What Is Cloud Computing | Cloud Computing

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing is the Buzz word which you can hear in business communications very frequently. Though the concept of Cloud Computing is not new it is a more than a decade old when Amazon started it’s Cloud Computing services with the name of Amazon Web Services or AWS. Since then, Cloud Computing is evolved many times. Many organizations already adopted the services of Cloud Computing. However, this CORONA pandemic now gave a new push to the adoption of Cloud Computing and put this into a rapid path. Irrespective of organization size, be it a big, medium or small organization they are planning to migrate their IT load into the Cloud environment.

It became apparent to understand cloud computing what are different type of services it provides? what are different deployment model? what are the benefits of cloud computing? and what are the common challenges?

Cloud Computing Concept:

In order to understand the Cloud Computing concept, you need to first think about the utility services like Electricity, Water, Gas. How you are using these services in your everyday life without knowing or worrying about the underlaying infrastructure which are implement and manage by the utility service provider

In case of electricity, you switch on the power button and light in on. Once you switch off the button then light is off. You are not worrying about how this electricity is being produce in power generation centre, how generated power is transmitting from generation centre to main power station then to you nearby sub power station and then from sub power station to you home. You just you the electricity and pay only for the used units.

Like utility services, Cloud Computing provide the IT resources like compute, storage, networking, etc. as services to their customers. Customer access these services over the Internet, and pay only for what is used.

Cloud Computing refers to the delivery of IT Infrastructure, applications and services to organizations and end users, on an on-demand basis. Over the Internet. You pay only of the capacity you use.

In simple words you can say: Cloud Computing is renting the IT resources from third party data centre. These third parties how manage the underlaying infrastructure of the data centre are called Cloud Providers. Some well know Cloud Providers are Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Service (AWS), Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, etc.

Some of the common services provided by Cloud Providers are:

·         Compute

·         Storage

·         Networking

·         Database

·         Analytics

·         Developer Tools

 

How it works:

In cloud provider’s data centre thousands of servers are pooled together to form a massive capacity of CPU power, RAM, Disk IO, Storage. Top of this pooled compute capacity one layer of software called Hypervisor is placed. This software helps to virtualized this pool compute capacity.

 

 Cloud Computing – Service Types

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Ø  Provides virtualized computing resources over the internet.

Ø  Cloud provider manages IT infrastructures (storage, server and networking resources), and delivers them to customers via virtual machines accessible through the internet.

Ø  Building block for all services provided by Cloud Computing.

Examples of IaaS:

·         AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)

·         Azure VM

·         Google Compute Engine

 

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Ø  Provides a platform allowing customers to develop, run, and manage applications without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure.

Ø  Typically designed to support the complete web application lifecycle: building, testing, deploying, managing and updating.

Ø  Allows user to avoid the expense and complexity of buying and managing software licenses, the underlying application infrastructure and middleware.

Ø  You manage the applications and services you develop and the cloud service provider typically manages everything else.

Examples of PaaS:

·         AWS Elastic Beanstalk

·         Google App Engine

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Ø  Provides software delivery and licensing in which software is accessed online via a subscription, rather than bought and installed on individual computers.

Ø  Provides a complete software solution which you purchase on a pay-as-you-go basis from a cloud service provider.

Ø  All of the underlying infrastructure, middleware, app software and app data are located in the service provider’s data centre.

Ø  SaaS platform helps IT professionals strategically manage and forecast IT costs

Example of SaaS:

·         Gmail

·         Office 365

·         Google Docs

Responsibility Matrix: This matrix defines responsibilities of Customer and Cloud Provider. Refer to below image which depicts which component is managed by whom.

Cloud Computing – Deployment Model

Public Cloud:

•       Most popular model of cloud computing services.

•       Third-party cloud service provider owns and manage the under-laying infrastructure.

•       Resources (hardware, storage, network) are shared among multiple organizations

•       Resources are delivered over the internet

Advantages:

•       Cost-Effective

•       Easy Deployment

•       Near to unlimited on-demand Scalability

•       No Maintenance

 

Private Cloud:

•       Resources are used exclusively by one business or organization

•       Can be physically located at your organization's on-site datacenter or it can be hosted by a third-party service provider

•       more expensive than public

Advantages:

•       More flexibility

•       More control

•       Custom security

•       Help to meet the Compliance/Regulatory requirement

Hybrid Cloud:

•       Combines private cloud, with a public cloud

•       Allow data and apps to move between the two environments

•       Help Organization with business imperatives such as meeting regulatory and data sovereignty requirements

Advantages:

•       Control

•       Flexibility

•       Cost-effectiveness

 

Cloud Computing – Advantages:

There are many benefits which organizations get after migrating their IT load into Cloud environment. Below list contains only some of the very common benefits

·         Business Agility

·         Cost Efficiency

·         Anywhere Access

·         Scalability

·         Pay as you go

·         Go Global

 

Cloud Computing – Challenges

There are some well know challenges as well which organization have to face in migrating their IT load into Cloud environment.

·         Internet Connectivity

In order to access applications and data hosted in Cloud environment, user needs an internet connectivity with better bandwidth.

 

·         Data Security

Organizations feel hesitant while storing their data into cloud environment as they have no control over the underlaying infrastructure where their data is being stored.

 

·         Compliance & Regulatory Requirement

Country and organization specific compliance and regulatory requirement also push back to migrate their IT load into cloud environment.