Introduction to Cloud

Computing
Chapter 1-Overview of Cloud Computing
Introduction

• The term cloud in cloud computing refers to the means through which
everything—from computing power to computing infrastructure,
applications, business processes, and personal collaboration—can be
delivered to you as a service wherever and whenever you need it.
• It is a virtualization-based technology that allows us to create,
configure, and customize applications via an internet connection.
• The cloud technology includes a development platform, hard disk,
software application, and database.
• It uses remote servers on the internet to store, manage, and access
data online rather than local drives.
• The traditional methods to provide the IT infrastructure need a Data
center that comprises Server Room.
• The server room may be equipped with a database server, mail server,
networking, firewalls, routers, modem, switches, configurable system,
high net speed, and the maintenance engineers.
• To establish such IT infrastructure, we need to spend lots of money.
• To overcome all these problems and to reduce the IT infrastructure cost,
Cloud Computing comes into existence.
• Cloud Computing refers to manipulating, configuring, and accessing the
hardware and software resources remotely.
• It offers online data storage, infrastructure, and application.
• There are certain services and models working behind the scene making
the cloud computing feasible and accessible to end users.
 Characteristics of Cloud Computing
• Agility
• The cloud works in a distributed computing environment.
• It shares resources among users and works very fast.
• High availability and reliability
• The availability of servers is high and more reliable because the chances of infrastructure failure are minimum.
• High Scalability
• Cloud offers "on-demand" provisioning of resources on a large scale, without having engineers for peak loads.
• Multi-Sharing
• With the help of cloud computing, multiple users and applications can work more efficiently with cost reductions by
sharing common infrastructure.
• Device and Location Independence
• Cloud computing enables the users to access systems using a web browser regardless of their location or what
device they use e.g. PC, mobile phone, etc. As infrastructure is off-site (typically provided by a third-party) and
accessed via the Internet, users can connect from anywhere.
• Maintenance
• Maintenance of cloud computing applications is easier, since they do not need to be installed on each user's
computer and can be accessed from different places. So, it reduces the cost also.
• Low Cost
• By using cloud computing, the cost will be reduced because to take the services of cloud computing, IT Company
need not to set its own infrastructure and pay-as-per usage of resources.
 Advantages of Cloud Computing
• Back-up and restore data
• Once the data is stored in the cloud, it is easier to get back-up and restore that data using the cloud.
• Excellent accessibility
• Cloud allows us to quickly and easily access store information anywhere, anytime in the whole world, using an internet connection.
An internet cloud infrastructure increases organization productivity and efficiency by ensuring that our data is always accessible.
• Low maintenance cost
• Cloud computing reduces both hardware and software maintenance costs for organizations.
• Mobility
• Cloud computing allows us to easily access all cloud data via mobile.
• Services in the pay-per-use model
• Cloud computing offers Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to the users for access services on the cloud and pays the
charges as per the usage of service.
• Unlimited storage capacity
• Cloud offers us a huge amount of storing capacity for storing our important data such as documents, images, audio, video, etc. in
one place.
• Data security
• Data security is one of the biggest advantages of cloud computing. Cloud offers many advanced features related to security and
ensures that data is securely stored and handled.
• Improved collaboration
• Cloud applications improve collaboration by allowing groups of people to quickly and easily share information in the cloud via
shared storage.
 Disadvantages of Cloud Computing

• Internet Connectivity
• If you do not have good internet connectivity, you cannot access cloud.
• Vendor lock-in
• Different vendors provide different platforms, that can cause difficulty moving from one cloud to another.
• Limited Control
• As we know, cloud infrastructure is completely owned, managed, and monitored by the service provider,
so the cloud users have less control over the function and execution of services within a cloud
infrastructure.
• Security
• Although cloud service providers implement the best security standards to store important information,
before adopting cloud technology, you should be aware that you will be sending all your organization's
sensitive information to a third party, i.e., a cloud computing service provider.
• While sending the data on the cloud, there may be a chance that your organization's information is
hacked by Hackers.
 Cloud working models
• Deployment Models
• Deployment models define the type of access to the cloud, i.e., how the cloud is
located? Cloud can have any of the four types of access:
• Public
• The public cloud allows systems and services to be easily accessible to the general public. Public
cloud may be less secure because of its openness.
• Private
• The private cloud allows systems and services to be accessible within an organization. It is more
secured because of its private nature.
• Hybrid
• The hybrid cloud is a mixture of public and private cloud, in which the critical activities are
performed using private cloud while the non-critical activities are performed using public cloud.
• Community
• The community cloud allows systems and services to be accessible by a group of organizations.
• Service Models
• The service models on which Cloud computing is based are categorized into three basic
service models which are -
• Infrastructure-as–a-Service (IaaS)
• IaaS is also known as Hardware as a Service (HaaS). It is a computing infrastructure managed over the
internet. It provides access to fundamental resources such as physical machines, virtual machines,
virtual storage, etc. The main advantage of using IaaS is that it helps users to avoid the cost and
complexity of purchasing and managing the physical servers.
• Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
• PaaS offers the runtime environment for applications. It also offers development and deployment
tools required to develop applications. PaaS has a feature of point-and-click tools that enables non-
developers to create web applications. PaaS cloud computing platform is created for the programmer
to develop, test, run, and manage the applications.
• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
• This model provides software application as a service to the end users. It refers to a software that is
deployed on a host service and is accessible via Internet. SaaS is also known as "on-demand
software". It is a software in which the applications are hosted by a cloud service provider. Examples
include: Billing and invoicing system, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications, Help
desk applications, Human Resource (HR) solutions.
 Cloud Computing Technologies

