When it comes to cloud in the USA, companies in the country are now reconciled to idea of relying on the cloud for general business operation. Hence, over the years we have been witnessing aggressive adoption of cloud in the USA where bringing data in and out of the cloud is growing more than ever before.

Cloud computing is a fast emerging style of IT delivery in which applications, data and IT resources are provided as standardized offerings to end users as a service wherever and whenever they require it over the internet in a flexible pricing model.

Almost all IT vendors-global and local- in the USA have already made their presence felt in the market with their cloud offerings. Companies like Amazon, Google Microsoft and Apple are on the forefront when it comes to the development and sale of cloud hosting services in the USA. These companies are building data centers to store and process huge amounts of data.

Why Cloud Computing is popular in the USA

There are a number of reasons why cloud computing is popular with the businesses in the USA. Cloud in the USA has been successful for multiple reasons. One of the most significant reasons for the growing traction of the cloud computing in the USA is that it has the potential of significantly reducing IT costs and complexities. Flexibility, stability, reliability, rapid provisioning, scalability and green solutions are some of the benefits cloud computing offers.

Gamut of Cloud Services

There are generally three types of cloud services provided by cloud providers in the USA to the end users:

Software as a Service (SaaS): Instead of buying and installing software in your computer, SaaS allows provisioning of hardware, OS and special purpose software which will be made available to you over the internet. By opting for SaaS, you would be able to save a lot of money, as you don’t have to buy costly software that you only use once in a while.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): This is the provisioning of hardware or virtual computers where you will have control over the OS. In the USA, IaaS grew 45 percent from 2012 to 2013, and is expected to grow to $31 billion by 2015. Amazon Web Services, Windows Azure and VMware are the prominent IaaS providers in the USA.

Platform as a Service (PaaS): this is especially suitable for small businesses that can use the cloud instead of investing in a complete high end computer system. A $1 billion market in 2013, PaaS , according to some experts,  has the potential of overtaking IaaS in the coming years. Google App Engine, OpenStack and Heroku are the prominent players of PaaS in the USA. More than sixty percent of companies in the USA use Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) which in 2012 was a $13 billion market and is forecast to grow to over $30 billion by 2016. Among the SaaS providers prominent are Salesforce, Google Apps and Office 365.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the most important IaaS and PaaS cloud provider in the USA.

In addition to the above mentioned cloud services, cloud providers in the USA have come up with new types of services as part of their cloud offerings such as Storage-as-a-Service (saaS), Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS), Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) and Java Platform-as-a-Service.

How safe is the cloud computing in USA?

The growing popularity of cloud computing in USA where organizations are aggressively opting for cloud more so in uncertain economic landscape, have made it possible the next target of cybercriminals. Though Cloud computing offers substantial benefits and cost savings, it moves servers outside the organizations security perimeter making it easier for the cyber villains to attack these systems.

While cloud market is matured in the USA, security, in many cases, is the key deterrent for the industry to adopt cloud. It is well known that any data processed outside the company brings with it inherent level of risk. In this case the organizations should obtain as mush as information as they can about the cloud providers who will be managing the data. It may be possible that the organizations that are being offered the cloud computing services may not be aware about where the data is hosted and may not even know in which country the cloud providers in USA are hosting. If this is the case, the customer should ensure that the cloud provider is committed to obey privacy requirements on behalf of the USA organization to store and process the data.

It is incumbent on the USA cloud providers that they ensure that along with the cloud services they offer, they are compliant with regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX).

Ensuring security in a cloud environment is about striking a balance between trust and control. As the cloud services market is at its developed stage in the USA, the trust level between users and cloud providers is high.

Cloud providers in the USA that provide these services consistently focus on innovations that enable end users to confidently protect their data. They actively engaged with their clients to bring security control and management back to the users of cloud services. In fact, they are doing their honest best to keep your data safe and secure by investing in the latest security technology.

Advantages of Cloud computing

As in the rest of the world, cloud computing brings with it a lot of advantages which make it enticing to the businesses in the USA.

The data you save in the cloud can be accessed from virtually any location at any time. It brings hardware costs down. You don’t have to purchase a set of software or software licenses for each of your employee. You only have to pay a metered fee to a cloud computing company.

Another advantage of cloud computing is that organizations no longer needs to figure out which application is compatible with their OS. There is no need to keep your software up to date. If there is a program which an organization needs to use only once, it can save money by renting it from a cloud service provider.

If you the owner of a small business, cloud computing can be of immense help as you don’t have to impart training which results in the saving of time and money. One of the advantages the cloud computing model brings for SMEs is its low barrier to entry. Risks are few as SLAs cover the contracts with the cloud providers which can be cancelled at any time. Proponents of cloud computing in the USA are of the opinion that the cloud computing simplifies business processes for small businesses.

Since cloud computing is flexible, the organization has the option of scaling up and down quickly when needed. With traditional computing it is almost unthinkable.

Though cloud computing has its own share of disadvantages, the advantages far outweigh them.

Public or Private cloud

Cloud computing services can be private, public or hybrid. A public cloud provider supplies hosted services to anyone on the internet which are available to all interested customers. In the USA, Google, Salesforce, Amazon and Rackspace are among the major players in the public cloud space. A private cloud is like a proprietary network or a data center that sells the services to a defined set of users. While the hybrid cloud incorporates components of both public and private cloud models.

In a hybrid cloud model, organization can enjoy the cost benefit of a public cloud while having the security assurance of a private cloud.

In today’s economy, several businesses are faced with the challenge of reducing the cost of their infrastructure while continuing to deliver new, innovative services to their customers.   Cloud computing can be an important new option in helping businesses optimize the IT expense equation while maintaining fast, high quality service delivery.

In the USA cloud computing has fast emerged into a useful business tool for both large enterprises and small businesses alike. Gone are the days when costs and lack of service options prevented the small businesses from adopting cloud. Today cloud computing in the USA is more affordable than ever for small businesses.

In this demanding world, the rationale for adopting cloud computing over standard IT deployments is flexibility, scalability, stability, rapid provisioning and reliability. Cloud computing gives the users a lot of flexibility because they can access cloud workloads services without thinking about the location and time of its execution.

The goal of cloud computing providers in the USA is to provide easy, scalable access to the computing resources and it services. Cloud computing helps small businesses offer more cost-effective services to their clients, improving productivity and efficiency in the process.

As is the case in the other parts of the world, adoption of cloud computing is growing quickly in the USA because the technology offers greater mobility and the ability to perform tasks on mobile devices.