32 Cloud Computing Examples That Keep the World at Our Fingertips

Cloud computing refers to when computing services and storage are accessed over the internet instead of through hardware like a USB drive or disk. And it has become essential for many companies that want agile ways to store and manage complex data without it being tied to a local device.

For example, Netflix migrated all of its databases to the cloud in 2016. As a result, the streaming giant can now produce more content, onboard more customers and easily handle sharp increases in usage spikes (typically when a new show is made available). The company can also add or reduce storage amounts in real time based on its current viewers.

Cloud computing examples have since multiplied in various industries, and the cloud has become the standard for storing, managing and securing data.

We’ve rounded up cloud computing examples that are finding faster ways to manage data and extract insights.

 

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Cloud Computing Examples

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) products distribute data online and are accessible from a browser on any device, which allows those companies to continue to host the software. The ease of use, lowered costs and upfront, subscription-based pricing make SaaS one of the most attractive sectors in all of business and tech. Below are four industry leaders in cloud SaaS products.

 

Salesforce is a cloud-based SaaS provider that helps businesses manage customer relationships and generate sales leads through its CRM platform. The Sales Cloud combines artificial intelligence and customer data to enable sales teams to identify potential leads and close deals faster. Beyond sales, Salesforce offers dedicated clouds for customer service and marketing, making it a comprehensive cloud computing solution for managing customer data and business processes at scale.

 

Zoom is a cloud-based software platform for audio and video conferencing that records meetings and saves them to the cloud so users can have access to them anytime, anywhere. Teams can also access the Zoom Developer Platform to create apps and integrations. Ally Financial, Dropbox and the University of Miami are a few of the customers that have benefitted from Zoom’s collaborative technology.

 

StreamNative processes large volumes of data in real time using technologies based on Apache Pulsar and Apache Kafka. Its Ursa platform separates data processing from data storage, saving information directly into cloud systems for easier sharing and faster analysis. Available as a fully managed online service or installed directly in a company’s private cloud, StreamNative allows businesses to build reliable, high-speed data pipelines without managing complex infrastructure.

 

Slack is a cloud-based collaboration platform that organizes team communications into searchable, topic-based channels. The system supports direct messaging, voice and video calls, as well as file sharing within a single interface to keep project discussions organized. By integrating directly with tools like Dropbox and Salesforce, it allows organizations to manage daily workflows and centralize business communication without relying on fragmented email chains.

 

VelocityEHS offers cloud-based solutions for ESG and EHS management. Its AI-powered platform helps organizations of all sizes — from small businesses to global enterprises — reduce risk, ensure compliance and manage environmental, social and governance priorities through cloud infrastructure, enabling faster data aggregation and streamlined reporting across distributed teams.

 

RunPod provides users with a cloud-scale service for deploying AI applications on third-party resources, offering on-demand computational hardware like CPUs and GPUs around the world. The company enables developers to train, deploy and run inference workloads across diverse AI use cases through serverless endpoints and per-second billing, supporting a wide range of computational workloads from model training to batch processing.

 

Rundoo combines point-of-sale, inventory management and business analytics for independent retail stores. Its platform uses automated data analysis to help store owners optimize pricing, generate reports and manage purchasing decisions. By streamlining these daily operations into a single tool, it helps local businesses reduce administrative overhead without relying on outdated software systems.

 

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) Cloud Computing Examples

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) provides a virtualized computing infrastructure managed entirely over the Internet. IaaS is typically used in a few different ways, including as a testing environment for app development, as a website host and even as a platform for big data analysis. IaaS is becoming a popular cloud option because of its business continuity and its efficiency in delivering apps.

 

IBM offers an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) environment that combines single-tenant bare metal servers with virtual instances across global data centers. Available through classic and virtual private cloud architectures, the system provides compute performance, multi-terabyte memory configurations and high-throughput networking without hypervisor overhead. By centralizing core infrastructure controls, it enables organizations to run performance-intensive workloads like AI and big data analytics while maintaining dedicated resource isolation and regulatory compliance.

 

DigitalOcean helps product teams deploy, manage and scale websites as well as new products. With the web hosting platform, users can create multiple virtual machines in seconds, and they can even scale based on data storage and incoming traffic. DigitalOcean serves developers and startups seeking rapid deployment and elastic resource management for production workloads.

 

Finix is a payment processing platform that helps software companies, independent vendors and marketplaces to embed payments infrastructure directly into their applications. The system streamlines payment acceptance, merchant onboarding, reporting, settlement and chargeback management through a developer-friendly API. With configurable features for gateway processing, tokenization and recurring billing, Finix allows businesses to scale payment operations without managing complex backend infrastructure.

