Cloud computing is the delivery of computing resources, such as storage, databases, and software, over the internet. It allows users to access these resources on-demand, without the need to buy and maintain physical infrastructure.
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, it is a technology where the resource is provided as a service through the Internet to the user. The data that is stored can be files, images, documents, or any other storable document.
Benefits:
Cost-effectiveness: Users only pay for what they use, which can help lower operating costs.
Scalability: Users can scale up or down their resources as their needs change.
Flexibility: Users can access resources from anywhere, on any device.
Innovation: Users can access resources faster, which can lead to faster innovation.
There are different types of cloud computing, including: private clouds, public clouds, hybrid clouds.
Public Cloud
A Public Cloud is Cloud Computing in which the infrastructure and services are owned and operated by a third-party provider and made available to the public over the internet. The public can access and use shared resources, such as servers, storage, and applications and the main thing is you pay for what you used. . Examples of public cloud providers – are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
Advantages
Cost Efficient: In the public cloud, we have to pay for what we used. So it is more cost-efficient than maintaining the physical servers or their own infrastructure.
Automatic Software Updates: In the public cloud, there are automatic software updates. we don’t have to update the software manually.
Accessibility: Public clouds allow users to access their resources and applications from anywhere in the world. We just need an internet connection to access it.
Disadvantages
Security and Privacy Concerns: Public clouds can be vulnerable to data breaches, cyber attacks, and other security risks. Since data is stored on servers owned by a third-party provider, there is always a risk that confidential or sensitive data may be exposed or compromised.
Limited Control: With public cloud services, users have limited control over the infrastructure and resources used to run their applications. This can make it difficult to customize the environment to meet specific requirements.
Reliance on Internet Connectivity: Public cloud services require a reliable and stable internet connection to access the resources and applications hosted in the cloud. If the internet connection is slow or unstable, it can affect the performance and availability of the services.
Service Downtime: Public cloud providers may experience service downtime due to hardware failures, software issues, or maintenance activities. This can result in temporary loss of access to applications and data.
Compliance and Regulatory Issues: Public cloud services may not meet certain compliance or regulatory requirements, such as those related to data privacy or security. This can create legal or contractual issues for businesses that are subject to these requirements.
Cost Overruns: Public cloud services are typically billed on a pay-per-use basis, which can result in unexpected cost overruns if usage exceeds anticipated levels. Additionally, the cost of using public cloud services may increase over time, as providers adjust their pricing models or add new features and services.
Private Cloud
A Private Cloud is a cloud computing environment in which the infrastructure and services are owned and operated by a single organization, for example, a company or government, and it is accessed by only authorized users within that organization. Private Cloud organizations have their own data center. private cloud provides a higher level of security. Examples – HPE, Dell, VMware, etc.
Advantages
Security Status: Private clouds provide a higher level of security. as the organization has full control over the cloud service. They can customize the servers to manage their security.
Customization of Service: Private clouds allow organizations to customize the infrastructure and services to meet their specific requirements. and also can customize the security.
Privacy: Private clouds provide increased privacy as the organization(company or government ) has more control over who has access to their data and resources.
Disadvantages
Higher Cost: Private clouds require dedicated hardware, software, and networking infrastructure, which can be expensive to acquire and maintain. This can make it challenging for smaller businesses or organizations with limited budgets to implement a private cloud.
Limited Scalability: Private clouds are designed to serve a specific organization, which means that they may not be as scalable as public cloud services. This can make it difficult to quickly add or remove resources in response to changes in demand.
Technical Complexity: Setting up and managing a private cloud infrastructure requires technical expertise and specialized skills. This can be a challenge for organizations that lack in-house IT resources or expertise.
Security Risks: Private clouds are typically considered more secure than public clouds since they are operated within an organization’s own infrastructure. However, they can still be vulnerable to security risks such as data breaches or cyber attacks.
Lack of Standardization: Private clouds are often built using proprietary hardware and software, which can make it challenging to integrate with other cloud services or migrate to a different cloud provider in the future.
Maintenance and Upgrades: Maintaining and upgrading a private cloud infrastructure can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. This can be a challenge for organizations that need to focus on other core business activities.
Hybrid Cloud
A hybrid cloud is a combination of both public and private cloud environments that allows organizations to take advantage of the benefits of both types of clouds. It manages traffic levels during peak usage periods It can provide greater flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness than using a single cloud environment. Examples – IBM, DataCore Software, Rackspace, Threat Stack, Infinidat, etc.
