Chapter 2 (Service Delivery Models of cloud computing)

2.1 Introduction
We can find zeta bytes worth of information that explain what
cloud computing is in a technical sense. But before getting into any of that,
we need to ask a couple of simple questions:
Why should I make the move to the cloud at all?
How will it benefit me; my team; my company?

2.2 Information technology as a utility, not a burden

Cloud computing is computing as a utility. What do we mean by this?
We are moving to compute, storage, and network to the cloud which
provides ease of use, just like turning on a lamp.
And we pay only for what we use, in the same manner as we pay only for
the electricity we use to power our home. Also, the cloud offers many more
specific benefits for IT operations, like scalability and the ability to use
intelligent services like search and facial recognition in our applications.
2.3 Computing as a utility
So, ultimately, we can think of cloud services such as Azure as computing as a
utility. Of course, Azure offers far more in the way of products and services
than the local electric utility does, so cloud computing can sometimes be
difficult to clearly define. In fact, some say that the cloud is basically just using
somebody else’s computers, which is technically true, but the cloud is so much
more:
The cloud is a system that provides robust, resilient, intelligent
services and compute resources at infinite, elastic, global scale.
The cloud and Azure provide services:
from the mundane, such as adding Search to your application,
to the more exotic, such as implementing Continuous Integration (CI)
and Continuous Deployment (CD) workflows.
automatically tune our database, or set up push notifications to mobile
devices, easily and quickly.
Besides services, the cloud offers compute resources in the form of Virtual
Machines (VMs), containers, databases, and so on.
Service Models:

Cloud Computing services are delivered to the users in different forms. Three major service models (as
seen by the consumers) have been defined:

1. Software-as-a-Service
2. Platform-as-a-Service
3. Infrastructure-as-a-Service

Software/
Application

Platform

Infrastructure
Cloud Infrastructure Cloud Infrastructure Cloud Infrastructure
IaaS Software as a Service
PaaS PaaS (SaaS)
SaaS SaaS SaaS Architectures

Cloud Infrastructure Cloud Infrastructure

IaaS Platform as a Service (PaaS)
PaaS PaaS Architectures

Cloud Infrastructure
IaaS Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Architectures

Fig. Architecture of major service models

2.4. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
Software as a Service (SaaS) is the model in which an application is
hosted as a service to customers who access it via the Internet as shown in fig.
below. Also referred to as “software on demand,” this service model involves
outsourcing the infrastructure, platform, and software/applications.
Typically, these services are available to the customer for a fee, pay-as-you-go, or
a no charge model. The customer accesses the applications over the internet.
✤Users have access to a complete software application or to an interface to the
application itself.
✤The service provider manages the underlying infrastructure including servers,
network, operating systems, storage, and the application software.
✤The user is unaware of the underlying architecture of the Cloud.
✤Applications are served through a light client interface (e.g., web browser)

For vendors, SaaS has the appeal of providing stronger protection of their
intellectual property as well as creating a continuous stream of income.
There are many types of software that lend themselves to the SaaS model
Some of these applications include
• Customer resource management (CRM)
• Video conferencing
• IT service management
• Accounting
• Web analytics
• Web content management
SaaS applications differ from earlier distributed computing
solutions in that SaaS was developed specifically to use web tools,
like the browser. This makes them web-native. It was also built
with a multitenant back end in mind, which enables multiple
customers to use an application.
SaaS provides network-based access to commercially available
software. Since the software is managed at a central location,
customers can access their applications wherever they have web
access.
Benefits of SaaS
One of the biggest benefits of SaaS is, costing less money than buying
the application outright.
The service provider can offer cheaper, more reliable applications
than organizations can buy themselves.
Some other benefits include the following:
• Familiarity with the World Wide Web:
Most workers have access to a computer and know how to use it on
the World Wide Web. As such, the learning curve for using external
applications can be much smaller.
• Smaller staff:
IT systems require the overhead of salaries, benefits, insurance, and
building space. The ability to farm out applications reduces the need for as
much IT staff.
• Customization:
Older applications were difficult to customize and required tinkering
with the code. SaaS applications are much easier to customize and can give an
organization exactly what they want.
Better marketing:
A provider who had developed an application for a very narrow
market might have had problems marketing that application. However, with
SaaS, the entire world is open to the providers.
• Web reliability:
Web is generally quite reliable.
• Security:
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is widely used and trusted. This allows
customers to reach their applications securely without having to employ
complex back-end configurations, like virtual private networks (VPNs).
• More bandwidth:
Bandwidth has increased greatly in recent months and quality of
service improvements are helping data flow. This will allow organizations to
trust that they can access their applications with low latencies and good speeds.
All components are delivered by SaaS as shown in fig. below.
Obstacles:
1. Cost imbalance with the need: An organization that has a very
specific computational need might not be able to find the
application available through SaaS. In that case, they may
discover that they need to buy the software and install it on
their local machines. That said, companies with unique needs
may be able to find some of the components in a SaaS.
2. Hefty moving fee while moving to a new vender: There is also
an element of “lock-in” with vendors. That is, the customer
might pay a provider to use an application, but once they do,
they may be unable to port that application to a new vendor.
Or, it might be possible to move to a new vendor, but the old
vendor might charge a hefty moving fee.
3. Challenges from the availability of opensource applications
and cheaper hardware: If companies are so inclined, they can
put their open source applications on hardware that performs
better and costs less than it used to.
2.5 Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
Platform as a Service (PaaS) is another application delivery model.
A service model that involves outsourcing the basic infrastructure and platform
(Windows, Unix)
PaaS facilitates deploying applications without the cost and complexity of
buying and managing the underlying hardware and software where the
applications are hosted.
The customer uses his or her own applications.
Users can develop and deploy application in the Cloud.
Service providers serve Development tools, Application Programming
Interfaces (APIs), Software libraries…etc.
The service providers manage the underlying infrastructure including servers,
network, operating systems, and storage.
The users develop, deploy, configure, and manage their applications on the
Cloud infrastructure.
. PaaS is also known as cloud ware.
PaaS services include application design, development, testing, deployment,
and hosting.
Other services include team collaboration, web service integration, database
integration, security, scalability, storage, state management, and versioning.
PaaS generally offers some support to help the creation of user interfaces,
and is normally based on HTML or JavaScript.
Because PaaS is expected to be used by many users simultaneously, it is
designed with that sort of use in mind, and generally provides automatic
facilities for concurrency management, scalability, failover, and security.
PaaS also supports web development interfaces such as Simple Object
Access Protocol (SOAP) and Representational State Transfer (REST), which
allow the construction of multiple web services, sometimes called mashups.
The interfaces are also able to access databases and reuse services that are
within a private network.
PaaS Options:
PaaS is found in one of three different types of systems:
1. Add-on development facilities:
These allow existing SaaS applications to be customized. Often, PaaS
developers and users are required to purchase subscriptions to the add-on SaaS
application.
2. Stand-alone environments:
These environments do not include licensing, technical, or financial
dependencies on specific SaaS applications and are used for general
developments.