 

VMware offers a multi-cloud infrastructure and management environment that centralizes how organizations run, secure and recover applications across private and public clouds. Anchored by VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) and VMware vSphere, the platform abstracts underlying hardware to deliver consistent compute, networking and storage operations regardless of the hosting provider. Through integrated tools like VMware Tanzu for containerized app development and VMware Live Recovery for automated disaster prevention, it allows enterprises to manage hybrid cloud deployments without fragmented administrative tools.

 

Zello has a cloud-based, push-to-talk platform that transforms smartphones and tablets into instant communication devices for frontline teams. Operating over cellular and Wi-Fi networks, Zello eliminates the need for on-premise hardware while delivering real-time voice messaging, flexible channels and enterprise-grade scalability. The platform serves diverse industries — from retail and transportation to emergency response — enabling team collaboration and remote access without traditional radio infrastructure.

 

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) Cloud Computing Examples

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) is a cloud computing model that provides users with hosted development kits, applications management capabilities and database tools — the virtual resources companies need to build, deploy and launch their software applications. By outsourcing hosting, database security and data storage, companies avoid long-term investments (saving them lots of money).

 

PagerDuty’s Operations Cloud platform helps businesses proactively respond to and resolve incidents through cloud and AI-driven capabilities. Companies can monitor incidents in real time, collect data and distribute tasks across expert teams for rapid resolution. The platform integrates machine learning to automate incident response and investigation, enabling teams to conduct post-incident analytics to improve future responses. With more than 750 integrations and years of operational data, PagerDuty supports enterprises in scaling their incident management and digital operations across cloud environments.

 

Acquia Cloud Platform is a cloud-based hosting and management environment designed to help enterprises build and run Drupal websites at scale. The platform simplifies development with automated deployments, built-in security and direct integrations with tools like GitHub and Bitbucket using Acquia’s BLT, Cloud IDE and Code Studio. With high availability and strict compliance standards like FedRAMP and HIPAA, it is designed to reliably support high-profile digital experiences for global organizations.

 

Apexon provides digital engineering services using proprietary platforms like Genysys and CloudAlpha to help businesses modernize. Genysys acts as an artificial intelligence portal that integrates with multiple large language models, allowing organizations to process documents and build custom intelligent applications. Meanwhile, CloudAlpha automates multi-cloud setup with built-in site reliability and financial management tools. These platforms help financial, healthcare and life sciences firms streamline operations without relying on outdated software systems.

 

AWS Lambda is an event-driven, serverless computing platform provided by Amazon Web Services that automatically runs code in response to system events or user requests. The service manages all underlying hardware maintenance, security patching and capacity scaling, executing functions only when triggered and charging users solely for the compute time consumed. By eliminating the need to configure or manage persistent servers, it allows organizations to build applications that scale instantly with incoming traffic while reducing operational overhead.

 

Heroku lets developers deploy and scale applications across multiple programming languages, including Java, Python, Ruby and Node.js. As a platform-as-a-service (PaaS), Heroku abstracts away infrastructure management, allowing developers to focus on building rather than managing servers. It also supports rapid application development by enabling developers to code in their preferred language. Now owned by Salesforce, Heroku continues to serve as a production-ready platform for business-critical workloads, with managed data services and a robust ecosystem of add-ons and integrations.

 

File Sharing and Data Storage Cloud Computing Examples

File sharing and data storage account for lots of cloud use, with individuals and businesses sharing large files through cloud-based software and outsourcing their data storage to off-premises data centers.

Pay-as-you-go models help businesses manage and scale data sharing and storage based on current needs. Best of all, there’s no limit on either one.

 

Google has become a force in cloud computing through its comprehensive suite of cloud services. The Google Cloud platform offers over 200 cloud-based services spanning compute, storage, databases and AI, positioning the company as a leading infrastructure provider. Meanwhile, Google Drive, integrated with Google Workspace tools, enables seamless real-time collaboration and file management and is used by millions of users — from students to white collar workers.

 

Dropbox facilitates collaboration by allowing users to share large files. Got a large Powerpoint, Photoshop or Sketch project that needs your team’s input but can’t fit in an email? Dropbox it. Dropbox now allows the full integration of collaborative apps, like DocuSign and Vimeo, so users can upload contracts, videos and other materials for team collaboration.

 

Box is an AI-powered intelligent content management platform that enables anyone, anywhere to securely manage, share and access files of any size. Companies can fully integrate Box into their custom business applications through its native APIs and AI capabilities, while the platform supports seamless collaboration across teams and external partners. The platform provides instant insights from unstructured data by leveraging leading AI models, and Box Automate enables organizations to design and deploy complex workflows with AI agents.