Advantages
Flexibility: Hybrid cloud stores its data (also sensitive) in a private cloud server. While public server provides Flexibility and Scalability.
Scalability: Hybrid cloud Enables organizations to move workloads back and forth between their private and public clouds depending on their needs.
Security: Hybrid cloud controls over highly sensitive data. and it provides high-level security. Also, it takes advantage of the public cloud’s cost savings.
Disadvantages
Complexity: Hybrid clouds are complex to set up and manage since they require integration between different cloud environments. This can require specialized technical expertise and resources.
Cost: Hybrid clouds can be more expensive to implement and manage than either public or private clouds alone, due to the need for additional hardware, software, and networking infrastructure.
Security Risks: Hybrid clouds are vulnerable to security risks such as data breaches or cyber attacks, particularly when there is a lack of standardization and consistency between the different cloud environments.
Data Governance: Managing data across different cloud environments can be challenging, particularly when it comes to ensuring compliance with regulations such as GDPR or HIPAA.
Network Latency: Hybrid clouds rely on communication between different cloud environments, which can result in network latency and performance issues.
Integration Challenges: Integrating different cloud environments can be challenging, particularly when it comes to ensuring compatibility between different applications and services.
Vendor Lock-In: Hybrid clouds may require organizations to work with multiple cloud providers, which can result in vendor lock-in and limit the ability to switch providers in the future.
Some examples of cloud computing include:
- Google Docs and Microsoft 365
- Email, calendar, Skype, and WhatsApp
- Zoom
- Microsoft Teams
- AWS Lambda
- Salesforce
Characteristics
On-demand self-service: "A consumer can unilaterally provision computing capabilities, such as server time and network storage, as needed automatically without requiring human interaction with each service provider."
Broad network access: "Capabilities are available over the network and accessed through standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneous thin or thick client platforms (e.g., mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and workstations)."
Resource pooling: " The provider's computing resources are pooled to serve multiple consumers using a multi-tenant model, with different physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to consumer demand."
Rapid elasticity: "Capabilities can be elastically provisioned and released, in some cases automatically, to scale rapidly outward and inward commensurate with demand. To the consumer, the capabilities available for provisioning often appear unlimited and can be appropriated in any quantity at any time."
Measured service: "Cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource use by leveraging a metering capability at some level of abstraction appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage, processing, bandwidth, and active user accounts). Resource usage can be monitored, controlled, and reported, providing transparency for both the provider and consumer of the utilized service.
The following are some of the Operations that can be performed with Cloud Computing
- Storage, backup, and recovery of data
- Delivery of software on demand
- Development of new applications and services
- Streaming videos and audio
What is Virtualization In Cloud Computing?
Virtualization is the software technology that helps in providing the logical isolation of physical resources. Creating logical isolation of physical resources such as RAM, CPU, and Storage.. over the cloud is known as Virtualization in Cloud Computing. In simple we can say creating types of Virtual Instances of computing resources over the cloud. It provides better management and utilization of hardware resources with logical isolation making the applications independent of others. It facilitates streamlining the resource allocation and enhancing scalability for multiple virtual computers within a single physical source offering cost-effectiveness and better optimization of resources.
Architecture Of Cloud Computing
Cloud computing architecture refers to the components and sub-components required for cloud computing.
- Front end ( Fat client, Thin client)
- Back-end platforms ( Servers, Storage )
- Cloud-based delivery and a network ( Internet, Intranet, Intercloud )
1. Front End ( User Interaction Enhancement )
The User Interface of Cloud Computing consists of 2 sections of clients. The Thin clients are the ones that use web browsers facilitating portable and lightweight accessibilities and others are known as Fat Clients that use many functionalities for offering a strong user experience.
2. Back-end Platforms ( Cloud Computing Engine )
The core of cloud computing is made at back-end platforms with several servers for storage and processing computing. Management of Applications logic is managed through servers and effective data handling is provided by storage. The combination of these platforms at the backend offers the processing power, and capacity to manage and store data behind the cloud.
