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While few can deny the prevalence of the public cloud in the IT landscape, some businesses remain hesitant to abandon their on-premises systems, private or hybrid cloud solutions, and go “all in” on the public cloud. If you’re in that camp, you need to understand what you’re missing and why the time has come to embrace the cloud.
The public cloud hosting market provides a variety of deployment models that address the needs of businesses of all sizes and industries. In this article, we will examine the advantages of public cloud.
What is Public Cloud?
The public cloud is a computing model in which IT infrastructure including servers, storage, networking, and software, is owned and operated by a third-party cloud service provider (CSP) and delivered to users over the internet on a pay-as-you-go basis.
Unlike on-premises infrastructure, public cloud resources are shared across multiple organisations (known as multi-tenancy), which allows providers to offer them at significantly lower cost. Leading public cloud platforms include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
In a public cloud environment, the provider is responsible for the full infrastructure stack hardware procurement, data centre management, power, cooling, network connectivity, and physical security. Users simply provision and consume resources through a self-service portal or an API, without needing to manage underlying hardware.
Public cloud services are typically delivered across three primary models:
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Virtual machines, storage, and networking (e.g., AWS EC2, Azure Virtual Machines)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS): Development and deployment environments without managing infrastructure (e.g., Google App Engine, Azure App Service)
- Software as a Service (SaaS): Ready-to-use applications accessed via browser (e.g., Google Workspace, Salesforce, Microsoft 365)
For software testing teams, the public cloud eliminates the need to maintain a dedicated device lab or test environment infrastructure, enabling on-demand access to browsers, operating systems, and real mobile devices at scale.
Public Cloud vs Private Cloud
Choosing between a public cloud and a private cloud is a strategic decision that depends on your organisation’s priorities around cost, control, compliance, and scalability.
| Factor | Public Cloud | Private Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Infrastructure ownership | Owned by CSP (AWS, Azure, GCP) | Owned or leased by the organisation |
| Cost model | OpEx — pay-per-use, no upfront investment | CapEx — high upfront hardware and setup costs |
| Scalability | Near-instant, virtually unlimited | Limited by physical hardware capacity |
| Security control | Managed by CSP with enterprise-grade tools | Full control, but requires in-house security expertise |
| Compliance | CSPs offer compliance certifications (SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA) | Easier to meet highly specific regulatory requirements |
| Maintenance | Fully handled by the provider | Managed by internal IT teams |
| Time to deploy | Minutes via self-service provisioning | Weeks to months for hardware procurement |
| Best for | Startups, scaling teams, variable workloads | Enterprises with strict data sovereignty needs |
Key takeaway: Public cloud is the right choice for most businesses prioritising speed, cost-efficiency, and scalability. Private cloud remains relevant for organisations with stringent data sovereignty, regulatory compliance, or latency-sensitive workloads that require dedicated infrastructure.
For QA and software testing use cases specifically, public cloud outperforms private cloud in nearly every dimension, offering access to a broader range of real devices, browser versions, OS configurations, and geographic test environments without the overhead of maintaining your own lab.
Benefits of Public Cloud
1. Increased Security in Public Cloud
Forward-thinking businesses worldwide recognise the added security benefits of moving to the cloud. However, there is the misconception that if you don’t control and house your data, it’s less secure.
This couldn’t be further from the truth, as evidenced by the fact that on-premises solutions account for the vast majority of data leaks. There are a variety of reasons why the public cloud is beneficial, including:
- Expertise in cyber security: Big cloud attracts the world’s most talented engineers and has the resources to fund large security teams and the most advanced security tools. You gain access to highly skilled teams of IT professionals who are solely tasked with protecting your data in the cloud.
- Security advancements: Cloud-native security services are the most advanced. Security innovation is taking place in the cloud and is being tailored to cloud-based solutions.
- Regular penetration testing: In Public clouds, regular penetration testing is held to higher standards than on-premises solutions and private clouds. Some private clouds are never subjected to acceptable levels of penetration testing.
- Access is restricted: The majority of data breaches are the result of human error. Cloud sceptics believe that keeping their data in-house gives them more control, but the opposite is true. For example, data stored in the public cloud has a minuscule chance of falling into the hands of the wrong people as a result of an employee error. Your risk increases as human control over your information decreases.
2. Global Availability and Low Latency
One of the main benefits of the public cloud is, a fast and inexpensive way to store data in any country on the planet.
For example, if a company wants to reduce latency for its services, it has to choose a provider that stores its cloud in its preferred country.
This can also be used to keep data in a specific jurisdiction. SIM-Cloud, for example, is housed in a data centre in Germany, where the law protects against illegal seizures.
Owning a data centre of your own outside of your home country is a challenging and expensive endeavour. The business will also need to determine the specifics of the nation’s legislative structure in addition to the logistical issues.
For example, your company won’t have to deal with this problem any longer if you use a cloud solution because the provider has already taken care of everything.
3. On-Demand Scalability
The public cloud can be scaled without investing in new hardware and manually installing it in an on-premises data centre. The virtual machines can have additional CPU cores, RAM, or storage whenever you need them. The hardware foundation of the cloud is kept in the provider’s data centre, and the resources are also made available via remote access.
