CLOUD COMPUTING

     We all know how popular the FOGG advertisement, If you ask any IT guy, Whats is going on outside in IT? The answer is CLOUD..

Cloud, cloud and cloud everywhere. Every IT organization is talking only about CLOUD..

      So, let's have a look at what it is..

Before going to the actual meaning of Cloud Computing, lets see what is a cloud and what is computing.

CLOUD: Cloud in IT world is nothing but Internet, which is, a network of networks providing remote access to a set of decentralized IT resources. Before cloud computing became prominent, the symbol of a cloud was commonly used to represent the Internet in a variety of specifications and mainstream documentations. his same symbol is now used to specifically represent a cloud environment. Only difference is that a cloud has a finite boundary.

    Internet provides open access to many Web-based IT resources, a cloud is typically privately owned and offers access to IT resources that is metered.

Internet is dedicated to the access of content-based IT resources published via the World Wide Web. Cloud environments, on the other hand, are dedicated to supplying back-end processing capabilities and user-based access to these capabilities.

Computing: Computing is the use of a computer to process data or perform calculations. For this we need Memory and Processor of a Computer in short we can say as storage. 

Cloud Computing: Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services—servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, intelligence and more over the Internet (“the cloud”) to offer faster innovation, flexible resources.

Types of Cloud Computing:

Cloud Computing can be classified based on the services it provides or based on the deployment model.

Based on the deployment model, Cloud computing can be classified into three types.

1. Public Cloud

2. Private Cloud

3. Hybrid Cloud

Based on the Services provided Cloud computing can be classified into three types

1. IAAS

2. PAAS

3. SAAS

First let's check out the 3 deployment models (public, private and hybrid) models.

1. Public Cloud:

    As the name implies this cloud service is available to all PUBLIC often on a pay-as-you-go basis. Simple example is Google Drive it's a free service until some 50 GB but we have to pay for it if you want to add more storage. Just register for it and you can use it. PUBLIC cloud is a shared, means anyone can access it via internet, all we have to do is just register for it and starting using the service.

    Public clouds are owned and operated by a third-party cloud service providers, which deliver their computing resources like servers and storage over the Internet. With a public cloud, all hardware, software, and other supporting infrastructure is owned and managed by the cloud provider. You access these services and manage your account using a web browser. 

In Public cloud data is not much secured on the other hand it will be of low cost.

2. Private Cloud:

     As the name implies this cloud service is private say to a particular organization. In Private cloud the resources are shared only within that Organization. General public cannot access them. We have to be in a VPN to access/utilize the cloud resources.

In Private cloud Data is more secure compared to Public cloud, but it will be costlier.

3. Hybrid Cloud:

    It's just a combination on both Public and Private clouds. In a hybrid cloud, data and applications can move between private and public clouds for greater flexibility and more deployment options. For instance, you can use the public cloud for high-volume, lower-security needs such as web-based email, and the private cloud for sensitive, business-critical operations like financial reporting.

In simple analogy, we can differentiate all 3 using the below analogy.

• Public cloud is like a Public Transport say a bus, you pay for it and you travel.
• Private Cloud is like office CAB, it can be used by all the employees in that office. Outsiders are not allowed to travel, It's more secure and costly compared to Public transport. 
• Hybrid cloud is like OLA/UBER, its available for all, anyone can use it and also only dedicated to that person until his journey. Its cheaper compared to private.

    Now let's look at the types of cloud computing based on the service model. There are 3 types of services provided.

1. IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service): 

     Infrastructure as a service  is a cloud computing offering in which a vendor provides users access to computing resources such as servers, storage and networking. Organizations use their own platforms and applications within a service provider’s infrastructure..

    IaaS clients have direct access to their servers and storage, just as they would with traditional servers but gain access to a much higher order of scalability. Users of IaaS can outsource and build a “virtual data center” in the cloud and have access to many of the same technologies and resource capabilities of a traditional data center without having to invest in capacity planning or the physical maintenance and management of it.

    IaaS clients are responsible for managing aspects such as applications, runtime, OSes, middleware, and data. However, providers of the IaaS manage the servers, hard drives, networking, virtualization, and storage. Some providers even offer more services outside of the virtualization layer, such as databases or message queuing.

2. PaaS (Platform as a Service): 

      

     PaaS refers to cloud-based platform services that provide developers with a framework they can use to build custom applications upon. What developers gain with PaaS is a framework they can build upon to develop or customize applications. In other words, In addition to storage and other computing resources, users are able to use a suite of prebuilt tools to develop, customize and test their own applications.

   PaaS makes the development, testing, and deployment of applications quick, simple, and cost-effective. With this technology, enterprise operations, or a third-party provider, can manage OSes, virtualization, servers, storage, networking, and the PaaS software itself. Developers, however, manage the applications.

3. SaaS (Software as a Service): 

      SaaS delivers software and applications through the internet. Users subscribe to the software and access it via the web or vendor APIs. A majority of SaaS applications are run directly through the web browser, and do not require any downloads or installations on the client side.

      SaaS provides numerous advantages to employees and companies by greatly reducing the time and money spent on tedious tasks such as installing, managing, and upgrading software. This frees up a lot of time for technical staff to spend on more pressing matters and issues within the organization.