1.
What is cloud?
The term cloud refers to a network or the internet. It is a
technology that uses remote servers on the internet to store, manage, and
access data online rather than local drives. The data can be anything such as
files, images, documents, audio, video, and more.
There are the following operations that we can do using cloud
computing:
• Developing new applications and services
• Storage, back up, and recovery of data
• Hosting blogs and websites
• Delivery of software on demand
• Analysis of data
• Streaming videos and audios
2.
Why Cloud Computing?
Small as well as large IT companies, follow 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, 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.
3.
Characteristics of Cloud Computing?
The characteristics of cloud computing are given below:
1) Agility
The cloud works in a distributed
computing environment. It shares resources among users and works very fast.
2) High availability and
reliability
The availability of servers is
high and more reliable because the chances of infrastructure failure are
minimum.
3) High Scalability
Cloud offers
"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 efficiently with 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 the 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.
4.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Cloud Computing?
Advantages of Cloud Computing
1) 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.
2) Improved collaboration
Cloud applications improve
collaboration by allowing groups of people to quickly and easily share
information in the cloud via shared storage.
3) 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.
4) Low maintenance cost
Cloud computing reduces both
hardware and software maintenance costs for organizations.
5) Mobility
Cloud computing allows us to
easily access all cloud data via mobile.
6) IServices 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.
7) 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.
8) 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.
Disadvantages of Cloud Computing
A list of the disadvantage of cloud computing is given below -
1) Internet Connectivity
As you know, in cloud computing,
every data (image, audio, video, etc.) is stored on the cloud, and we access
these data through the cloud by using the internet connection. If you do not
have good internet connectivity, you cannot access these data. However, we have
no any other way to access data from the cloud.
2) Vendor lock-in
Vendor lock-in is the biggest
disadvantage of cloud computing. Organizations may face problems when
transferring their services from one vendor to another. As different vendors
provide different platforms, that can cause difficulty moving from one cloud to
another.
3) 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.
4) Security
Although cloud service providers
implement the best security standards to store important information. But,
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.
5.
Types of Cloud?
·
Public
Cloud
·
Private
Cloud
·
Hybrid
Cloud
·
Community
Cloud
Public Cloud
Public cloud is open to all to store and access information
via the Internet using the pay-per-usage method.
In public cloud, computing resources are managed and operated
by the Cloud Service Provider (CSP).
Example: Amazon elastic compute cloud (EC2), IBM SmartCloud
Enterprise, Microsoft, Google App Engine, Windows Azure Services Platform.
Advantages of Public Cloud
·
There
are the following advantages of Public Cloud -
·
Public
cloud is owned at a lower cost than the private and hybrid cloud.
·
Public
cloud is maintained by the cloud service provider, so do not need to worry
about the maintenance.
·
Public
cloud is easier to integrate. Hence it offers a better flexibility approach to
consumers.
·
Public
cloud is location independent because its services are delivered through the
internet.
·
Public
cloud is highly scalable as per the requirement of computing resources.
·
It is
accessible by the general public, so there is no limit to the number of users.
Disadvantages of Public Cloud
·
Public
Cloud is less secure because resources are shared publicly.
·
Performance
depends upon the high-speed internet network link to the cloud provider.
·
The
Client has no control of data.
Private Cloud
Private cloud is also known as an internal cloud or corporate
cloud. It is used by organizations to build and manage their own data centers
internally or by the third party. It can be deployed using Opensource tools
such as Openstack and Eucalyptus.
Based on the location and management, National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) divide private cloud into the following two
parts-
·
On-premise
private cloud
·
Outsourced
private cloud
Advantages of Private Cloud
There are the following advantages of the Private Cloud -
·
Private
cloud provides a high level of security and privacy to the users.
·
Private
cloud offers better performance with improved speed and space capacity.
·
It
allows the IT team to quickly allocate and deliver on-demand IT resources.
·
The
organization has full control over the cloud because it is managed by the
organization itself. So, there is no need for the organization to depends on
anybody.
·
It is
suitable for organizations that require a separate cloud for their personal use
and data security is the first priority.
Disadvantages of Private Cloud
·
Skilled
people are required to manage and operate cloud services.
·
Private
cloud is accessible within the organization, so the area of operations is
limited.
