Cloud Computing: what it is, how it works, and practical examples in the cloud

Cloud computing isthe delivery of technology services—including storage, servers, databases, networks, and software—over the internet, eliminating the need to maintain a local physical infrastructure. In practice, companies contract computing capacity on demand from global providers, transforming fixed hardware costs into flexible operating expenses.

How does cloud computing work in the day-to-day operations of companies?

To understand how the cloud works, imagine the supply of electricity: you don't need to build a power plant at your company to turn on the lights; you simply connect to the public grid and pay for what you consume.

In technology, it's exactly the same. Instead of buying expensive physical servers, installing cooling systems, and maintaining a team focused solely on repairing defective parts, your company accesses the processing power hosted in large data centersspreadaround the world.

The connection between your company and these resources is simple and secure via the internet, often requiring only a standard web browser and a stable connection. Data and applications are no longer running on local machines but instead on these high-performance shared or dedicated servers.

The main cloud service models

Cloud computing is divided into three main layers, depending on the level of control your company needs:

• IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service): This involves renting the raw technology infrastructure, such as virtual servers, storage space, and networks. Your IT department has complete control over the operating system and installed software.
• PaaS (Platform as a Service): the provider delivers a ready-to-use environment for application development and hosting. The IT team focuses only on the code and business rules, without worrying about maintaining the underlying operating system.
• SaaS (Software as a Service): This refers to the use of complete applications directly over the internet. Corporate email systems, CRMs, and ERPs accessed via a web browser are classic examples of SaaS.

Taking my company to the cloud will cause me to lose control and blow my budget

The biggest fear many IT directors and managers have when migrating to the cloud is the unpredictability of costs and the feeling that data is "loose" on the internet.

The reality is quite the opposite. When you maintain physical servers internally, the risk of loss of control is much greater: a power grid fluctuation, a hardware failure, or a local ransomware attack can paralyze operations for days. In the public or hybrid cloud, security is designed with Zero Trust, advanced encryption, and automated backups replicated globally.

Regarding costs, waste occurs in the traditional model, where companies buy oversized servers to handle occasional access peaks and keep this capacity idle for the rest of the year. With the Auto-Scaling , the infrastructure automatically adjusts minute by minute based on actual usage: it grows during peak times and shrinks during idle periods, ensuring you only pay for what you actually use.

Practical scenario: the transformation of a retail chain

The before (Local infrastructure)

A supermarket chain ran its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system on a physical server installed at its headquarters. During monthly accounting closing or on dates like Black Friday, the system experienced extreme slowness, generating queues at the checkouts and delays in the tax department. The calculation and generation of complex tax obligations took about 8 hours to complete, crashing the team's computers.

The aftermath (Migrating to the cloud with Skyone)

By migrating the monolithic application and database to the cloud using orchestration solutions like Skyone Autosky, the operation changed completely. Without needing to alter a single line of code in the original system, the ERP became accessible via a web browser from any unit.

On peak sales days, the platform's intelligent auto-scaling algorithms proactively activate new cloud server instances to absorb the load. Tax processing time has dropped dramatically from 8 to just 2 hours, allowing the IT team to stop putting out hardware fires and focus on innovation and data intelligence.

What is the difference between public, private, and hybrid clouds?

The public cloud utilizes shared infrastructure managed by large global providers (such as AWS, Oracle, Azure, and Google Cloud), offering unlimited scalability and reduced costs. The private cloud is a single company's exclusive environment, maintained locally or in a third-party data center. The hybrid cloud combines the best of both worlds, allowing critical, highly secure systems to reside in the private cloud while scalable workloads run in the public cloud.

If my internet goes down, will the company stop functioning completely?

The cloud requires stable connectivity, but modern architecture minimizes risks. Currently, cloud platforms are optimized to run efficiently even on limited connections (requiring low bandwidths such as 100Kbps per user). Furthermore, since data is not tied to the physical office, if the company's main internet connection goes down, employees can continue working from anywhere using mobile networks (4G/5G) or in a home office setting with complete security.

