Cloud Computing

What is Cloud Computing

Cloud computing means on demand delivery of IT resources via the internet with pay-as-you-go pricing. It provides a solution of IT infrastructure in low cost.

Why Cloud Computing

Actually, Small as well as some large IT companies follows the traditional methods to provide the IT infrastructure. That means for any IT company, we need a Server Room that is the basic need of IT companies.

In that server room, there should be a database server, mail server, networking, firewalls,routers, modem, switches, QPS (Query Per Second means how much queries or load will be handled by the server) , 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.

 

Characteristics of Cloud Computing

The characteristics of cloud computing are given below:

1) Agility

The cloud works in the distributed computing environment. It shares resources among users and works very fast.

2) High availability and reliability

Availability of servers is high and more reliable, because chances of infrastructure failure are minimal.

3) High Scalability

Means "on-demand" provisioning of resources on a large scale, without having engineers for peak loads.

4) Multi-Sharing

With the help of cloud computing, multiple users and applications can work more efficientlywith cost reductions by sharing common infrastructure.

5) 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.

6) 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.

7) 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.

8) Services in pay-per-use mode

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are provided to the users so that they can access services on the cloud by using these APIs and pay the charges as per the usage of services.

Advantages of Cloud Computing

There are various advantages of cloud computing technology. The important advantages of cloud computing are given below.

1) Lower cost computer for users

In cloud, you don't require a high-powered (and accordingly high-priced) computer to run cloud computing's web based applications because applications run on cloud not on desktop PC or laptop.

2) Lower IT infrastructure cost

By using cloud computing, you need not to invest in larger numbers of more powerful servers, you also need not to require the IT staff for handling such powerful servers.

3) Fewer maintenance cost

The maintenance cost in cloud computing greatly reduces both hardware and software maintenance for organizations of all sizes.

4) Lower Software Cost

It reduces the software cost because you don't need to purchase separate software packages for each computer in the organization.

5) Instant software updates

Another software-related advantage in cloud computing is that users don't need to face with the choice between obsolete software and high upgrade costs. If the app is web-based, updates happen automatically and are available next time when the user logs in to the cloud.

6) Increased computing Power

The execution capacity of cloud servers are very high. It processes the application very fast.

7) Unlimited storage capacity

Cloud offers you a huge amount of storage capacity like 2000 GB or more than that if required.

Disadvantages of Cloud Computing

There are various disadvantages of cloud computing technology. The important disadvantages of cloud computing are given below.

1) Require a constant Internet Connection

Cloud computing is impossible without Internet connection. To access any applications and documents you need a constant Internet connection.

2) Require High Speed Internet connection

Similarly, a low-speed Internet connection makes cloud computing painful at best and often impossible. Web based apps often require a lot of bandwidth to download, as need to download large documents.

3) Stored Data Might Not Be Secure

With cloud computing, all your data is stored in the cloud. That's all well and good, but how secure is the cloud? Can't unauthorized users gain access to your confidential data?

 

How does cloud computing work

Assume that you are an executive at a very big corporation. Your particular responsibilities include to make sure that all of your employees have the right hardware and software they need to do their jobs. To buy computers for everyone is not enough. You also have to purchase software as well as software licenses and then provide these softwares to your employees as they require. Whenever you hire a new employee, you need to buy more software or make sure your current software license allows another user. It is so stressful that you have to spend lots of money.

But, there may be an alternative for executives like you. So, instead of installing a suite of software for each computer, you just need to load one application. That application will allow the employees to log-in into a Web-based service which hosts all the programs for the user that is required for his/her job. Remote servers owned by another company and that will run everything from e-mail to word processing to complex data analysis programs. It is called cloud computing, and it could change the entire computer industry.

Public Cloud

Public cloud allows the accessibility of systems and services easily to general public. Eg: Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Rackspace etc.

 

Advantages of Public Cloud Model

1) Low Cost

Public cloud is having low cost as compared to private or hybrid cloud, because it shares same resources with large number of consumer.

2) Reliable

Public cloud provides large number of resources from different locations, if any of the resource fail, public cloud can employ another one.

3) Flexible

It is very easy to integrate public cloud with private cloud and hence it gives flexible approach to consumers.

4) Location Independent

It ensures the independency of location, because public cloud services are delivered through Internet.

5) High Scalability

Cloud resources are available as per the demand from the pool of resources that means they can be scaled up or down according to the requirement.

Disadvantages of Public Cloud Model

1) Low security

In public cloud model, data is present off-site and resources are shared publicly. Hence it does not ensure the high level security.

2) Less customizable

It is less customizable than private cloud.

Private Cloud

The Private cloud allows the accessibility of systems and services within the organization. Private cloud is operated only within a particular organization. But it will be managed internally or by third party.

Advantages of Private Cloud Model

1) High security and privacy

Private cloud resources are shared from distinct pool of resources and hence highly secured.

 

2) More Control

Private clouds have more control on its resources and hardware than public cloud because it is accessed only within the boundary of an organization.

Disadvantages of Private Cloud Model

1) Restriction

Private cloud is only accessible locally and it is very difficult to deploy globally.

2) More Cost

cloud is having more cost than public clouds.

3) Inflexible price

In order to fulfill demands, purchasing new hardware is very costly.

4) Less Scalability

Private clouds are scaled only within capacity of internal hosted resources.