 

Egnyte is an AI-powered enterprise file sharing and content governance platform that enables teams to securely upload, access and collaborate on files from anywhere. The SaaS company provides multi-cloud data governance capabilities, allowing organizations to detect and mitigate internal and external threats while protecting and recovering critical business data. With real-time threat detection and comprehensive security controls, Egnyte helps enterprises scale cloud-based collaboration while maintaining compliance and data protection standards.

 

Big Data Analytics Cloud Computing Examples

Because big data companies require massive amounts of storage and processing power for analysis purposes, lots of them turn to the cloud for greater amounts of both — plus enhanced security for business records.

 

Datadog is a cloud-native, observability and security platform that unifies monitoring, metrics, traces and logs across any technology stack. The system enables organizations to monitor infrastructure and applications in real time, helping teams identify performance bottlenecks and detect security threats. With more than 800 integrations and support for containerized and cloud-native architectures, Datadog provides the visibility needed to understand system health and drive business growth.

 

Collibra helps big data companies manage their cloud-based apps by providing frameworks for handling large amounts of data and automating processes to ensure that quality data is being ingested. One of Belgium’s telecommunications companies, Proximus, chose Collibra to help manage its data governance using the company’s cloud-based regulatory technologies.

 

Civis Analytics provides a cloud-based software system that helps organizations manage, analyze and apply their data in one place. The system enables teams to construct automated workflows and connect customer records while supporting common programming languages. Civis serves nonprofits, government agencies and brands seeking to optimize decision-making and customer engagement through data and predictive analytics.

 

SPINS is a data and intelligence platform that connects brands, retailers and CPG companies in the natural and specialty products industry with comprehensive market insights. Its cloud infrastructure aggregates point-of-sale data from various retail channels, providing a unified view of consumer trends and store operations. It also delivers granular data on nutrition, allergens, claims and certifications, enabling brands and retailers to identify growth drivers and optimize product positioning.

 

Amplify Platform is a cloud-based system that centralizes data and operations for wealth management firms. By unifying client acquisition, trading, compliance and reporting into a single data source, the platform automates routine workflows like client onboarding, billing and portfolio rebalancing. This unified structure minimizes data discrepancies across different custodians and reduces manual reconciliation, allowing financial firms to manage daily operations without relying on separate systems.

 

Data Governance and Cybersecurity Cloud Computing Examples

Data storage is only one aspect of cloud computing. As cloud-based security companies attempt to outmaneuver hackers and stay ahead of cyber attacks, it’s also an increasingly secure way to protect sensitive data from cyber marauders.

 

HUMAN offers a suite of cloud-based cybersecurity products that enable brands to build comprehensive defenses against automated bot attacks, fraud and other digital threats. Its solutions cover everything from combating malicious advertising to identifying and blocking fake accounts. HUMAN’s visibility and protections extend across cloud environments, helping organizations defend against evolving threats in an era when bots now account for over half of global web traffic.

 

Palo Alto Networks’ cloud-based cybersecurity solutions are designed to protect IaaS and PaaS environments. Its VM-Series firewalls secure private and public cloud deployments across AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, while its endpoint protection capabilities defend against zero-day threats and advanced attacks. As cloud computing becomes essential for data storage, application management and security, Palo Alto Networks enables organizations to scale securely while maintaining visibility and threat prevention across their cloud infrastructure.

 

Zscaler operates a cloud security platform designed to securely connect users, devices and applications over any network. Through its Zero Trust Exchange architecture, the system continuously verifies identities and enforces safety rules rather than relying on traditional perimeter defenses. This approach helps organizations protect their cloud infrastructure and remote workers by intercepting malicious activity before it reaches sensitive data.

 

Carbonite protects companies from data loss and ransomware by safeguarding critical business data endpoints and limiting security breaches. The cloud backup software installs on servers and devices, then backs up files and data data to the cloud for secure storage. Carbonite’s automated backup capabilities and unlimited storage help businesses defend against cyber threats, while maintaining business continuity and data accessibility across multiple endpoints.

 

Forcepoint provides data security software designed to protect sensitive information across an organization's various digital networks. Its Data Security Cloud platform combines threat detection and prevention tools to help businesses stop data leaks and monitor vulnerabilities. Forcepoint’s unified approach helps companies locate, classify and secure their data consistently to maintain regulatory compliance across their global cloud operations.

 

YCharts offers cloud-based, fintech solutions that streamline workflows and enable data-driven decision-making for advisors and asset managers. Its platform provides tools for analyzing financial data and visualizing investment strategies, making sophisticated financial analysis accessible to entire teams. By leveraging cloud infrastructure, YCharts allows financial professionals to scale their operations, process complex datasets and access critical insights remotely.