Cloud Computing….?

By Author: Dr. L. Maria Michael Visuwasam
Total Articles: 4
Comment this article

Essential Characteristics

Essential Characteristics
• On-demand self-service. A consumer can unilaterally provision computing capabilities, such as server time and network storage, as needed automatically without requiring human interaction with each service provider.

• Broad network access. Capabilities are available over the network and accessed through standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneous thin or thick client platforms (e.g., mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and workstations).

• Resource pooling. The provider’s computing resources are pooled to serve multiple consumers using a multi-tenant model, with different physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to consumer demand. There is a sense of location independence in that the customer generally has no control or knowledge over the exact location of the provided resources but may be able to specify location at a higher level of abstraction (e.g., country, state, or datacenter). Examples of resources include storage, processing, memory, and network bandwidth.

• Rapid elasticity. Capabilities ...
... can be elastically provisioned and released, in some cases automatically, to scale rapidly outward and inward commensurate with demand. To the consumer, the capabilities available for provisioning often appear to be unlimited and can be appropriated in any quantity at any time.

• Measured service. Cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource use by leveraging a metering capability1 at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage, processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts). Resource usage can be monitored, controlled, and reported, providing transparency for both the provider and consumer of the utilized service.

Service Models

Service Models
• Software as a Service (SaaS): The capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider’s applications running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various client devices through either a thin client interface, such as a web browser (e.g., web-based email), or a program interface. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific application configuration settings.
Examples: SaaS: Google Apps, Dropbox, Salesforce, Cisco WebEx, Concur, GoToMeeting

• Platform as a Service (PaaS): The capability provided to the consumer is to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquired applications created using programming languages, libraries, services, and tools supported by the provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and possibly configuration settings for the application-hosting environment.
Examples: PaaS: AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Windows Azure, Heroku, Force.com, Google App Engine, Apache Stratos, OpenShift

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): The capability provided to the consumer is to provision processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and applications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage, and deployed applications; and possibly limited control of select networking components (e.g., host firewalls).
Examples: IaaS DigitalOcean, Linode, Rackspace, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco Metapod, Microsoft Azure, Google Compute Engine (GCE)

Deployment Models

1. Private Cloud
The private cloud is defined as computing services offered either over the Internet or a private internal network and only to select users instead of the general public.
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/overview/what-is-a-private-cloud/

2. Public Cloud
The public cloud is defined as computing services offered by third-party providers over the public Internet, making them available to anyone who wants to use or purchase them. They may be free or sold on-demand, allowing customers to pay only per usage for the CPU cycles, storage or bandwidth they consume.
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/overview/what-is-a-public-cloud/

3. Hybrid Cloud
Hybrid cloud is a solution that combines a private cloud with one or more public cloud services, with proprietary software enabling communication between each distinct service. A hybrid cloud strategy provides businesses with greater flexibility by moving workloads between cloud solutions as needs and costs fluctuate.
https://www.citrix.com/en-in/glossary/what-is-hybrid-cloud.html#:~:text=Hybrid%20cloud%20is%20a%20solution,as%20needs%20and%20costs%20fluctuate

4. Community Cloud
Community cloud computing refers to a shared cloud computing service environment that is targeted to a limited set of organizations or employees (such as banks or heads of trading firms). The organizing principle for the community will vary, but the members of the community generally share similar security, privacy, performance and compliance requirements. Community members may wish to invoke a mechanism that is often run by themselves (not just the provider) to review those seeking entry into the community.

Cloud Computing Giants

• Kamatera
• Cloudways
• phoenixNAP
• ScienceSoft
• pCloud
• Amazon Web Services
• Microsoft Azure
• Google Cloud Platform
• Adobe
• VMware
• IBM Cloud
• Rackspace
• Red Hat
• Oracle Cloud
• Salesforce