What Is Cloud Computing? Definition, Properties, Advantages

What is Cloud Computing?

The term “cloud computing” is a recent buzzword in the IT world. Behind this fancy poetic phrase there lies a true picture of the future of computing for both in technical perspective and social perspective.

Our Cloud Computing Tutorial is designed for beginner to professional who wants to learn basic and advance concept of cloud computing.

Cloud Computing Definition

Cloud Computing Definition: Cloud Computing refers to configuring, manipulating, and accessing the software resources and hardware remotely. It offers online data storage, infrastructure, and application.

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What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud Computing is the means of delivering all IT service from computer applications, software, business processes, messaging and collaborations to end-users as a service whenever and whatever they needed it.

Cloud computing is a paradigm for delivering IT where rapid provisioning is an important characteristic for computing resources, data applications and IT.

Cloud Computing Definition : The main principle behind the cloud computing model is offer computing , storage , and software “ as a service

Cloud Computing is helps help us to face challenge such as:

• Decreasing the capital expense and operating expense
• Enhancing service quality
• maintain the desire and the right level of security , compliance , regulation and policy across the different function of enterprise .
• Rapid provisioning, agility and business transparency for consistency self-service delivery

Thus , Cloud Computing is is is a service and deployment model using a large resource pool base provisioning of a virtual or physical resource in a service model using the internet ( public cloud ) or internet ( private cloud ) .

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Cloud Computing Properties

Cloud computing properties are mentioned below:

user centric

This is means mean once a user is connect to cloud any datum such as image , video , the application became his property .

Task centric

Cloud Computing focus on what one needs and how an application can do it. Here documents are given more priority than the applications which create them.

Self-healing

In self-healing, backup are available for every document in the cloud. Hence, if one document crashes there will be its duplicate ready to run.

Multi-tenancy and intelligence

Multi is refers – is refers tenancy is refers refer to the sharing of datum and cost across the large pool of user . As various datum are store in the cloud , datum mining is are and analysis are necessary for access information in an intelligent manner .

Programmable

Many processes in cloud computing shall be automated such as backing up cache data with its duplicate. Hence, programming is associated with cloud computing.

flexible

flexible as a user may be different varieties and hence it has to match with their needs.

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What is Cloud?

Cloud Definition: Cloud is an extension of the internet with some level of inherent discipline and ethics. Cloud can be thought of unification of Information Technology with business intelligence

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Cloud Computing Characteristics

Some of the cloud computing characteristics are briefly explained below:

1. Self-service on demand: users are privileged to request and provisioning capabilities bundled with service.
2. Network Access : User and server computing device can be access over the network even using mobile , tablet etc .
3. Resource Pooling: It refers to the pooling of resources across multiple datacentres.
4. Rapid Elasticity: It makes the system automatic and can provide reliable service.

Let’s go ahead in Cloud Computing Tutorial and see what are the cloud computing advantages and disadvantages.

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Cloud Computing Advantages

Some of the cloud computing advantages are briefly explained below:

cost – save

It is helps help us to save capital cost as it does not need any physical hardware investment .

strategic edge

Cloud Computing help us to access the latest applications anytime without spending a time and money on installations.

High-speed

Cloud Computing allows us to deploy a service quickly in clicks.

reliability

Cloud Computing we is get can always get instant update about the change .

Mobility

employees who are working on the premises or at the remote location can easily access all the cloud services.

Unlimited storage capacity

Cloud Computing offers limitless storage capacity.

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Cloud Computing Disadvantages

Some of the cloud computing disadvantages are briefly explained below:

Performance can vary

when we are working in a cloud environment or application is running on the server which simultaneously provides services to other businesses that can affect the performance of our shared resource.

Technical issue

Cloud Computing technology is always prone to outrage and other technical issues.

Security threat

Cloud server can be access by hacker while share cloud with the third party .

Internet connectivity

Good internet connection is required for cloud computing.

