Unit-1 Introduction to Cloud Computing

Introduction to Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing is the delivery of computing services such as servers, storage,

databases, networking, software, analytics, intelligence, and more, over the Cloud
(Internet).

Cloud Computing provides an alternative to the on-premises datacentre. With an

on-premises datacentre, we have to manage everything, such as purchasing and
installing hardware, virtualization, installing the operating system, and any other
required applications, setting up the network, configuring the firewall, and setting
up storage for data. After doing all the set-up, we become responsible for
maintaining it through its entire lifecycle.

But if we choose Cloud Computing, a cloud vendor is responsible for the hardware
purchase and maintenance. They also provide a wide variety of software and
platform as a service. We can take any required services on rent. The cloud
computing services will be charged based on usage.
The cloud environment provides an easily accessible online portal that makes
handy for the user to manage the compute, storage, network, and application
resources. Some cloud service providers are in the following figure.
Advantages of cloud computing

o Cost: It reduces the huge capital costs of buying hardware and software.
o Speed: Resources can be accessed in minutes, typically within a few clicks.
o Scalability: We can increase or decrease the requirement of resources
according to the business requirements.
o Productivity: While using cloud computing, we put less operational effort.
We do not need to apply patching, as well as no need to maintain hardware
and software. So, in this way, the IT team can be more productive and focus
on achieving business goals.
o Reliability: Backup and recovery of data are less expensive and very fast for
business continuity.
o Security: Many cloud vendors offer a broad set of policies, technologies,
and controls that strengthen our data security.

Types of Cloud Computing

 o Public Cloud: The cloud resources that are owned and operated by a third-
party cloud service provider are termed as public clouds. It delivers
computing resources such as servers, software, and storage over the internet
o Private Cloud: The cloud computing resources that are exclusively used
inside a single business or organization are termed as a private cloud. A
private cloud may physically be located on the company’s on-site datacentre
or hosted by a third-party service provider.
o Hybrid Cloud: It is the combination of public and private clouds, which is
bounded together by technology that allows data applications to be shared
between them. Hybrid cloud provides flexibility and more deployment
options to the business.

Types of Cloud Services

1. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): In IaaS, we can rent IT infrastructures
like servers and virtual machines (VMs), storage, networks, operating
systems from a cloud service vendor. We can create VM running Windows
or Linux and install anything we want on it. Using IaaS, we don’t need to
care about the hardware or virtualization software, but other than that, we do
have to manage everything else. Using IaaS, we get maximum flexibility,
but still, we need to put more effort into maintenance.
2. Platform as a Service (PaaS): This service provides an on-demand
environment for developing, testing, delivering, and managing software
applications. The developer is responsible for the application, and the PaaS
vendor provides the ability to deploy and run it. Using PaaS, the flexibility
gets reduce, but the management of the environment is taken care of by the
cloud vendors.
3. Software as a Service (SaaS): It provides a centrally hosted and managed
software services to the end-users. It delivers software over the internet, on-
demand, and typically on a subscription basis. E.g., Microsoft One Drive,
Dropbox, WordPress, Office 365, and Amazon Kindle. SaaS is used to
minimize the operational cost to the maximum extent.
What are the Roots of Cloud Computing?

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud Computing is a user-friendly technology that allows the user to store a large
amount of data in a secure way and flexibility of access anytime when needed. As
the data stored in the cloud enhances confidentiality, it is widely used by business
sectors, businesses, and education. Every industry/company or any professionally
growing business should keep their data up-to-date from older to the latest.

Handling a large amount of data by a single person/company/server/institution are

little difficult and sometimes leads to data errors. To rectify all these problems a
boon like technology emerged in IT called “Cloud Computing”.

Roots of Cloud Computing

The roots of cloud computing are sub-divided into four types. They are,
 Internet Technologies
 Hardware
 System Management
 Distributed Computing

Internet Technologies in Cloud Computing

Virtualization and Service-Oriented Architecture

Virtualization is the process of deploying virtual resources in cloud infrastructures

such as servers, storage management, and desktop. To reduce the cost and time
effort of cloud providers this virtualization concept is introduced. Virtualization is
subdivided into various types. The below-mentioned picture describes the various
types of virtualization used in cloud computing

Desktop Virtualization

Desktop Virtualization is the concept of users accessing their desktops virtually

from any location. For the end-user environment, this desktop virtualization is
created. The types of desktop virtualization are as follows,

Virtual desktop Infrastructure-The actions are done in the central server which
provides the virtual desktop service to the end-user.