Small businesses that are unable to expand their IT capabilities by purchasing expensive hardware will find this benefit of public clouds to be especially helpful.
The public cloud can be instantly scaled to fit the task at hand and expanded as the business grows. Compared to a dedicated server, this is much faster and more affordable. You will need to purchase new components and swap out the old ones if you need to scale a physical server.
4. Managed Maintenance and Infrastructure
You no longer need to purchase hardware or software when you rent a cloud; this is now the responsibility of your public cloud provider. The provider is also in charge of all elements required for the infrastructure to operate, including power, redundant components, security, cooling systems, etc. So with the Public cloud, your company saves time and money by doing it this way.
This benefit of using a public cloud also applies to renting dedicated servers. However, there will be more maintenance expenses if the business deploys its infrastructure on-site. Rent a public cloud if you want to free your company from these costs while still enjoying all the advantages of the public cloud.
5. Cost Savings with Pay-Per-Use Billing
What are the financial savings possible with the public cloud?
Naturally, it depends.
Some businesses actually save millions of dollars, but if your account needs to be managed better, you might not even see cost savings.
But you can get an idea of how much you can save if you look at why the public cloud saves you money and then look at your own IT environment. You save money by using the public cloud because you have the following:
- No investments in capital: Equipment and storage space don’t need to be purchased. Setting up a public cloud subscription is inexpensive, and you only pay for the resources you use after that. Your infrastructure spending will change from a capital expense (CapEx) to an operating expense thanks to a public cloud.
- There are no upkeep or update expenses: Maintenance is handled by your service provider and is a fixed expense covered by your subscription. In addition, your service provider manages all software updates and includes them in your hosting package, so you or your staff are not required to carry out upgrades.
- Pay-per-use billing: You only pay for what you use, which prevents the idling of resources and unnecessary spending. Additionally, you have the freedom to quickly scale up or down, using more computing power when necessary and less when not.
- Less expensive energy: By not having internal servers, you save money on the energy they use to run.
6. High Availability and Fault Tolerance
Architecturally, the cloud is a fault-tolerant solution. The virtual machine will use the processing power of another server if a component malfunctions.
The systems will continue to run, and cloud services will continue functioning as usual. Reliable service providers also make use of redundant cloud components. This significantly reduces the possibility of catastrophic failures.
Zones of availability may be used to increase fault tolerance. An availability zone is a separate area of the cloud that makes use of the following:
- Network Connections
- Independent Computing Instances
A business can double the stability of its services by spreading out the deployment of its systems across two availability zones.
7. Flexible Short-Term Investment Model
Predicting long-term computing power requirements is frequently challenging when a business is still in its infancy. Avoiding solutions that require significant financial outlays, such as on-premises deployment or long-term leasing of another infrastructural solution, is advised in such circumstances.
This problem is resolved by the public cloud’s pricing structure, which allows clients to only pay for resources that are actually being used. By doing this, the client’s business can utilise a scalable and effective computing platform without entering into long-term contracts or investments.
8. Built-In Server Redundancy
Private clouds are frequently single-tenant, so your entire company is impacted if the server crashes. Additionally, you are responsible for putting redundancy measures like backup servers and cloud disaster recovery plans in place with on-premise infrastructure.
However, because public clouds support multiple tenants, your resources are dispersed among several servers. Therefore, your applications can automatically switch to another cloud server if one goes down. Your applications and data are always accessible, thanks to it. By doing this, you can lessen downtime and maintain the efficiency of your company.
Read also: Public vs Private vs Hybrid Cloud: Which One Should You Use?
Real Device and Browser Testing on Public Cloud with TestGrid
You can perform the following tasks using TestGrid Public Cloud:
- Cross-Browser Testing: To provide the best UI/UX to their customers, users can conduct cross-browser testing on actual cloud devices using a variety of desktop and mobile browsers or OS combinations.
- Mobile Device Testing: Develop a cutting-edge mobile app for your users to increase sales and test your mobile applications on tens of thousands of devices connected to carrier networks.
- Scriptless Test Automation: Easily create and run automated tests without coding. TestGrid’s scriptless platform speeds up testing, making it accessible for everyone on your team.
- AI-Based Testing: Enhance your testing with AI to quickly identify issues and optimise test cases, ensuring your applications are more reliable and efficient.
Simulators should only be used for quick debugging, and testing on actual devices is advised by both Apple and Google. Because of this, programmers need to make sure that their applications are tested on actual iOS and Android devices.
This task is challenging in a fragmented market because of constant device upgrades, endless iOS and Android versions, and form factors. It is, therefore, impossible to gather the required tools. Instead, use the device lab on TestGrid instead.
Our lab is constantly growing, with hundreds of iOS and Android devices in all the most popular form factors.
Conclusion
Overall, public clouds have several advantages over private clouds and on-premise infrastructures. First, they are usually less expensive, easier to maintain, and more secure.
Furthermore, public clouds offer scalability and redundancy, which are difficult to achieve with on-premise infrastructures. So, if you’re considering moving to the cloud, a public cloud might be the best option for your company.
