Cloud Computing

In Simplest terms, cloud computing means storing and accessing

the data and programs on remote servers that are hosted on the
internet instead of the computer’s hard drive or local server.
Cloud computing is also referred to as Internet-based computing.
Cloud Computing Architecture:
Cloud computing architecture refers to the components and sub-
components required for cloud computing. These components
typically refer to:
1. Front end(fat client, thin client)
2. Back-end platforms(servers, storage)
3. Cloud-based delivery and a network (Internet, Intranet,
Intercloud).
Hosting a cloud: There are three layers in cloud computing.
Companies use these layers based on the service they provide.
 Infrastructure
 Platform
 Application

Three layers of Cloud Computing

At the bottom is the foundation, the Infrastructure where the
people start and begin to build. This is the layer where the cloud
hosting lives.
Now, let’s have a look at hosting: Let’s say you have a
company and a website and the website has a lot of
communications that are exchanged between members. You start
with a few members talking with each other and then gradually
the number of members increases. As the time passes, the
number of members increases, there would be more traffic on the
network and your server will get slow down. This would cause a
problem. A few years ago, the websites are put on the server
somewhere, in this way you have to run around or buy and set
the number of servers. It costs a lot of money and takes a lot of
time. You pay for these servers when you are using them and as
well as when you are not using them. This is called hosting. This
problem is overcome by cloud hosting.

With Cloud Computing, you have access to computing power

when you needed. Now, your website is put in the cloud server as
you put it on a dedicated server. People start visiting your website
and if you suddenly need more computing power, you would scale
up according to the need.

Benefits of Cloud Hosting:

1. Scalability: With Cloud hosting, it is easy to grow and
shrink the number and size of servers based on the need. This
is done by either increasing or decreasing the resources in the
cloud. This ability to alter plans due to fluctuation in business
size and needs is a superb benefit of cloud computing,
especially when experiencing a sudden growth in demand.
2. Instant: Whatever you want is instantly available in the
cloud.
3. Save Money: An advantage of cloud computing is the
reduction in hardware costs. Instead of purchasing in-house
 equipment, hardware needs are left to the vendor. For
companies that are growing rapidly, new hardware can be
large, expensive, and inconvenient. Cloud computing alleviates
these issues because resources can be acquired quickly and
easily. Even better, the cost of repairing or replacing equipment
is passed to the vendors. Along with purchase costs, off-site
hardware cuts internal power costs and saves space. Large data
centers can take up precious office space and produce a large
amount of heat. Moving to cloud applications or storage can
help maximize space and significantly cut energy expenditures.
4. Reliability: Rather than being hosted on one single instance
of a physical server, hosting is delivered on a virtual partition
that draws its resource, such as disk space, from an extensive
network of underlying physical servers. If one server goes
offline it will have no effect on availability, as the virtual servers
will continue to pull resources from the remaining network of
servers.
5. Physical Security: The underlying physical servers are still
housed within data centers and so benefit from the security
measures that those facilities implement to prevent people from
accessing or disrupting them on-site.
6. Outsource Management: When you are managing the
business, Someone else manages your computing
infrastructure. You do not need to worry about management as
well as upgradation.
To more clarification about how cloud computing has changed the
commercial deployment of the system. Consider the three
examples:

1. Amazon Web Services(AWS): One of the most successful

cloud-based businesses is Amazon Web Services(AWS), which is
an Infrastructure as a Service(Iaas) offering that pays rent for
virtual computers on Amazon’s infrastructure.
2. Microsoft Azure Platform: Microsoft is creating the Azure
platform which enables the .NET Framework application to run
over the internet as an alternative platform for Microsoft
developers. This is the classic Platform as a Service(PaaS).
3. Google: Google has built a worldwide network of data
centers to service its search engine. From this service, Google
has captured the world’s advertising revenue. By using that
revenue, Google offers free software to users based on
infrastructure. This is called Software as a Service(SaaS).
4. IBM Cloud is a collection of cloud computing services for
business provided by the IBM Corporation. It provides all 3
services (IaaS, Paas, SaaS) infrastructure as a service, software
as a service, and platform as a service.
5. Oracle Cloud is a collection of cloud services offered by
Oracle Corporation, including infrastructure as a service (IaaS),
platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS).
6. Alibaba Cloud is the cloud computing arm of Alibaba
Group, providing a comprehensive suite of global cloud
 computing services to power both their international customers’
online businesses and Alibaba Group’s own e-commerce
ecosystem. (JACK MA)
7. Tencent Cloud is a cloud service platform provided by
Tencent. It provides a range of services such as virtual
machines, storage, databases, and analytics.
8. Rackspace is a provider of hybrid cloud computing, founded
in 1998. It provides managed hosting, cloud hosting, and email
and apps services.

These are just a few examples of the wide range of applications

for cloud computing. As technology continues to advance, the
possibilities for cloud computing will continue to expand.