Remote desktop Services-Users are allowed to work based on windows

applications remotely
Desktop as a Service-In Desktop as a Service, a third party hosts the virtual
application

Application Virtualization

In application virtualization, the users are all allowed to use the application in the
system rather than one which is installed. The OS and system software are installed
on many computers.

Network Virtualization

The combination of both hardware and software operations is called Network

Virtualization. It establishes a connection between the application and the software
system.

Storage Virtualization

The storage virtualization array consists of multiple arrays which are appeared to
be single virtualization. It can be either called a disk array or a storage array.

Server Virtualization

Partitioning the single server into multiple servers which can run on their
independent operating system.

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)

As the business grows, there is a large number of implementation of software and

hardware requirements, which is difficult to manage. Hence SOA helps to maintain
and implement the architecture.

Grid Computing

To manage and handle a large set of data, the networked computers are connected
to perform the operations. The group of computers joins as a cluster to simplify the
task.

Utility Computing

As the name itself denotes, the providers provide the computing service based on
the user’s demand. It is based on the process of pay peruse.

Platform As A Service (PAAS)

 As the name itself indicates “platform” means it gives a complete technical
platform to the customer such as hardware, software, and infrastructure for
developing and deploying the application. The advantage of PAAS is, that it
supplies networking, storage, server, operating system (OS), etc.., a complete cloud
platform to the user for developing and running their application without worrying
about building and maintaining the cloud infrastructure required to develop and
launch the app.

Infrastructure as a service (IAAS)

It is purely an infrastructure-based cloud computing service that provides

complete infrastructure like supporting web applications, and services based on
user facility. As it is based o storage and infrastructure the customer has to use this
on by pay-as-you-go basis based on their demand. It reduces the cost of buying and
managing physical servers and data infrastructures.

increases the scale and performance of IT workloads and reduces the expenditure
on buying external hardware tools. Examples of IAAS are Amazon Web Services,
Google compute engine (GCE), Green Cloud Technologies, and Microsoft Azure.

Software as a Service (SAAS)

SAAS enables the end-user to use cloud-based applications utilizing the web. It is
defined as “On-Demand Software “hosted by the cloud service provider. The users
are allowed to subscribe to those cloud-based applications than purchasing. The
users were given login credentials to use those applications which are running on
cloud servers. One of the simple and easiest examples is Gmail.

Hardware

The hardware components of cloud computing include,

 Storage array
o Switches
 Router
 Firewall
 Backup devices
 Servers
 Load balancers
System Management

Cloud management consists of public, private, and hybrid clouds. Cloud

computing performs the overall control and work of the system.

Public cloud: The public cloud is common to everyone and is easily accessible by
anyone. It is provided over the internet to general people or major industry groups.
Simple examples are Gmail and Google drive.

Private cloud: The difference between public and private is, that the latter ensures
the privacy and security of the data through firewalls and internet hosting. If large
IT organizations and business groups are looking for secure cloud options, the best
option is the Private cloud. Examples of private clouds are Amazon Web Services,
IBM, VMware, and Microsoft azure.

Multi-cloud: The name itself indicates partial meaning that the organization uses
one or more cloud services such as public and private cloud or both public and
private cloud. Examples of multi-cloud are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google
Cloud Platform (GCP), and IBM.

Hybrid cloud: The difference between multi and hybrid cloud is that the latter
combines two or more different types of the cloud while multi-clouds combines
different clouds of the same type. Examples include Azure Stack, Azure arc, and
Google antos.

Distributed Computing

Distributed Computing is the connection of one or more several computers which

are connected to form a network to share information. A wide number of
computers are connected to a single network. Examples include the Internet and
Gmail.

Cloud computing basics–the cloud computing layers

Tags
Cloud computing is a business model and not a technology. In this article, we will
explore the fundamentals of cloud – the cloud computing layers.

