up the software development process as they no longer need to worry about the management and maintenance of data centers. For larger enterprises, cloud computing helps businesses to scale up easily by providing virtually unlimited compute power and storage space. In short, public cloud is ideal for businesses that have fluctuating demands or applications dedicated to the public, like Dropbox, Netflix and Evernote.
Although public cloud is accessible to the public over the Internet, your data will be
isolated from that of other users through
virtualization. Public cloud providers may also provide different levels of isolation, including physical isolation, for additional security. Public cloud providers also proactively ensure that their servers are free from vulnerabilities and are updated with the latest software patches. However, customers are still ultimately responsible for how data is used in the cloud, including access, authentication, encryption, and application configuration.