Cloud Computing and IoT: What’s the Difference?
Both IoT and cloud computing can improve your business by providing you with more sophisticated analytics and actionable insights. Although they work together to help you get the best out of your business, it’s helpful to know specifically how they’re related and how they differ.
Defining Cloud Computing and IoT
Cloud computing and IoT play important parts in an increasingly necessary interdependent relationship which facilitates the ongoing digital transformation of businesses across all sectors. Retrieving, connecting, sharing, and storing data is essential for today’s precedent of system communications.
Whereas the Internet of Things (IoT) refers to internet-connected devices, sensors, and other objects, cloud computing describes the processing, analysis, and storage of data via the centralized system of online servers we know as the cloud. Since the cloud does not require on-site infrastructure for the storage of data, it poses an economic and scalable solution for businesses.
The Relationship Between Cloud Computing and IoT
So how do the cloud, cloud computing, and IoT work together? IoT is used to source data from connected devices and sensors, but it’s cloud computing that makes the immediate storing of this data possible. Without cloud computing, the data retrieved from IoT sensors would have nowhere to go – unless an on-site infrastructure was available. However, cloud computing offers a more cost-effective method of storing and analyzing the vast quantities of data which IoT continuously supplies in real-time.
The scalability of cloud computing makes this cost-effective strategy even more appealing to businesses. Since cloud computing allows you to increase server capacity as you increase your IoT-connected hardware and applications, you can cut down on costs associated with creating a physical infrastructure to store incoming data.
We can further examine the differences between IoT and cloud computing by examining several their uses and characteristics.
Unique Objectives
When considering the objective of IoT and cloud computing we can note a few key differences. The objective of IoT involves building a network of devices that can interact with each other to link hardware, software, and users. The outcome of this linking is the optimization of our personal and professional lives. The organization of real-time information can provide crucial data to help us work more efficiently and live with ease.
The goal of cloud computing, however, is to allow us to make this IoT-generated data usable within our businesses or homes. Cloud computing facilitates virtual access to a huge amount of data under a unified system which is necessary to allow IoT applications to function.
Diverse Applications
Looking at the different applications of IoT and cloud computing points to even more differences. Applications of IoT technology are found in all types of hardware we use every day such as sensor technology, smartphones, monitoring systems, lighting systems, smart home devices, and more. All of these sophisticated systems require IoT capabilities to function.
Cloud computing’s applications are found more on the software side of things and are most typically recognized in video streaming, online conferencing, data processing, email, online data-keeping, and antivirus apps.
Although the line between IoT and cloud computing may sometimes seem blurry, we can see now that the difference is pretty simple. Despite their differences, IoT-enabled processes and cloud computing need to work together to ensure that the benefits of IoT are available in professional and personal settings around the world. To learn more about how IoT and cloud computing can benefit you or your business, contact us at Evolution Data.
