Cloud Computing - What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud Computing – What is Cloud Computing?

Through the use of virtualization-based technology called cloud computing, we are able to design, set up, and modify applications online.

A hard drive, software program, database, and development platform are all components of cloud technology.

What is Cloud Computing?

A network or the internet is referred to as the “cloud.” It is a system that substitutes remote internet servers for local hard drives while storing, managing, and accessing data online.

Whatever you choose can be considered data, including files, photos, documents, audio, video, and more.

We can carry out the following tasks using cloud computing:

Developing new applications and services
Storage, backup, and recovery of data
Hosting blogs and websites
Delivery of software on demand
Analysis of data
Streaming videos and audio

Why Use the Cloud?

Both small and large IT firms provide IT infrastructure using conventional techniques. This means that a server room is a need for all IT organizations and is their fundamental demand.

A database server, mail server, networking equipment, firewalls, routers, modems, switches, QPS (Query Per Second, which indicates how many requests or loads the server will manage), configurable system, fast internet speed, and maintenance engineers should all be present in one server room.

We must invest a significant amount of money to build such an IT infrastructure. Cloud computing was created to address all of these issues and lower the cost of IT infrastructure.

Characteristics of Cloud Computing

The characteristics of cloud computing are given below:

Agility

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

High availability and reliability

Due to the low likelihood of infrastructure failure, server availability is high and more reliable.

High Scalability

Cloud offers “on-demand” provisioning of resources on a large scale, without having engineers for peak loads.

Multi-Sharing

By sharing a common infrastructure, cloud computing enables multiple users and applications to operate more effectively and affordably.

Device and Location Independence

Using a web browser, users can access systems using cloud computing regardless of where they are or what device they are using, such as a PC, smartphone, etc.

Users can connect from anywhere because the infrastructure is off-site (usually provided by a third party) and accessed through the Internet.

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.

Low Cost

By using cloud computing, the cost will be reduced because to take the services of cloud computing, an IT Company need not set its own infrastructure and pay-as-per-usage of resources.

Services in the pay-per-use mode

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are made available to users so they can use them to access cloud services and pay for those services as they are used.

Prerequisite

Before learning cloud computing, you must have a basic knowledge of computer fundamentals.

Audience

Our cloud computing is designed to help beginners and professionals.

Problem

We guarantee that learning from our cloud computing course won’t provide any challenges for you. However, if you find any errors in this guide, please let us know via the contact form.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Cloud Computing

Advantages of Cloud Computing

As is common knowledge, cloud computing is a popular technology. To boost business growth, almost every corporation moved its services to the cloud.

We will explore some significant benefits of cloud computing here:

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.

Improved collaboration

Cloud applications improve collaboration by allowing groups of people to quickly and easily share information in the cloud via shared storage.

Excellent accessibility

Using the cloud and an internet connection, we may quickly and conveniently access information stored anywhere, at any time. By ensuring that our data is always available, an internet cloud architecture boosts organizational productivity and efficiency.

Low maintenance cost

Cloud computing reduces both hardware and software maintenance costs for organizations.

Mobility

Cloud computing allows us to easily access all cloud data via mobile.

IServices in the pay-per-use model

Cloud computing offers Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to the users for accessing services on the cloud and pays the charges as per the usage of the service.

Unlimited storage capacity

Cloud offers us a huge amount of storage capacity for storing our important data such as documents, images, audio, video, etc. in one place.

Data security

Data security is one of the biggest advantages of cloud computing. The 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 –

Internet Connectivity

You probably already know that in cloud computing, all data (including images, audio, and video) is stored on the cloud and accessed over the internet.

You cannot access this data if your internet connection is poor. We do not, however, have any other means of gaining access to cloud-based data.

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.

Limited Control

As we know, cloud infrastructure is completely owned, managed, and monitored by the service provider, so cloud users have less control over the function and execution of services within a cloud infrastructure.

Although the best security measures are used by cloud service providers to store sensitive data. But before implementing cloud technology, you should be aware that you will be giving a cloud computing service provider access to all of your company’s critical data.