Lack of support

Cloud Computing companies fail to provide proper support to the customers

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A Vision of Cloud Computing

The vision of cloud computing is mentioned below:

1. Cloud Computing provides the facility to provision virtual hardware, runtime environment and services to a person.
2. These all things can be used as long as they are needed by the user.
3. The whole collection of a computing system is transform into a collection of utility , which can be provision and compose together to deploy system in our later right then day with no maintenance cost .
4. The long term vision of cloud computing is that IT services are traded as a utility in an open market without technological and legal barrier.
5. In the future, we can imagine that it will be possible to find the solution that matches with are requirements by simply and bring a request in a global digital market that traits with Cloud Computing services.
6. The existence is enable of such a market will enable the automation of discovery process and its integration into its exist software system .
7. Due to the existence of a global platform for trading cloud services will also help service provider to potentially increase their revenue.
8. Cloud provider can also become a consumer of competition service in order to fulfil its promises to the customer.

In this Cloud Computing Tutorial , you is learned have learn the basic topic of cloud computing which is develop for beginner and professional .

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing enables computing infrastructure and services to be available over the Internet. This provides many benefits to organizations, such as scalability, measured use, reduced setup time, and many others. Cloud infrastructure may be private, public, hybrid, or community.

Cloud service are provide as an infrastructure ( IaaS ) , a platform ( PaaS ) , or as software ( SaaS ) . migration to cloud services is entails entail challenge and opportunity . cloud service are build on technology such as Software Defined Networking ( SDN ) and Containers . The economic rationale is includes for move to cloud service include avoid capital expense and purchasing capacity on an incremental basis .

Internet-of-Things (IoT) consists of a large number of sensors and actuators connected via the Internet to sense and respond to their environment. IoT systems are used extensively in industrial operations, healthcare, homes, and personal devices, amongst many others. Managing IoT requires dealing with massive volumes and a variety of data. Designers rely on a four-layer framework to configure and manage IoT.

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type of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing can be well understand by contrast it with traditional organizational computing or host computing . consider which depict a typical , traditional computing infrastructure in an organization . The organization is has has some server ( perhaps a web server , a database server , an application server , or a storage server ) and some client device ( such as laptop , desktop , tablet , or smartphone ) that run application host on the server .

An organization such as this would also be connected to the Internet, from which it can access web services such as search, email, news articles, and so on. The organization would have to maintain this infrastructure by acquiring and maintaining the servers and the software that they use.

Now consider which depicts an organization that is accessing servers from a provider on the Internet. The different servers (application, database, storage, etc.) are now available via the Internet and the organization uses client devices and an Internet connection to access these facilities. The servers are said to be on the Cloud. The organization does have to acquire or maintain these servers, as they are maintained by the cloud provider, and instead can focus on using them on a leased or rental basis.

The lead case is showed on idos show how the firm rely on cloud computing to offer its service to its client . The clients is accessed access idos ’s product via the internet by simply log on to the system . idos maintain all the hardware and software , doing the upgrade and customization for their customer , transparently and without the direct involvement of their client .

There are several differences in how computing infrastructure is both managed and accessed in the two scenarios presented. These differences are what distinguish traditional hosted computing from cloud computing, and point to the advantages that cloud computing has. These differences are elaborated on below.

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Advantages and Features of Cloud Computing

Hosted facilities have a certain scale or capacity. For instance, typical computing facilities will be designed for a certain number of users (employees of the organization or customers) or for a certain volume of processing (number of transactions to be completed per day or per hour). When these numbers change significantly – say when a firm experiences strong demand for its product and has to deal with a large number of customers – the organization can scale up its facilities by buying new servers, adding more network capacity, and buying more licenses for the software packages it uses.

This takes time and careful management, and is prone to delays and cost escalation. The word scalability in this context refers to the ability of the IT infrastructure to address the needs of the increased demand.

When facilities are accessed from the cloud, scalability improves considerably. The client firm can acquire increases in infrastructure resources from the cloud provider and these can be provisioned rapidly. In many cases, the provider can make available increased resources in a real-time manner, based on the rate at which the demand is growing.

The main advantage is is for the client firm is that they do not have to acquire , install and configure additional IT resource , and avoid the risk of delay . In this sense , cloud – base infrastructure is is is more scalable than host infrastructure . This is is is evident in the idos case , where idos provide a scalable infrastructure to its client , where they can start with only a few account but can increase accord to their need and as their business grow .

