Common Applications of Cloud Computing in the Tech World

Through the application of cloud computing, business owners have been able to reap a number of benefits, including reduced costs, optimal resource utilization, and greater flexibility, among a host of other advantages. To this point, the advent of cloud computing provided consumers and businesses alike with the opportunity to access a wide range of technology solutions in a manner that had been previously thought to be unfeasible, as people were no longer limited to the space, memory, and computational power of physical hardware. With all this being said, four common applications of cloud computing that are currently being utilized at the intersection of business and technology include the online payment platform PayPal, the communication application Slack, Google-G Suite, and the accounting software Quickbooks, as these four products are being leveraged in a multitude of ways to facilitate business operations.

Paypal

For many consumers in the marketplace, the online payment platform PayPal may be the business application of cloud computing that they are the most familiar with. Despite the rise of online and mobile payment applications in the past decade, including Cash App, Venmo, and Zelle, just to name a few, Paypal is widely credited with being one of the first companies to specialize in online payment systems. Created by big names such as Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Ken Howery in 1998, PayPal revolutionized the online payment experience through the use of cloud computing, as the brand has become synonymous with digital payment transactions, particularly as it relates to online marketplace eBay, another company that revolutionized the ways in which consumers shop for goods and services via the internet.

Slack

On the other hand, a second common application of cloud computing amidst our current digital landscape is the online messaging program Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge (Slack). Initially created in 2013, Slack has gained increasing popularity in recent years, as the platform enables users to easily message one another in a simple and straightforward manner. To this end, many business owners and employees that began working remotely during the COVID-19 lockdowns relied on Slack to communicate with their fellow team members, as the application uses cloud computing to enable users to send each other messages, including video and audio data, PDS, and images, among a host of other file types, to a person located within any region in the world.

Google-G Suite

In addition to the online payment platform Paypal and the messaging app Slack, another common application of cloud computing that is present within the business and technological landscape of today is the productivity and collaboration application Google-G Suite. From Google Docs to Gmail, many consumers will likely have come across the various tools that are available when using Google-G Suite in one way or another during the past decade. Likewise, all of the features present within Google-G Suite function in accordance with cloud computing, as users can store hundreds of documents within their Google drives, and then send these documents to other people at the click of a button. Subsequently, this trove of information is held within an online cloud storage system, giving users the ability to access said documents at their own discretion.

Quickbooks

The fourth application of cloud computing software that many consumers will have engaged with on an international level is the accounting software program Intuit Quickbooks. While Quickbooks was originally created in 1983 as an on-premises accounting software solution, the software can also be used via numerous cloud-based versions as well. This being the case, business owners can use Quickbooks to accept payments, facilitate payroll functions, and manage and pay bills and other associated expenses, just as can be done when working with an actual accountant in the real world. In order to accomplish this, Quickbooks holds this litany of financial information in a cloud storage system that businesses can use to track their performance over the course of several years, allowing them to remain concise and organized at all times.

In conjunction with the innovative features and capabilities that cloud storage offers to consumers within our current business world, software developers and engineers have found ways to create applications that make the lives of business owners and employees easier, as cloud computing effectively works to connect people, ideas, and resources, even when said people are not present within the same physical location. As such, while Paypal, Slack, Google-G Suite, and Quickbooks are just some of the more prominent applications of cloud computing around the globe today, there are many others that are also taking advantage of this technology, in addition to those that have yet to be uncovered.