What are the four layers of cloud computing?

There is probably no other concept facing the IT-industry that is more hyped
than Cloud Computing. Some say it will totally disrupt the industry, which very
well may be the case, but in our eagerness to support the hype, it is important to
break cloud computing into the concrete parts of which it is built.

Visit our cloud technology page to learn everything you need to know about
cloud computing.
Cloud computing is a business model and not technology. That means there is no
breakthrough hardware or software technology that suddenly has made cloud
possible. Rather it consists of well-known technologies and concepts, put together
in a new way. These technologies are known as layers. By adding them all together
we get the package that enables cloud.

Let’s take a look at the different layers of cloud computing:

The 4 layers of Cloud

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

The basic layer of cloud is the infrastructure –IaaS (Infrastructure as a service).
This layer is basically hardware and network. What distinguishes this from a
regular server or hosting company are mainly two things: scalability and
virtualisation.
What is most important is scalability. The true IaaS vendors are scaling their IaaS
layer into such huge quantities that the marginal cost of adding more GHz, GB,
storage, and so on, are converging towards zero.

One of the first services where this was seen was in Gmail, the Google email
service where each user gets around 8 GB of free storage. In order to do this,
Google built gigantic data centres consisting of (probably) millions of servers.

The second difference from traditional hosting is virtualisation. This is a piece of

software that virtualises all the hardware. Virtualisation lets the IaaS vendor utilise
their computing resources to as high as 90 %, compared to an individual company
having their own servers idle most of the time.

You might also be interested in reading: Cloud basics: Deployment models.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)
The second layer of the cloud is the platform – the PaaS (Platform as a service).
The platform layer provides resources to actually build applications. In
combination with IaaS, PaaS provides the ability to develop, test, run, and host
applications.

The platform layer opens up for third parties to add their software (or integrations)
to a cloud service. An example of a well-known PaaS is Microsoft Azure. This
platform provides developers with swift access to a full development and
deployment environment and even let you host the application you are building.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

The third cloud layer is the actual Software – the SaaS (Software as a service).
SaaS has been used for many years, but in a Cloud setting, it is the layer in which
the user consumes the offering from the service provider.
The SaaS layer must be web-based and hence accessible from everywhere and
preferably on any device. The key is to understand that it makes no sense to ask
whether a service is cloud or SaaS, as SaaS is a layer in the cloud stack.

On the other hand, it is important to understand that cloud is much more than SaaS,
due to the other layers that bundled together makes out the whole cloud stack.

Read more: Transitioning to the cloud – 4 steps to get started.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)

The top layer of the cloud is Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). As BPO
certainly is not technology, there are discussions about whether BPO can be
regarded as a cloud layer. But, as mentioned in the beginning of the article, the
cloud is all about business models, not technology.

Whereas the other layers of the cloud are concerned with consuming services from
a vendor, BPO is about outsourcing services to a vendor and hence the same logic
applies as the other layers.
The layers are only a fraction of what cloud is about, but it is important to
understand this concept as it is the core of cloud computing.
The picture shows the stack of layers.

Features of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is becoming popular day by day. Continuous business expansion

and growth requires huge computational power and large-scale data storage
systems. Cloud computing can help organizations expand and securely move data
from physical locations to the 'cloud' that can be accessed anywhere.

Cloud computing has many features that make it one of the fastest growing
industries at present. The flexibility offered by cloud services in the form of their
growing set of tools and technologies has accelerated its deployment across
industries. This blog will tell you about the essential features of cloud computing.
1. Resources Pooling

Resource pooling is one of the essential features of cloud computing. Resource

pooling means that a cloud service provider can share resources among multiple
clients, each providing a different set of services according to their needs. It is a
multi-client strategy that can be applied to data storage, processing and bandwidth-
delivered services. The administration process of allocating resources in real-time
does not conflict with the client's experience.

2. On-Demand Self-Service

It is one of the important and essential features of cloud computing. This enables
the client to continuously monitor server uptime, capabilities and allocated network
storage. This is a fundamental feature of cloud computing, and a customer can also
control the computing capabilities according to their needs.

