In a cloud, all of the computing power is concentrated in a few servers and data center. The cloud is a way for companies to keep this concentrated power and data center costs down and to get the same experience that the employees in the office have when they are working. This is what I call a hybrid cloud.
Cloud computing is an online service that combines the capacity and speed of a high-speed data center with the flexibility and accessibility of a local area network. Hybrid cloud is a combination of both of these models. It combines the benefits of low-cost on-demand service with the flexibility of a smaller, less expensive, on-demand service.
Cloud computing allows the same type of operations to be executed on the same data center but with less than the cost of a dedicated data center. This means the same type of services can be offered in a more flexible manner. Cloud computing is often referred to as “private cloud” or “public cloud.
If you’re thinking cloud is a buzzword, you’re right. When most people think of cloud, they think of Amazon or Google offering on-demand services. But it’s actually a very generic word. The vast majority of cloud services are actually hybrid cloud, which includes both on-demand and cloud services.
The concept of public cloud is very simple. It’s basically a place where companies like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Google allow you to access on-demand services for less than you would pay for a dedicated data center. However, with the increasing popularity of on-demand services at the moment, such as Netflix, it’s becoming more difficult for businesses to justify paying for a dedicated cloud service.
As a cloud service provider, we offer both on-demand and cloud services. On-demand services are like Netflix and Amazon Prime. They are cheaper than what a data center would cost if you wanted to use them every month. They are offered for as low as a single-digits per month, and can be accessed 24 hours a day for as low as one hour of usage.
The big question is, can you give Netflix a go? Maybe you can give them a go.
But that’s not the whole story. Netflix’s cost for a movie to be streamed is about $8.99 each. This cost is multiplied by the amount of data that Netflix is using. This is actually a fairly reasonable price for Netflix. For instance, let’s assume that you buy a two-hour movie and that you only stream this movie to your home. Let’s also assume that you can download and stream this movie for free.
So if you’re a Netflix subscriber, you can use the cloud to download a movie for free. If you’re not a subscriber, you can use the cloud to stream the movie.
I’m not saying that Netflix is a bad user of Netflix (though it is), but if you read our previous article, the Netflix recommendation system seems to be quite good. We talked about this in the previous chapter, and we’re pretty clear that there’s no “recommendation system.” We don’t use it because Netflix offers some high-quality movies while Amazon doesn’t. We use it because it has a pretty strong recommendation system.