Service of Cloud Computing

Software as a Service | SaaS

SaaS is a software distribution model in which applications are hosted by a cloud service provider and made available to customers over internet. SaaS is also known as "On-Demand Software".

In SaaS, software and associated data are centrally hosted on the cloud server. SaaS is accessed by users using a thin client via a web browser.

Advantages of SaaS cloud computing layer

1) SaaS is easy to buy

SaaS pricing is based on a monthly fee or annual fee, SaaS allows organizations to access business functionality at a low cost which is less than licensed applications.

Unlike traditional software which is sold as a licensed based with an up-front cost (and often an optional ongoing support fee), SaaS providers generally pricing the applications using a subscription fee, most commonly a monthly or annually fee.

2) Less hardware required for SaaS

The software is hosted remotely, so organizations don't need to invest in additional hardware.

3) Low Maintenance required for SaaS

Software as a service removes the necessity of installation, set-up, and often daily unkeep and maintenance for organizations. Initial set-up cost for SaaS is typically less than the enterprise software. SaaS vendors actually pricing their applications based on some usage parameters, such as number of users using the application. So SaaS does easy to monitor and automatic updates.

4) No special software or hardware versions required

All users will have the same version of software and typically access it through the web browser. SaaS reduces IT support costs by outsourcing hardware and software maintenance and support to the IaaS provider.

Disadvantages of SaaS cloud computing layer

1) Security

Actually data is stored in cloud, so security may be an issue for some users. However, cloud computing is not more secure than in-house deployment. Learn more cloud security.

2) Latency issue

Because the data and application are stored in cloud at a variable distance from the end user, so there is a possibility that there may be more latency while interacting with the application than a local deployment. So, SaaS model is not suitable for applications whose demand response times are in milliseconds.

3) Total Dependency on Internet

Without internet connection, most SaaS applications are not usable.

4) Switching between SaaS vendors is difficult

Switching SaaS vendors involves the difficult and slow task of transferring the very large data files over the Internet and then converting and importing them into another SaaS also.

Infrastructure as a Service | IaaS

IaaS is one of the layers of cloud computing platform wherein the customer organization outsources its IT infrastructure such as servers, networking, processing, storage, virtual machines and other resources. Customers access these resources over internet i.e. cloud computing platform, on a pay-per-use model.

Iaas, earlier called Hardware as a Service (HaaS), is a cloud computing platform based model.

In traditional hosting services, IT infrastructure was rented out for a specific periods of time, with pre-determined hardware configuration. The client paid for the configuration and time, regardless of the actual use. With the help of IaaS cloud computing platform layer, clients can dynamically scale the configuration to meet changing requires, and are billed only for the services actually used.

IaaS cloud computing platform layer eliminates the need for every organization to maintain the IT infrastructure.

IaaS is offered in three models: public, private, and hybrid cloud. Private cloud implies that the infrastructure resides at the customer-premise. In case of public cloud, it is located at the cloud computing platform vendor's data center; and hybrid cloud is a combination of two with customer choosing the best of both worlds.

Advantages of IaaS cloud computing layer

1) You can dynamically choose a CPU, memory and storage configuration as per your needs.

2) You easily access the vast computing power available on IaaS cloud platform.

3) You can eliminate the need of investment in rarely used IT hardware.

4) IT infra will be handled by the IaaS cloud computing platform vendors.

Disadvantages of IaaS cloud computing layer

There is a risk of IaaS cloud computing platform vendor by gaining the access to the organization?s data. But it can be avoided by opting for private cloud.

2) IaaS cloud computing platform model is dependent on internet availability.

3) It is also dependent on the availability of virtualization services.

4) IaaS cloud computing platform can limit the user privacy and customization options.

Some pinpoint about IaaS cloud computing layer

IaaS cloud computing platform cannot replace traditional hosting method but it provides more than that and each resources which are used are predictable as per the usage.

IaaS cloud computing platform may not eliminate the need for an in-house IT department. It will be needed to monitor or control the IaaS setup. IT salary expenditure might not reduce significantly, but other IT expenses can be reduced.

Breakdowns at the IaaS cloud computing platform vendor's end can bring your business to at the halt stage. Assess the IaaS cloud computing platform vendor's stability and finances. Make sure that SLAs (i.e. Service Level Agreement) provide backups for data, hardware, network and application failures. Image portability and third-party support is a plus point.

The IaaS cloud computing platform vendor can get access to your sensitive data. So, engage with the credible companies or organizations. Study their security policies and precautions.

Top vendors who are providing IaaS cloud computing platform

IaaS Vendor	Iaas Solution	Details
Amazon Web Services	Elastic, Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) MapReduce, Route 53, Virtual Private Cloud, etc.	The cloud computing platform pioneer, Amazon offers auto scaling, cloud monitoring, and load balancing features as part of its portfolio.
Netmagic Solutions	Netmagic IaaS Cloud	Netmagic runs from data centers in Mumbai, Chennai, and Bangalore, and a virtual data center in the United States. Plans are underway to extend services to West Asia.
Rackspace	Cloud servers, cloud files, cloud sites, etc.	The cloud computing platform vendor focuses primarily on enterprise-level hosting services.
Reliance Communications	Reliance Internet Data Center	RIDC supports both traditional hosting and cloud services, with data centers in Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Chennai. The cloud services offered by RIDC include IaaS and SaaS.
Tata Communications	InstaCompute	InstaCompute is Tata Communications' IaaS offering. InstaCompute data centers are located in Hyderabad and Singapore, with operations in both countries.