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Features of Java - Javatpoint

3. Easy Maintenance

This is one of the best cloud features. Servers are easily maintained, and downtime
is minimal or sometimes zero. Cloud computing powered resources often undergo
several updates to optimize their capabilities and potential. Updates are more
viable with devices and perform faster than previous versions.

4. Scalability And Rapid Elasticity

A key feature and advantage of cloud computing is its rapid scalability. This cloud
feature enables cost-effective handling of workloads that require a large number of
servers but only for a short period. Many customers have workloads that can be run
very cost-effectively due to the rapid scalability of cloud computing.

5. Economical

This cloud feature helps in reducing the IT expenditure of the organizations. In

cloud computing, clients need to pay the administration for the space used by them.
There is no cover-up or additional charges that need to be paid. Administration is
economical, and more often than not, some space is allocated for free.
6. Measured And Reporting Service

Reporting Services is one of the many cloud features that make it the best choice
for organizations. The measurement and reporting service is helpful for both cloud
providers and their customers. This enables both the provider and the customer to
monitor and report which services have been used and for what purposes. It helps
in monitoring billing and ensuring optimum utilization of resources.

7. Security

Data security is one of the best features of cloud computing. Cloud services make a
copy of the stored data to prevent any kind of data loss. If one server loses data by
any chance, the copied version is restored from the other server. This feature
comes in handy when multiple users are working on a particular file in real-time,
and one file suddenly gets corrupted.

8. Automation

Automation is an essential feature of cloud computing. The ability of cloud

computing to automatically install, configure and maintain a cloud service is
known as automation in cloud computing. In simple words, it is the process of
making the most of the technology and minimizing the manual effort. However,
achieving automation in a cloud ecosystem is not that easy. This requires the
installation and deployment of virtual machines, servers, and large storage. On
successful deployment, these resources also require constant maintenance.

9. Resilience

Resilience in cloud computing means the ability of a service to quickly recover

from any disruption. The resilience of a cloud is measured by how fast its servers,
databases and network systems restart and recover from any loss or damage.
Availability is another key feature of cloud computing. Since cloud services can be
accessed remotely, there are no geographic restrictions or limits on the use of cloud
resources.

10. Large Network Access

A big part of the cloud's characteristics is its ubiquity. The client can access cloud
data or transfer data to the cloud from any location with a device and internet
connection. These capabilities are available everywhere in the organization and are
achieved with the help of internet. Cloud providers deliver that large network
access by monitoring and guaranteeing measurements that reflect how clients
access cloud resources and data: latency, access times, data throughput, and more.
Benefits of Cloud Services

Cloud services have many benefits, so let's take a closer look at some of the most
important ones.

Flexibility

Cloud computing lets users access files using web-enabled devices such as
smartphones and laptops. The ability to simultaneously share documents and other
files over the Internet can facilitate collaboration between employees. Cloud
services are very easily scalable, so your IT needs can be increased or decreased
depending on the needs of your business.

Work from anywhere

Users of cloud systems can work from any location as long as you have an Internet
connection. Most of the major cloud services offer mobile applications, so there
are no restrictions on what type of device you're using.

It allows users to be more productive by adjusting the system to their work

schedules.

Cost savings

Using web-based services eliminates the need for large expenditures on

implementing and maintaining the hardware. Cloud services work on a pay-as-you-
go subscription model.

Automatic updates

With cloud computing, your servers are off-premises and are the responsibility of
the service provider. Providers update systems automatically, including security
updates. This saves your business time and money from doing it yourself, which
could be better spent focusing on other aspects of your organization.

Disaster recovery

Cloud-based backup and recovery ensure that your data is secure. Implementing
robust disaster recovery was once a problem for small businesses, but cloud
solutions now provide these organizations with the cost-effective solutions with the
expertise they need. Cloud services save time, avoid large investments and provide
a third party experience for your company.
Conclusion

Various features of cloud computing are helping both the host and the customer. A
host also has various advantages, which benefit the customers. These days, the
organization is in dire need of data storage. The previously mentioned features of
cloud computing make it a popular choice among various organizations across
industries.

