Introduction to Cloud Computing

Module 1 1---5

In this module, you have learned:

●       Cloud computing is the delivery of on-demand computing resources over the internet on a
pay-as-you-go basis; resources are dynamically assigned and reassigned among multiple users and
scale up and down in response to users’ needs.
●       The origins of cloud computing can be traced back to the mainframes of the 1950s, with
virtualization technologies and hypervisors serving as catalysts for the emergence of modern-day
cloud computing.
●       Organizations must consider their business needs, investment viability, and risk capacity in
order to create a cloud adoption strategy that delivers desired benefits without causing business
disruptions and security, compliance, or performance issues.
●       Cloud adoption is growing faster than predicted. Driving this technological wave are cloud
service providers with a host of services ranging from Infrastructure, Platform, and Software
services. Some major Cloud providers of our times include AWS, Alibaba Cloud, Google, IBM
Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.
Module 2 : mn 6–10

In this module, you have learned:

●       The adoption of cloud technologies is enabling enterprises, big and small, to be agile,
innovative, and competitive, and to create differentiated customer experiences. The question
organizations are asking is not whether they should move to the cloud, rather what strategy they
should adopt to move to the cloud.
●       Some case studies that demonstrate the impact businesses have created by adopting cloud
o   American Airlines adopting cloud technologies to deliver customer value rapidly across its
enterprise
o   UBank leveraging cloud platform services to give more control to their developers thereby
removing barriers to innovation
o   Bitly leveraging the scalability offered by cloud infrastructure for low-latency delivery to its
geographically disbursed enterprise customers
o   ActivTrades leveraging the infrastructure, storage, network, and security offerings on the
cloud to accelerate execution and delivery of new functions in their online trading systems to their
customers
●       Emerging technologies, powered by the cloud, are disrupting existing business models and
creating unprecedented opportunities for businesses to grow, innovate, and create value for their
customers.
●       Some case studies that demonstrate how the use of emerging technologies on the cloud is
creating value for millions around the world.
o   The use of the Internet of Things on the cloud to combat poaching of endangered rhinos in
South Africa
o   Artificial Intelligence on the cloud being leveraged to deliver unique digital experiences to
millions of fans around the world by the United States Tennis Association
o   Blockchain on the cloud helping farmers reduce waste by building traceability and
transparency in the food supply chain
o   The use of data analytics for driving predictive maintenance solutions for a city’s
infrastructure by KONE

module 3: mn 11---17

In this module, you have learned:

●       Cloud computing allows us to utilize technology as a service, leveraging remote resources on-
demand, on a pay-as-you-model. There are three main service models available on the cloud—
Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
o   IaaS provides the fundamental compute, network, and storage resources for customers on-
demand.
o   PaaS provides customers the hardware, software, and infrastructure to develop, deploy,
manage, and run applications created by them or acquired from a third-party.
o   SaaS provides access to users to a service provider’s cloud-based software. Users simply
access the applications on Cloud while the Cloud provider maintains the infrastructure, platform,
data, application code, security, availability, and performance of the application.
●       Deployment models indicate where the infrastructure resides, who owns and manages it, and
how cloud resources and services are made available to users. There are three main deployment
models available on the cloud—Public, Private, and Hybrid.
o   In the Public cloud model, the service provider owns, manages, provisions, and maintains the
physical infrastructure such as data centers, servers, networking equipment, and storage, with users
accessing virtualized compute, networking, and storage resources as services.
o   In the Private cloud model, the provider provisions the cloud infrastructure for exclusive use
by a single organization. The private cloud infrastructure can be internal to the organization and run
or on-premises. Or, it can be on a public cloud, as in the case of Virtual Private Clouds (VPC) and
be owned, managed, and operated by the cloud provider.
o   In the Hybrid cloud model, an organization’s on-premise private cloud and third-party, public
cloud is connected as a single, flexible infrastructure leveraging the features and benefits of both
Public and Private clouds.

Module 4 18–23

In this module, you have learned:

●       Cloud infrastructure consists of data centers, storage, networking components, and compute
resources.
●       Virtualization is the process of creating a software-based version of physical resources, made
possible through the use of hypervisors. 
●       A few different types of Virtual Machines can be provisioned on the cloud. These include:
o   Shared or Public Cloud VMs that are provider-managed, multi-tenant deployments that can be
provisioned on-demand with predefined sizes
o   Transient or Spot VMs that take advantage of unused capacity in a cloud data center

o   Reserved VMs that allow you to reserve capacity and guarantee resources for future
deployments 
o   Dedicated hosts that offer single-tenant isolation

●       Bare metal servers are single-tenant physical servers that are dedicated to a single customer.
Bare metal servers fulfil the demanding needs of high-performance computing (HPC) and data
intense applications and are ideal for applications that have a high degree of security or compliance
requirements.
●       Networking capabilities in the cloud are delivered as a service rather than in the form of rack-
mounted devices. Cloud resources, such as VMs (or VSIs), storage, network connectivity, and load
balancers, are deployed into subnets within Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs). Using private and public
subnets allows users to deploy multi-tier enterprise applications securely. Load balancers distribute
the traffic and allow applications to be responsive.
●       Containers are an executable unit of software in which application code is packaged, along
with its libraries and dependencies, in common ways so that it can be run anywhere—desktops,
traditional IT, or the cloud. Containers are lighter weight and consume fewer resources than Virtual
Machines - helping streamline the development and deployment of cloud native applications.