What happens if a cloud server physically fails?

Cloud providers operate with complete redundancy. If a physical component or an entire server fails in a cloud data center, another identical server instantly takes over the workload, without the end user noticing the interruption. Data is continuously replicated and features automatic snapshots and backups for rapid recovery in case of disasters.

Comparative infrastructure table

Metrics of technological and operational impact

• Reduced processing time: up to 75% in the execution time of heavy tax and accounting routines after migrating to optimized cloud architectures.
• Data availability: guaranteed backup durability of up to 99.999999999% (11 nines) using replicated storage on cloud hyperscalers.
• Disaster Response Time (RTO): complete recovery of corporate environments and databases within a maximum of 4 hours in severe incident scenarios.

Real-life success stories

Dalben Supermarkets Network

The traditional supermarket chain eliminated bottlenecks in its commercial, accounting, and tax processes by migrating its legacy systems to the corporate cloud. The centralization and access to real-time data ensured the scalability necessary for the expansion of physical and digital stores, supported by strong cybersecurity governance.

Asun Supermarkets

With a strong presence in the retail and wholesale sectors, the company drastically reduced the time to generate complex ICMS tax forms from 8 hours to just 2 hours after moving its workloads to an optimized public cloud. This move freed up the internal technical team to focus on strategic business areas, while secure user authentication was centralized via Single Sign-On (SSO).

Technical Glossary

• Hyperscalers: large global cloud computing providers that offer massive data center infrastructure at a global scale (e.g., AWS, Oracle Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud).
• Auto-Scaling: a technology that monitors resource usage (such as CPU and memory) and automatically adjusts the number of active servers without the need for human intervention.
• Zero Trust: a digital security model based on the principle of "never trust, always verify," requiring that every access request be rigorously authenticated and encrypted.
• RTO (Recovery Time Objective): the maximum acceptable time to recover a system and resume normal operation after a failure or disaster occurs.
• iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service): a cloud-based solution that connects disparate systems, software, databases, and clouds in an automated way, centralizing the flow of corporate information.

FAQ

What does it mean to say that an application is monolithic, and how does the cloud help?

A monolithic application is software built as a single, indivisible block of code, where the database, user interface, and business logic run together. Modern platforms like Skyone Autosky can encapsulate and migrate these traditional systems to the public cloud without the need to rewrite code, giving them the security and web access benefits of modern computing.

Does database licensing change when migrating to the cloud?

Yes. In the traditional managed cloud computing model, licensing for robust databases (such as Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, or PostgreSQL) can be included directly in the monthly service cost. This brings budget predictability to the company and eliminates the risk of fines in software compliance audits.

How does transferring files from local files to the cloud environment work?

File transfer can occur in two ways: via direct access through a web browser (Web Access) using secure command bars, or by using a local plugin installed on the user's machine. Using the plugin allows for advanced functionalities, such as mapping local drives to the cloud to copy and paste folders in a way that is identical to the experience of a local file server.

How do printing rules work when systems are hosted in the cloud?

The print quality is fully preserved. Through Universal Printer, the application running in the cloud recognizes local and network physical printers installed on the employee's computer, allowing them to generate PDFs or issue invoices and reports directly on the company's physical equipment.

What are ephemeral IPs and how do they protect the cloud environment?

Ephemeral IPs are temporary network addresses assigned to virtual servers. Because cloud automation engines create and destroy instances throughout the day to balance the load, the IPs constantly change. This drastically hinders hacking and targeted attacks on your company's data infrastructure.

How to integrate cloud servers with Artificial Intelligence tools?

Cloud computing organizes historical corporate databases into integrated environments. From this centralized infrastructure, data can be natively connected to modern integration flows, feeding Business Intelligence tools, Machine Learning models , and generative artificial intelligence solutions.

Written by Skyone