Platform as a Service Providers

Platform as a Service | PaaS

Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides a runtime environment. It allows

programmers to easily create, test, run, and deploy web applications. You can
purchase these applications from a cloud service provider on a pay-as-per use basis
and access them using the Internet connection. In PaaS, back end scalability is
managed by the cloud service provider, so end- users do not need to worry about
managing the infrastructure.

PaaS includes infrastructure (servers, storage, and networking) and platform

(middleware, development tools, database management systems, business
intelligence, and more) to support the web application life cycle.

Example: Google App Engine, Force.com, Joyent, Azure.

PaaS providers provide the Programming languages, Application frameworks,

Databases, and Other tools:
1. Programming languages

PaaS providers provide various programming languages for the developers to

develop the applications. Some popular programming languages provided by PaaS
providers are Java, PHP, Ruby, Perl, and Go.

2. Application frameworks

PaaS providers provide application frameworks to easily understand the

application development. Some popular application frameworks provided by PaaS
providers are Node.js, Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, Spring, Play, Rack, and Zend.

3. Databases

PaaS providers provide various databases such as ClearDB, PostgreSQL,

MongoDB, and Redis to communicate with the applications.

4. Other tools

PaaS providers provide various other tools that are required to develop, test, and
deploy the applications.

Advantages of PaaS

There are the following advantages of PaaS -

1) Simplified Development
PaaS allows developers to focus on development and innovation without worrying
about infrastructure management.

2) Lower risk

No need for up-front investment in hardware and software. Developers only need a
PC and an internet connection to start building applications.

3) Prebuilt business functionality

Some PaaS vendors also provide already defined business functionality so that
users can avoid building everything from very scratch and hence can directly start
the projects only.

4) Instant community

PaaS vendors frequently provide online communities where the developer can get
the ideas to share experiences and seek advice from others.

5) Scalability

Applications deployed can scale from one to thousands of users without any
changes to the applications.

Disadvantages of PaaS cloud computing layer

1) Vendor lock-in

One has to write the applications according to the platform provided by the PaaS
vendor, so the migration of an application to another PaaS vendor would be a
problem.

2) Data Privacy

Corporate data, whether it can be critical or not, will be private, so if it is not

located within the walls of the company, there can be a risk in terms of privacy of
data.

3) Integration with the rest of the systems applications

It may happen that some applications are local, and some are in the cloud. So there
will be chances of increased complexity when we want to use data which in the
cloud with the local data.
 Popular PaaS Providers

The below table shows some popular PaaS providers and services that are provided
by them –

Providers Services

Google App Engine App Identity, URL Fetch, Cloud storage client library, Logservice
(GAE)

Salesforce.com Faster implementation, Rapid scalability, CRM Services, Sales cloud,

Mobile connectivity, Chatter.

Windows Azure Compute, security, IoT, Data Storage.

AppFog Justcloud.com, SkyDrive, GoogleDocs

Openshift RedHat, Microsoft Azure.

Cloud Foundry from Data, Messaging, and other services.

VMware

Cloud Computing Architecture

As we know, cloud computing technology is used by both small and large

organizations to store the information in cloud and access it from anywhere at
anytime using the internet connection.

Cloud computing architecture is a combination of service-oriented

architecture and event-driven architecture.

Cloud computing architecture is divided into the following two parts -

o Front End
o Back End

The below diagram shows the architecture of cloud computing -

Front End

The front end is used by the client. It contains client-side interfaces and
applications that are required to access the cloud computing platforms. The front
end includes web servers (including Chrome, Firefox, internet explorer, etc.), thin
& fat clients, tablets, and mobile devices.

Back End

The back end is used by the service provider. It manages all the resources that are
required to provide cloud computing services. It includes a huge amount of data
storage, security mechanism, virtual machines, deploying models, servers, traffic
control mechanisms, etc.

Components of Cloud Computing Architecture

There are the following components of cloud computing architecture -

1. Client Infrastructure

Client Infrastructure is a Front end component. It provides GUI (Graphical User

Interface) to interact with the cloud.
2. Application

The application may be any software or platform that a client wants to access.

3. Service

A Cloud Services manages that which type of service you access according to the
client’s requirement.

Cloud computing offers the following three type of services:

i. Software as a Service (SaaS) – It is also known as cloud application services.