3. Cloud-Based Delivery and Network
On-demand access to the computer and resources is provided over the Internet, Intranet, and Intercloud. The Internet comes with global accessibility, the Intranet helps in internal communications of the services within the organization and the Intercloud enables interoperability across various cloud services. This dynamic network connectivity ensures an essential component of cloud computing architecture on guaranteeing easy access and data transfer.
Types of Cloud Computing Services
The following are the types of Cloud Computing:
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
1. Infrastructure as a Service ( IaaS )
Flexibility and Control: IaaS comes up with providing virtualized computing resources such as VMs, Storage, and networks facilitating users with control over the Operating system and applications.
Reducing Expenses of Hardware: IaaS provides business cost savings with the elimination of physical infrastructure investments making it cost-effective.
Scalability of Resources: The cloud provides in scaling of hardware resources up or down as per demand facilitating optimal performance with cost efficiency.
2. Platform as a Service ( PaaS )
Simplifying the Development: Platform as a Service offers application development by keeping the underlying Infrastructure as an Abstraction. It helps the developers to completely focus on application logic ( Code ) and background operations are completely managed by the AWS platform.
Enhancing Efficiency and Productivity: PaaS lowers the Management of Infrastructure complexity, speeding up the Execution time and bringing the updates quickly to market by streamlining the development process.
Automation of Scaling: Management of resource scaling, guaranteeing the program’s workload efficiency is ensured by PaaS.
3. SaaS (software as a service)
Collaboration And Accessibility: Software as a Service (SaaS) helps users to easily access applications without having the requirement of local installations. It is fully managed by the AWS Software working as a service over the internet encouraging effortless cooperation and ease of access.
Automation of Updates: SaaS providers manage the handling of software maintenance with automatic latest updates ensuring users gain experience with the latest features and security patches.
Cost Efficiency: SaaS acts as a cost-effective solution by reducing the overhead of IT support by eliminating the need for individual software licenses.
What Are Cloud Deployment Models?
The following are the Cloud Deployment Models:
1. Private Deployment Model
It provides an enhancement in protection and customization by cloud resource utilization as per particular specified requirements. It is perfect for companies which looking for security and compliance needs.
2. Public Deployment Model
It comes with offering a pay-as-you-go principle for scalability and accessibility of cloud resources for numerous users. it ensures cost-effectiveness by providing enterprise-needed services.
3. Hybrid Deployment Model
It comes up with a combination of elements of both private and public clouds providing seamless data and application processing in between environments. It offers flexibility in optimizing resources such as sensitive data in private clouds and important scalable applications in the public cloud.
Advantages of Cloud Computing
The following are main advantages of Cloud Computing:
- Cost Efficiency: Cloud Computing provides flexible pricing to the users with the principal pay-as-you-go model. It helps in lessening capital expenditures of Infrastructure, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses companies.
- Flexibility and Scalability: Cloud services facilitate the scaling of resources based on demand. It ensures the efficiency of businesses in handling various workloads without the need for large amounts of investments in hardware during the periods of low demand.
- Collaboration and Accessibility: Cloud computing provides easy access to data and applications from anywhere over the internet. This encourages collaborative team participation from different locations through shared documents and projects in real-time resulting in quality and productive outputs.
- Automatic Maintenance and Updates: AWS Cloud takes care of the infrastructure management and keeping with the latest software automatically making updates they is new versions. Through this, AWS guarantee the companies always having access to the newest technologies to focus completely on business operations and innvoations.
Disadvantages Of Cloud Computing
The following are the main disadvantages of Cloud Computing:
- Security Concerns: Storing of sensitive data on external servers raised more security concerns which is one of the main drawbacks of cloud computing.
- Downtime and Reliability: Even though cloud services are usually dependable, they may also have unexpected interruptions and downtimes. These might be raised because of server problems, Network issues or maintenance disruptions in Cloud providers which negative effect on business operations, creating issues for users accessing their apps.
- Dependency on Internet Connectivity: Cloud computing services heavily rely on Internet connectivity. For accessing the cloud resources the users should have a stable and high-speed internet connection for accessing and using cloud resources. In regions with limited internet connectivity, users may face challenges in accessing their data and applications.
- Cost Management Complexity: The main benefit of cloud services is their pricing model that coming with Pay as you go but it also leads to cost management complexities. On without proper careful monitoring and utilization of resources optimization, Organizations may end up with unexpected costs as per their use scale. Understanding and Controlled usage of cloud services requires ongoing attention.