CLOUD COMPUTING

Cloud Computing

One of the more

significant
endorsements (support)
of the cloud took place
when Apple unveiled its
iCloud service.
Apple founder Steve
Jobs stated at the launch
that iCloud would
replace the PC for many
people who use the PC
to store media and data.
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 The name cloud

computing was inspired
by the cloud symbol that
is often used to
represent the Internet in
flowcharts and
diagrams.
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 Cloud computing is a model for enabling on-demand access to shared

pool of compute resources e.g. server, application & service.
In other words, cloud computing is a model for delivering IT services.
Instead of a direct connection to the server, the resources are retrieved
from the Internet though web-based tools and applications.
These services are broadly divided into three categories / delivery
models:
1.
2.
3.

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (Iaas),
Platform-as-a-Service (Paas) (GoogleApps are examples of PaaS), &
Software-as-a-Service (Saas).

Data and software packages are stored in servers. The cloud

computing structure allows access to information as long as an
electronic device has access to the web. This allows employees to work
remotely.
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Based on the definition, a typical cloud environment consists of a set of

hardware, software, and manageability interfaces, which collectively deliver
computing as a service with the following four essential characteristics:

1. Elastic and dynamic scaling (A key benefit of cloud computing is the ability to add and

remove capacity as and when it is required. This is often referred to as elastic scale. Being able to
add and remove this capacity can dramatically reduce the total cost of ownership for certain types of
applications, for some applications cloud computing is the only economically feasible solution to the
problem);

SCALABILITY - ability of a system to increase the workload on its current hardware resources
(scale up);
ELASTICITY - ability of a system to increase the workload on its current and additional
(dynamically added on demand) hardware resources (scale out);

2. Self-service provisioning and management;

3. Self-management and automatic scaling;

4. Cost effectiveness.
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Characteristics

It is :
sold on demand (automatic approach to scaling in cloud
environments), typically by the minute or the hour;
it is elastic - a user can have as much or as little of a
service as they want at any given time; and

the service is fully managed by the provider (the

consumer needs nothing but a personal computer and
the Internet access).
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 These essential characteristics have different meanings to

different types of cloud stakeholders.
In order to ensure common understanding, potential cloud
stakeholders are characterised into four general roles:

End Users;
Cloud Service Providers (CSPs);
Cloud Tool Providers (CTPs);
Cloud Application Vendors (CAVs).
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The definition of these roles and the role-specific implications of

individual characteristics:

Service Delivery Models

Software as a Service (SaaS) is a cloud delivery

model that has existed for a long time.

A SaaS is an implementation of a business

application or process that is developed on a cloud
platform and hosted in a cloud infrastructure.
SaaS providers deliver domain-specific applications
or services over the Internet and charge end users
on a pay-per-usage basis.

A Platform as a Service (PaaS) cloud lies directly

upon an IaaS layer with a solution stack
summarising everything required for the whole
software engineering lifecycle (i.e. design,
development, debugging, testing, and deployment).

The potential consumers of a PaaS cloud service are

therefore software developers and testers.

Most PaaS vendors lock developers into particular

development platforms and debugging tools, and do
not allow direct communication with lower
computing infrastructures, although certain
programming APIs might be provided with limited
functionalities of infrastructure control and
management.
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Cloud services that deliver infrastructure resources

(i.e. compute, storage, networking, and operating
systems) as a service are known as Infrastructure
as a Service (IaaS).

IaaS model allows customers to start a new project

quickly by renting computing resources. The key
characteristic of an IaaS cloud is elasticity and
scalability, enabling computing resources to
scale up and down.

Most IaaS cloud providers offer scalability under

customers control with direct self-service
interfaces, through which consumers can request to
scale, control, and manage computing resources.

An IaaS cloud is also referred as a resource cloud.

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According to the different types of resource

offered, IaaS cloud can be further divided into
three sub-categories:
Computing as a Service (CaaS) offers customers access to raw
computing power on virtual servers or virtual machine instances. CaaS
provides self-service interfaces for on-demand provisioning and
management (i.e. start, stop, reboot, destroy) of virtual machine
instances.

A CaaS provider may also provide self-management interfaces for autoscaling and other automatable management facilities.
Storage as a Service offers online storage services allowing ondemand storing and access to data on third-party storage spaces.
Database-as-a-service (DaaS) includes standardised processes for
accessing and manipulating (i.e. write, update, delete) data through
database management systems (DBMS) that are hosted in the cloud.
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Deployment Models
A cloud system (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS) can be deployed using the
following three main models.
A public cloud sells services to anyone on the Internet. (e.g. currently
Amazon Web Services is the largest public cloud provider.)

A private cloud is a proprietary network or a data centre that supplies

hosted services to a limited number of people.
When a service provider uses public cloud resources to create their
private cloud, the result is called a virtual private cloud. Private or
public, the goal of cloud computing is to provide easy, scalable
access to computing resources and IT services.
A hybrid cloud is needed when private clouds run out of capacity. It is
a composition of two or more clouds that remain unique entities but
are bound together.
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The advantages of using Public cloud computing

include:

Efficient storage and computing services.

Inexpensive, since all the virtual resources whether

application, hardware or data are covered by the
service provider.

Easy connectivity to servers and information sharing.

Assures appropriate use of resources as the users are

required to pay only for the services they require.

Highly reliable.

Widespread availability irrespective of geographical

region.

Sets the business people free from the trouble of

buying, managing and maintaining all the virtual
resources , the cloud server does it all.

Public cloud empowers employees and enables them to

become productive even when outside the office. The
SaaS model ensures that corporations save on IT
expenditures while delivering the flexibility of
productivity software on the cloud.

The disadvantages include:

Variety of applications;
E.g. Microsoft Amazon incompatibility;
Security issue.

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Cloud Computing Segments

Cloud computing is broken down into three segments.
Each segment serves a different purpose and offers different products for
businesses & individuals:

Application
Storage

Connectivity

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Best cloud computing companies of 2012

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 Should the future of the Internet rest in the

clouds?

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Cloud Computing Glossary

Cloud - A metaphor for a global network, first used in reference to the telephone
network and now commonly used to represent the Internet.
Cloud provider makes storage or software available to others over a private
network or public network (like the Internet).
Cloud Storage also called online storage, Internet storage or hosted storage, it is a
data storage management solution that enables individuals or organisations to
store their data on the Internet using a service provider, rather than storing the
data locally on a physical disk, such as a hard drive or tape backup.
Elastic computing The ability to scale resources both up and down as needed. To
the consumer, the cloud appears to be infinite, and the consumer can buy as much
or as little computing power as they need.
Hybrid cloud A computing environment that combines both private and public
cloud computing environments.
Hosted application An Internet-based or Web-based application software
programme that runs on a remote server and can be accessed via an Internetconnected PC or thin client.
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 Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Cloud infrastructure services or

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) delivers computer infrastructure, typically a
platform virtualisation environment, as a service. Rather than buying servers,
software, data centre space or network equipment, clients buy those resources
as a fully outsourced service.
IT is the study, design, development, implementation, support and
management of the computer-based information systems, particularly software
applications and the computer hardware on which they operate. IT is
responsible for the use of computers and software to convert, store, protect,
process, transmit and retrieve information.
Private Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) delivered to a restricted set of
customers, usually within an organisation.
Platform as a Service (PaaS) Cloud platform services or Platform as a
Service (PaaS) deliver a computing platform and /or solution stack as a
service, often consuming cloud infrastructure and sustaining cloud applications.
It facilitates deployment of applications without the cost and complexity of
buying and managing the underlying hardware and software layers.
Public Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) delivered to an unrestricted
set of customers.
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