3. Application delivery-only environments:

These environments support hosting level services, like security and
on-demand scalability. They do not include development, debugging, and test
capabilities.
Trends Toward Adoption:
PaaS faces the same sorts of factors in its adoption as
SaaS did, as it is in its early phase. Some other factors
influencing adoption include
• The ability of geographically isolated development teams to
work together
• The ability to merge web services from multiple sources
• The ability to realize cost savings from using built-in
infrastructure services for security, scalability, and failover,
rather than having to obtain and test them separately
• The ability to realize cost savings from using higher-level
programming abstractions
PaaS—SaaS is often used in conjunction with other software.
When used as a component of another application, this is known
as a mashup or a plugin. The customer can manage Application,
Data, etc. as shown in fig below.
Hurdles:
There are two main obstacles that developers face when considering
PaaS.
1. Verities of proprietary services by different venders. Because vendors use
proprietary services or development languages, some developers are afraid of
being locked into a single provider. The vendor may allow the application to be
brought to a different provider; however, the costs are typically higher as
compared to moving applications between conventional hosts.
2. A lack of interoperability and portability among providers: That is, if you
create an application with one cloud provider and decide to move to another
provider, you may not be able to do so—or you’ll have to pay a high price.
Also, if the provider goes out of business, your applications and your data will
be lost.
2.6. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
IaaS is sometimes also called Hardware as a Service (HaaS).
Where SaaS and PaaS are providing applications to customers, IaaS simply
offers the hardware so that your organization can put whatever they want onto
it. So it is a service model that involves outsourcing the basic infrastructure
used to support operations--including storage, hardware, servers, and
networking components.
The service provider owns the infrastructure equipment and is responsible for
housing, running, and maintaining it.
The customer typically pays on a per-use basis.
The resources are served as Virtual Machines (VMs) and storage.
Users can start/stop/configure the resources.
Users deploy the operating systems and applications of their choices.
The customer uses their own platform (Windows, UNIX), and applications
HaaS allows you to “rent” such resources as
• Server space
• Network equipment
• Memory
• CPU cycles
• Storage space
Additionally, the infrastructure can be dynamically
scaled up or down, based on the application
resource needs.
Further, multiple tenants can be on the equipment
at the same time.
The capability provided to the consumer: To rent 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 as shown in fig below.
The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud
infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage, deployed
applications, and possibly select networking components (e.g., firewalls, load
balancers).
Issues: HaaS involves several issues:
• Service level agreements: This is an agreement between the provider and
client, guaranteeing a certain level of performance from the system.
• Computer hardware: These are the components whose resources will be
rented out. Service providers often have this set up as a grid for easier
scalability.
• Network: This includes hardware for firewalls, routers, load balancing, and
so on.
• Internet connectivity: This allows clients to access the hardware from their
own organizations.
• Platform virtualization environment: This allows the clients to run the virtual
machines they want.
• Utility computing billing: Typically set up to bill customers based on how
many system resources they use.
2.7 Comparison of the service delivery models