There’s a danger that hackers will steal the data from your company while it’s being sent via the cloud.

History of Cloud Computing

Client/Server computing, which is essentially a centralized storage in which all software applications, all data, and all controls reside on the server side, existed before cloud computing.

A single user must connect to the server and obtain the necessary access before being able to access a particular piece of data or run a program.

Distributed computing then entered the scene, in which all computers are networked together and share resources as required.

Based on the aforementioned computing, cloud computing principles were developed and later put into practice.

John MacCharty opined that computing may be marketed as a utility, much like water or electricity, in a 1961 address at MIT.

It was a fantastic idea, but like many great ideas, it was ahead of its time. For the following few decades, even if the model was popular, technology was simply not ready to support it.

However, as we indicated, technology eventually adopted that concept, and in 1999, Salesforce.com began distributing apps to consumers through a straightforward website.

Enterprises received the programs via the Internet, making the dream of computers as a utility a reality.

Amazon launched Amazon Web Services in 2002, offering solutions for computing, storage, and even artificial intelligence.

However, a fully commercial service that was accessible to everyone didn’t exist until the Elastic Compute Cloud was introduced in 2006.

Google Apps began offering business cloud computing applications in 2009.

Of course, all the major firms have participated in the development of cloud computing, some earlier than others.

Microsoft introduced Windows Azure in 2009, and since then, businesses like Oracle and HP have all joined the fray. This demonstrates that cloud computing is now widely used.

Cloud Computing Architecture

As is well known, both small and large businesses use cloud computing technology to store information on the cloud and provide access to it whenever and wherever they have an internet connection.

The architecture of cloud computing combines event-driven architecture and service-oriented design.

The two sections of cloud computing architecture are as follows:

Front End
Back End

Cloud Computing Architecture – Front End

The customer uses the front end. It includes programs and client-side interfaces needed to access cloud computing platforms.

Web servers (such as Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc.), thin & fat clients, tablets, and mobile devices make up the front end.

Back of

The service provider makes use of the back end. It oversees the management of all the resources needed to offer cloud computing services.

It consists of an enormous amount of data storage, security measures, virtual machines, servers, traffic control systems, etc.

Note: A network, typically the internet connection, connects the front end and back end to other devices.

Cloud Computing Architecture’s Elements

The components of cloud computing architecture are as follows:

Client Infrastructure

Client Infrastructure is a Front end component. It provides GUI (Graphical User Interface) to interact with the cloud.

Application

The application may be any software or platform that a client wants to access.

Service

According to the needs of the client, a cloud service handles the services you can access.

The three types of services that cloud computing provides are as follows:

Cloud application services are another name for software as a service (SaaS). SaaS apps typically run immediately through the web browser, eliminating the need for download and installation.

The following section includes several crucial SaaS examples. Salesforce, Google Apps, Dropbox, Slack, HubSpot, and Cisco WebEx.

Cloud platform services are another name for Platform as a Service (PaaS). It is somewhat similar to SaaS, however, PaaS offers a platform for software development, whereas SaaS allows us to access the software through the internet without a platform.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – Examples include Windows Azure, Force.com, Magento Commerce Cloud, and OpenShift. Services for cloud infrastructure are another name for it. It is in charge of overseeing runtime environments, middleware, and application data.

Examples include Google Compute Engine (GCE), Cisco Metapod, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) EC2.

Runtime Cloud

Runtime Cloud provides the execution and runtime environment to the virtual machines.

Storage

One of the most crucial elements of cloud computing is storage. It offers a sizable quantity of cloud storage space for managing and storing data.

Infrastructure

It offers host-level, application-level, and network-level services.

Servers, storage, network devices, virtualization software, and other storage resources are examples of the hardware and software elements that make up cloud infrastructure and are required to enable the cloud computing model.

Management

In the backend, management is utilized to provide coordination between components such as applications, services, runtime clouds, storage, infrastructure, and other security issues.