Mostly, SaaS applications run directly through the web browser means we do not
require to download and install these applications. Some important example of
SaaS is given below –

Example: Google Apps, Salesforce Dropbox, Slack, Hubspot, Cisco WebEx.

ii. Platform as a Service (PaaS) – It is also known as cloud platform services. It

is quite similar to SaaS, but the difference is that PaaS provides a platform for
software creation, but using SaaS, we can access software over the internet without
the need of any platform.

Example: Windows Azure, Force.com, Magento Commerce Cloud, OpenShift.

iii. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – It is also known as cloud infrastructure

services. It is responsible for managing applications data, middleware, and runtime
environments.

Example: Amazon Web Services (AWS) EC2, Google Compute Engine (GCE),
Cisco Metapod.

4. Runtime Cloud

Runtime Cloud provides the execution and runtime environment to the virtual
machines.

5. Storage

Storage is one of the most important components of cloud computing. It provides a

huge amount of storage capacity in the cloud to store and manage data.

6. Infrastructure
It provides services on the host level, application level, and network level. Cloud
infrastructure includes hardware and software components such as servers, storage,
network devices, virtualization software, and other storage resources that are
needed to support the cloud computing model.

7. Management

Management is used to manage components such as application, service, runtime

cloud, storage, infrastructure, and other security issues in the backend and establish
coordination between them.

8. Security

Security is an in-built back end component of cloud computing. It implements a

security mechanism in the back end.

9. Internet

The Internet is medium through which front end and back end can interact and
communicate with each other.

7 Most Common Cloud Computing Challenges

Cloud computing is the provisioning of resources like data and storage on demand,
that is in real-time. It has been proven to be revolutionary in the IT industry with
the market valuation growing at a rapid rate. Cloud development has proved to be
beneficial not only for huge public and private enterprises but small-scale
businesses as well as it helps to cut costs. It is estimated that more than 94% of
businesses will increase their spending on the cloud by more than 45%. This also
has resulted in more and high-paying jobs if you are a cloud developer.
Cloud technology was flourishing before the pandemic, but there has been a
sudden spike in cloud deployment and usage during the lockdown. The tremendous
growth can be linked to the fact that classes have been shifted online, virtual office
meetings are happening on video calling platforms, conferences are taking place
virtually as well as on-demand streaming apps have a huge audience. All this is
made possible by us of cloud computing only. We are safe to conclude that the
cloud is an important part of our life today, even if we are an enterprise, student,
developer, or anyone else and are heavily dependent on it. But with this
dependence, it is also important for us to look at the issues and challenges that
arise with cloud computing. Therefore, today we bring you the most common
challenges that are faced when dealing with cloud computing, let’s have a look at
them one by one:

1. Data Security and Privacy

Data security is a major concern when switching to cloud computing. User or

organizational data stored in the cloud is critical and private. Even if the cloud
service provider assures data integrity, it is your responsibility to carry out user
authentication and authorization, identity management, data encryption, and access
control. Security issues on the cloud include identity theft, data breaches, malware
infections, and a lot more which eventually decrease the trust amongst the users of
your applications. This can in turn lead to potential loss in revenue alongside
reputation and stature. Also, dealing with cloud computing requires sending and
receiving huge amounts of data at high speed, and therefore is susceptible to data
leaks.
2. Cost Management

Even as almost all cloud service providers have a “Pay As You Go” model, which
reduces the overall cost of the resources being used, there are times when there are
huge costs incurred to the enterprise using cloud computing. When there is under
optimization of the resources, let’s say that the servers are not being used to their
full potential, add up to the hidden costs. If there is a degraded application
performance or sudden spikes or overages in the usage, it adds up to the overall
cost. Unused resources are one of the other main reasons why the costs go up. If
you turn on the services or an instance of cloud and forget to turn it off during the
weekend or when there is no current use of it, it will increase the cost without even
using the resources.

3. Multi-Cloud Environments

Due to an increase in the options available to the companies, enterprises not only
use a single cloud but depend on multiple cloud service providers. Most of these
companies use hybrid cloud tactics and close to 84% are dependent on multiple
clouds. This often ends up being hindered and difficult to manage for the
infrastructure team. The process most of the time ends up being highly complex for
the IT team due to the differences between multiple cloud providers.

