PlanIt Police Blog

The days of your hard-drive breaking down are over. Cloud computing has taken over police departments as the leading way to store data securely. It is a relatively new concept but can be broken down into 3 categories; IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. IaaS stands for Infrastructure as a service, PaaS stands for Platform as a Service, and SaaS stands for Software as a Service.

Infrastructure as a service should be used when you are just a startup or a very small company.  It is relatively easy to use and cheap. Platform as a Service should be used when there are more than one developer working on one project.  It is the fastest and most customizable of the 3 options. Lastly, Software as a Service should be used if you need to get an e-commerce site launched quickly or for short-term projects.

Here are 4 reliable cloud computing services:

1. Amazon Web Service
   Amazon is one of the safest platforms in the industry today. The service was founded in 2006 as an additional income for Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon. Today, it rakes in $10 billion for the company and has over 30% of the market. They offer different services such as database storage, computing power, networking, and hosting static websites.
   
   Learn more at: https://aws.amazon.com/
   
2. Microsoft Azure
   Microsoft Azure is the number 2 service on the list for a number of reasons. The service was created in 2010 as Windows Azure. In 2014, it was renamed to Microsoft Azure to keep branding consistent.  Now the tech giant, Microsoft, allows you to design, deploy, and manage applications and you can start out with a 30 day free trial.  
   
   Learn more at: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/?v=18.27
   
3. Google Cloud Platform
   When you think of the term “search engine” what company do you think of? Most likely, Google. They have their own cloud computing platform that was founded in 2008, but was not open to the general public until 2011. They have an integrated storage to store live data. There is a free trial, but beyond that, they have deployed a pay-as-you-go model to be flexible for the consumer. 
   
   Learn more at: https://cloud.google.com/
   
4. IBM Cloud
   IBM has been around for many years. They are trying to stay competitive with all the above services. They created the IBM Cloud in 2007 in partnership with Google. They have been keeping it up-to-date ever since. Today, you can use IBM Cloud to create new services or applications, and incorporate cloud communications into your department.
   
   Learn more at: https://www.ibm.com/cloud/

As technology improves and cloud computing become even more popular, it is important to stay up-to-date with it.  Hackers are smarter so you have to fight back. Services like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Salesforce and IBM have the people who are working hard to keep your data safe.

Read more:

• 4 Futuristic Technologies That Are Becoming Popular in Law Enforcement
• 5 Safety Tips to Avoid The Most Common Internet Scams and Viruses
• Nixle & Nextdoor - Changing Public Safety Involvement in the Community