Module 5 24–29

In this module, you have learned:

 • Cloud storage is available in four main types–Direct Attached, File, Block, and Object
Storage. These storage types differ in how they can be accessed, the capacity they offer, how
much they cost, the types of data they are best suited to store, and their read-write speed.
• Direct Attached (or Local) Storage is storage that is presented directly to a cloud-based
server and is effectively either within the host server chassis or within the same rack.
• File Storage is typically presented to compute nodes as a Network File System (NFS), which
means that the storage is connected to compute nodes over a standard ethernet network.
• Block Storage is presented to compute nodes using high-speed fibre connections, typically
provisioned in volumes, which are mounted onto a compute node.  
• Object Storage is accessed via an API and doesn’t need an underlying compute node. Object
Storage offers infinite capacity as you can keep adding files to it and just pay for what you
use. Compared to the other storage types, object storage is slowest in terms of read and write
speeds.
• A Content Delivery Network (CDN is a distributed server network that accelerates internet
content delivery by delivering temporarily stored or cached copies of website or media
content to users based on their geographic location.

TP : Create an Object Storage Instance and add items

IN IBM Cloud ACCOUNT

Module 6 30---35

In this module, you have learned:

●       Hybrid Multicloud is a cloud adoption strategy that makes it possible for public clouds,
private clouds, and on-premises IT to interoperate seamlessly while leveraging the best cloud-based
services from different public cloud providers.
●       Microservices architecture is an approach in which an application is built as a collection of
loosely coupled and independently deployable components or services, leading to efficient
development, maintenance, and upgradation cycles.
●       Serverless Computing is an approach to computing that offloads responsibility for common
infrastructure management tasks for application runtimes to cloud providers, allowing developers to
focus their time and effort on development and testing, and not have to worry about provisioning,
maintaining and scaling compute resources.
●       Cloud native applications are applications that are built or refactored to work in the cloud
environment. These applications, developed using DevOps methodologies, consist of microservices
packaged in containers that can run in any environment—making it possible to create and update
features in quick iterative cycles.
●       DevOps is a collaborative approach that enables development and operations teams to
continuously deliver software in quick iterative cycles while reducing overhead, duplication, and
rework. DevOps’ tools, practices, and processes help tackle the complexities and challenges posed
by the cloud, allowing solutions to be delivered and updated —quickly and reliably.
●       Application Modernization helps organizations accelerate their digital transformation, take
advantage of new technologies and services, and become more responsive to changing market
dynamics. Cloud computing is one of the key enablers of application modernization.
Module 7 36---41

Cloud security refers to the policies, technological procedures, services, and solutions designed to
secure the enterprise applications and data on cloud against insider threats, data breaches,
compliance issues, and organized security threats. 
●       Cloud security is a shared responsibility between the cloud provider and the user
organization. 
●       Security architecture and methods for achieving continuous security need to be embedded
through the life cycle of an application to ensure that the application runs on a safe platform, the
code is free from vulnerabilities, and the operational risks are understood. 
●       There needs to be active monitoring of all connected systems and cloud-based services to
maintain visibility of all data exchanges between public, private, and hybrid cloud environments.
This ensures that the cloud provides a trusted platform that can securely integrate with your
enterprise data centers.
●       Businesses all over the world are realizing tangible benefits from the use of cloud
technologies and services. 
o   The Weather Company migrating to the cloud to reliably deliver critical weather data at high
speed, especially during major weather events such as hurricanes and tornadoes
o   American Airlines using the cloud platform and technologies to deliver digital self-service
tools and customer value more rapidly across its enterprise
o   Cementos Pacasmayo achieving operational excellence and insight to help drive strategic
transformation and reach new markets using cloud services
o   Welch choosing cloud storage to drive business value from hybrid cloud

o   LiquidPower using cloud-based SAP applications to fuel business growth 

●       The market size of the cloud services industry is at nearly three times the growth of overall IT
services, escalating the need for qualified cloud computing professionals. Some of the common job
roles that are available in this domain include Cloud Software Engineers, Cloud Integration
Specialists, Cloud Data Engineers, Cloud Security Engineers, Cloud DevOps Engineers, and Cloud
Solution Architects.