4. Performance Challenges

Performance is an important factor while considering cloud-based solutions. If the

performance of the cloud is not satisfactory, it can drive away users and decrease
profits. Even a little latency while loading an app or a web page can result in a
huge drop in the percentage of users. This latency can be a product of inefficient
load balancing, which means that the server cannot efficiently split the incoming
traffic so as to provide the best user experience. Challenges also arise in the case of
fault tolerance, which means the operations continue as required even when one or
more of the components fail.
5. Interoperability and Flexibility

When an organization uses a specific cloud service provider and wants to switch
to another cloud-based solution, it often turns up to be a tedious procedure since
applications written for one cloud with the application stack are required to be re-
written for the other cloud. There is a lack of flexibility from switching from one
cloud to another due to the complexities involved. Handling data movement,
setting up the security from scratch and network also add up to the issues
encountered when changing cloud solutions, thereby reducing flexibility.

6. High Dependence on Network

Since cloud computing deals with provisioning resources in real-time, it deals with
enormous amounts of data transfer to and from the servers. This is only made
possible due to the availability of the high-speed network. Although these data and
resources are exchanged over the network, this can prove to be highly vulnerable
in case of limited bandwidth or cases when there is a sudden outage. Even when
the enterprises can cut their hardware costs, they need to ensure that the internet
bandwidth is high as well there are zero network outages, or else it can result in a
potential business loss. It is therefore a major challenge for smaller enterprises that
have to maintain network bandwidth that comes with a high cost.

7. Lack of Knowledge and Expertise

Due to the complex nature and the high demand for research working with the
cloud often ends up being a highly tedious task. It requires immense knowledge
and wide expertise on the subject. Although there are a lot of professionals in the
field they need to constantly update themselves. Cloud computing is a highly paid
job due to the extensive gap between demand and supply. There are a lot of
vacancies but very few talented cloud engineers, developers, and professionals.
Therefore, there is a need for upskilling so these professionals can actively
understand, manage and develop cloud-based applications with minimum issues
and maximum reliability.
We have therefore discussed the most common cloud issues and challenges that are
faced by cloud engineers all over the world. If you are looking out to be a cloud
professional in the near future, then must read the article Top 5 Cloud Computing
Companies to Work For in 2021.
Types of Cloud

There are the following 4 types of cloud that you can deploy according to the
organization's needs-

o Public Cloud
o Private Cloud
o Hybrid Cloud
o Community Cloud

Public Cloud

o Public Cloud provides a shared platform that is accessible to the general

public through an Internet connection.
 o Public cloud operated on the pay-as-per-use model and administrated by
the third party, i.e., Cloud service provider.
o In the Public cloud, the same storage is being used by multiple users at the
same time.
o Public cloud is owned, managed, and operated by businesses, universities,
government organizations, or a combination of them.
o Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Microsoft Azure, IBM's Blue Cloud,
Sun Cloud, and Google Cloud are examples of the public cloud.

Advantages of Public Cloud

There are the following advantages of public cloud -

1) Low Cost

Public cloud has a lower cost than private, or hybrid cloud, as it shares the same
resources with a large number of consumers.

2) Location Independent

Public cloud is location independent because its services are offered through the
internet.
3) Save Time

In Public cloud, the cloud service provider is responsible for the manage and
maintain data centers in which data is stored, so the cloud user can save their time
to establish connectivity, deploying new products, release product updates,
configure, and assemble servers.

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4) Quickly and easily set up

Organizations can easily buy public cloud on the internet and deployed and
configured it remotely through the cloud service provider within a few hours.

5) Business Agility

Public cloud provides an ability to elastically re-size computer resources based on

the organization's requirements.

6) Scalability and reliability

Public cloud offers scalable (easy to add and remove) and reliable (24*7 available)
services to the users at an affordable cost.

Disadvantages of Public Cloud

1) Low Security

Public Cloud is less secure because resources are shared publicly.

2) Performance

In the public cloud, performance depends upon the speed of internet connectivity.
3) Less customizable

Public cloud is less customizable than the private cloud.