·
Private
cloud is not suitable for organizations that have a high user base, and
organizations that do not have the prebuilt infrastructure, sufficient manpower
to maintain and manage the cloud.
Hybrid Cloud
Hybrid Cloud is a combination of the public cloud and the
private cloud. we can say:
Hybrid Cloud = Public Cloud + Private Cloud
Hybrid cloud is partially secure because the services which
are running on the public cloud can be accessed by anyone, while the services
which are running on a private cloud can be accessed only by the organization's
users.
Example: Google Application Suite (Gmail, Google Apps, and
Google Drive), Office 365 (MS Office on the Web and One Drive), Amazon Web
Services.
Advantages of Hybrid Cloud
There
are the following advantages of Hybrid Cloud -
·
Hybrid cloud is suitable for organizations that require more
security than the public cloud.
·
Hybrid cloud helps you to deliver new products and services more
quickly.
·
Hybrid cloud provides an excellent way to reduce the risk.
·
Hybrid cloud offers flexible resources because of the public cloud
and secure resources because of the private
cloud.
Disadvantages of Hybrid Cloud
·
In
Hybrid Cloud, security feature is not as good as the private cloud.
·
Managing
a hybrid cloud is complex because it is difficult to manage more than one type
of deployment model.
·
In the
hybrid cloud, the reliability of the services depends on cloud service
providers.
Community Cloud
Community cloud allows systems and services to be accessible
by a group of several organizations to share the information between the
organization and a specific community. It is owned, managed, and operated by
one or more organizations in the community, a third party, or a combination of
them.
Example: Health Care community cloud
Advantages of Community Cloud
There are the following advantages of Community Cloud -
·
Community
cloud is cost-effective because the whole cloud is being shared by several
organizations or communities.
·
Community
cloud is suitable for organizations that want to have a collaborative cloud
with more security features than the public cloud.
·
It
provides better security than the public cloud.
·
It
provdes collaborative and distributive environment.
·
Community
cloud allows us to share cloud resources, infrastructure, and other
capabilities among various organizations.
Disadvantages of Community Cloud
·
Community
cloud is not a good choice for every organization.
·
Security
features are not as good as the private cloud.
·
It is
not suitable if there is no collaboration.
·
The
fixed amount of data storage and bandwidth is shared among all community
members.
6.
Cloud Service Models?
There are the following three types of cloud service models -
1.
Infrastructure
as a Service (IaaS)
2.
Platform
as a Service (PaaS)
3.
Software
as a Service (SaaS)
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
IaaS is also known as Hardware as a Service (HaaS). It is a
computing infrastructure managed over the internet. The main advantage of using
IaaS is that it helps users to avoid the cost and complexity of purchasing and
managing the physical servers.
Characteristics of IaaS
There are the following characteristics of IaaS -
• Resources are available as a service
• Services are highly scalable
• Dynamic and flexible
• GUI and API-based access
• Automated administrative tasks
Example: DigitalOcean, Linode, Amazon Web Services (AWS),
Microsoft Azure, Google Compute Engine (GCE), Rackspace, and Cisco Metacloud.
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
PaaS cloud computing platform is created for the programmer to
develop, test, run, and manage the applications.
Characteristics of PaaS
·
There
are the following characteristics of PaaS -
·
Accessible
to various users via the same development application.
·
Integrates
with web services and databases.
·
Builds
on virtualization technology, so resources can easily be scaled up or down as
per the organization's need.
·
Support
multiple languages and frameworks.
·
Provides
an ability to "Auto-scale".
Example: AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Windows Azure, Heroku,
Force.com, Google App Engine, Apache Stratos, Magento Commerce Cloud, and
OpenShift.
To know more about PaaS, click here.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
SaaS is also known as "on-demand software". It is a
software in which the applications are hosted by a cloud service provider.
Users can access these applications with the help of internet connection and
web browser.
Characteristics of SaaS
·
There
are the following characteristics of SaaS -
·
Managed
from a central location
·
Hosted
on a remote server
·
Accessible
over the internet
·
Users
are not responsible for hardware and software updates. Updates are applied
automatically.
·
The
services are purchased on the pay-as-per-use basis
Example: BigCommerce, Google Apps, Salesforce, Dropbox,
ZenDesk, Cisco WebEx, ZenDesk, Slack, and GoToMeeting.
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