• Virtualization
• Virtualization is a technique, which allows to share single physical instance of an
application or resource among multiple organizations or tenants (customers).
• It does this by assigning a logical name to a physical resource and providing a pointer to
that physical resource when demanded.
• Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)
• Service-Oriented Architecture helps to use applications as a service for other
applications regardless the type of vendor, product or technology.
• Therefore, it is possible to exchange the data between applications of different
vendors without additional programming or making changes to services.
• Grid Computing
• Grid Computing refers to distributed computing, in which a group of computers from
multiple locations are connected with each other to achieve a common objective.
• These computer resources are heterogeneous and geographically dispersed.
• Grid Computing breaks complex task into smaller pieces, which are distributed to CPUs
that reside within the grid.
• Utility Computing
• This process relies on the pay-per-utilize model.
• It gives computational services on demand for a metered benefit.
• It mainly helps in cost-cutting by reducing initial investment.
• As the computing requirements for a business change, the billing also changes
accordingly, without acquiring any additional cost.
• If the client usage has decreased, then billing cost also reduces accordingly.
 Cloud Computing architecture
• Cloud Computing architecture comprises of many cloud components, which are
loosely coupled.
• We can broadly divide the cloud architecture into two parts: Front End and Back
End.
• Each of the ends is connected through a network, usually Internet.
• The front end refers to the client part of cloud computing system.
• It consists of interfaces and applications that are required to access the cloud computing
platforms, Example - Web Browser.
• The back End refers to the cloud itself.
• It consists of all the resources required to provide cloud computing services. It comprises of
huge data storage, virtual machines, security mechanism, services, deployment models,
servers, etc.
• It is the responsibility of the back end to provide built-in security mechanism, traffic
control and protocols. The server employs certain protocols known as middleware,
which help the connected devices to communicate with each other.
Identify the wrong statement about cloud computing
a. refers to the means through which computing power and computing infrastructure, applications, business processes, and
personal collaboration—can be delivered to you as a service wherever and whenever you need it.
b. It is a virtualization-based technology that allows us to create, configure, and customize applications via an internet connection.
c. includes a development platform, hard disk, software application, and database.
d. It uses local servers to store, manage, and access data online rather than local drives.
e. The availability of servers is high and more reliable and the chances of infrastructure failure are minimum.
f. Maintenance of cloud computing applications is easier
g. It is difficult to get back-up and restore that data using the cloud.
h. Cloud computing has unlimited storage capacity
i. Cloud applications improve collaboration
j. You can access the cloud even if you do not have good internet connectivity
k. It is difficult to move from one cloud to another.
l. Cloud users have more control over the function and execution of services within a cloud infrastructure.
m. While sending the data on the cloud, there may be a chance that your organization's information is hacked by Hackers.
n. The public cloud allows systems and services to be easily accessible by group of organizations.
o. Public cloud may be less secure than community cloud.
p. IAAS - provides access to physical machines, virtual machines, and virtual storage.
q. SAAS - offers development and deployment tools required to develop applications.
r. Virtualization is a technique, which allows to share single physical instance of an application or resource among multiple
organizations or tenants (customers).
s. Service-Oriented Architecture refers to distributed computing, in which a group of computers from multiple locations are
connected with each other to achieve a common objective.
t. In utility computing, If the client usage has decreased, then billing cost also reduces accordingly.
u. The back end of cloud computing architecture refers to the client part of cloud computing system.