Private Cloud

o Private cloud is also known as an internal cloud or corporate cloud.

o Private cloud provides computing services to a private internal network
(within the organization) and selected users instead of the general public.
o Private cloud provides a high level of security and privacy to data through
firewalls and internal hosting. It also ensures that operational and sensitive
data are not accessible to third-party providers.
o HP Data Centers, Microsoft, Elastra-private cloud, and Ubuntu are the
example of a private cloud.

Advantages of Private cloud

There are the following advantages of Private Cloud -

1) More Control

Private clouds have more control over their resources and hardware than public
clouds because it is only accessed by selected users.

2) Security & privacy

Security & privacy are one of the big advantages of cloud computing. Private
cloud improved the security level as compared to the public cloud.

3) Improved performance

Private cloud offers better performance with improved speed and space capacity.

Disadvantages of Private Cloud

1) High cost

The cost is higher than a public cloud because set up and maintain hardware
resources are costly.

2) Restricted area of operations

As we know, private cloud is accessible within the organization, so the area of

operations is limited.

3) Limited scalability

Private clouds are scaled only within the capacity of internal hosted resources.

4) Skilled people

Skilled people are required to manage and operate cloud services.

Hybrid Cloud

o Hybrid cloud is a combination of public and private clouds.

Hybrid cloud = public cloud + private cloud
 o The main aim to combine these cloud (Public and Private) is to create a
unified, automated, and well-managed computing environment.
o In the Hybrid cloud, non-critical activities are performed by the public
cloud and critical activities are performed by the private cloud.
o Mainly, a hybrid cloud is used in finance, healthcare, and Universities.
o The best hybrid cloud provider companies are Amazon, Microsoft, Google,
Cisco, and NetApp.

Advantages of Hybrid Cloud

There are the following advantages of Hybrid Cloud -

1) Flexible and secure

It provides flexible resources because of the public cloud and secure resources
because of the private cloud.

2) Cost effective

Hybrid cloud costs less than the private cloud. It helps organizations to save costs
for both infrastructure and application support.
3) Cost effective

It offers the features of both the public as well as the private cloud. A hybrid cloud
is capable of adapting to the demands that each company needs for space, memory,
and system.

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4) Security

Hybrid cloud is secure because critical activities are performed by the private
cloud.

5) Risk Management

Hybrid cloud provides an excellent way for companies to manage the risk.

Disadvantages of Hybrid Cloud

1) Networking issues

In the Hybrid Cloud, networking becomes complex because of the private and the
public cloud.

2) Infrastructure Compatibility

Infrastructure compatibility is the major issue in a hybrid cloud. With dual-levels

of infrastructure, a private cloud controls the company, and a public cloud does
not, so there is a possibility that they are running in separate stacks.

3) Reliability

The reliability of the services depends on cloud service providers.

Community Cloud

Community cloud allows systems and services to be accessible by a group of

several organizations to share the information between the organization and a
specific community. It is owned, managed, and operated by one or more
organizations in the community, a third party, or a combination of them.

Example: Health Care community cloud

Advantages of Community Cloud

There are the following advantages of Community Cloud -

o Community cloud is cost-effective because the whole cloud is being shared

by several organizations or communities.
o Community cloud is suitable for organizations that want to have a
collaborative cloud with more security features than the public cloud.
o It provides better security than the public cloud.
o It provdes collaborative and distributive environment.
 o Community cloud allows us to share cloud resources, infrastructure, and
other capabilities among various organizations.

Disadvantages of Community Cloud

o Community cloud is not a good choice for every organization.
o Security features are not as good as the private cloud.
o It is not suitable if there is no collaboration.
o The fixed amount of data storage and bandwidth is shared among all
community members.

Difference between public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, and community
cloud -

The below table shows the difference between public cloud, private cloud, hybrid
cloud, and community cloud.

Parameter Public Private Cloud Hybrid Cloud Community Cloud

Cloud

Host Service Enterprise (Third Enterprise (Third Community (Third

provider party) party) party)

Users General Selected users Selected users Community members

public

Access Internet Internet, VPN Internet, VPN Internet, VPN

Owner Service Enterprise Enterprise Community

provider