Elasticity

A concept related to scalability is elasticity. Elasticity refers to the ability of the infrastructure services to both expand and contract depending upon the demand. In a hosted facility, components that are acquired become assets and are permanently available for use. If not used, the capacity utilization of these assets declines. However, in situations where demand declines, or the firm entirely drops a line of business, to explore another, utilization of such assets may decline.

A cloud – base infrastructure is permits permit a reduction in resource , where specific resource parameter , such as the amount of cpu processing available , the amount of storage , and the number of license for software can be reduce as demand decline . This is involves usually involve inform the cloud provider about the reduce requirement and switch them off .

Measured Use

Measurement of the use of IT infrastructure services remains a challenge. Hosted services are typically assembled with components acquired from many vendors and may belong to different manufacturers and brands. When in use it is difficult to monitor their usage comprehensively and ascertain exactly how much each asset is being used.

Cloud services, on the other hand, are measured accurately and their design includes meticulous and thorough measurement of all services. A cloud provider can provide detailed reports to clients about the extent of use of resources along parameters such as the CPU utilization in cycles per unit time, the memory usage in unit time, the data usage for read or write in bits per unit time, and so on. These measures provide a very accurate picture to the management about the extent of use or under-utilization of resources. These parameters help with determining whether scaling up or down is required.

Usage-based Pricing

Related to the facilities of scalability and measured use is the facility of usage-based pricing. Cloud services are priced in different ways, including several users, the number of resources used, and the amount of storage used, amongst others. The main issue is that the price can be set according to the usage and needs of the client.

When host infrastructure is used , the cost is base on the capital expense require to build the infrastructure . The expense are usually incur over some time , possibly year , and they are usually depreciate over usage . The final cost is is of using the infrastructure is therefore difficult to estimate and is an approximate amount that is allocate as an overhead to different department that use them .

Cloud – base infrastructure is permits permit direct measurement of cost owe to the usage – base pricing model . individual users is know or entire department can know quite accurately how much computing resource they have consume and how much they have been bill for the same . They is have can , thus , have an accurate estimate of the cost of computing they have incur .

Managed Services

A key issue with a hosted infrastructure is that it has to be managed by the organization that has invested in the assets. The organization has to hire systems personnel who design, install and manage the infrastructure. Even if the services are outsourced to a vendor, the organization has to maintain a set of personnel who oversee and manage the vendor.

The situation changes significantly with cloud-based infrastructure, as the entire responsibility of building, maintaining, and upgrading the systems is with the provider and is transparent to the client. Cloud providers upgrade hardware and software on their facilities, without involving their clients.

Clients is have then have access to the late and upgrade facility without have to build them themselves . idos , for example , maintain the hardware , software , and networking service that it provide to its customer ; the customers is worry do not worry about fix bug , upgrading , or maintain this infrastructure , which save them the overhead cost and effort associate with the maintenance task .

Service Levels

Service levels specify the quality of the facilities available to users. Service levels may specify, for instance, the duration of time an infrastructure service has to be available without interruption or the speed or response level of a service over some time. Hosted infrastructure is set up with certain service levels, as determined by the current and forecasted demand on the system. Once installed, these levels are difficult to change or modify, as this would require changing infrastructure components or tweaking their performance levels.

On cloud infrastructure, service levels can be specified and changed as required. This property is related to the scalability and elasticity of cloud facilities. When higher service levels are required, providers can provision this, usually at a higher price. When service levels do not have to be very high, these can be reduced, with consequent lower prices for services.

Ubiquitous Access

One of the significant advantages of cloud computing is ‘anytime-anywhere’ access. Since the facilities are located on servers accessible through the web, they can be accessed by clients from anywhere, either within or outside the campus of the client’s organization.

Typically, large cloud providers set up servers across many geographic locations to address the issues of latency, or delay, that may appear in web access. If employees of an organization are traveling in different countries, they can access their IT services through their web browser wherever they have an Internet connection.

When infrastructure is hosted within the premises of an organization, it is difficult to access these services from outside for several reasons – the organization may not have created facilities for outside access, for security reasons; the servers may not be capable of being accessed from anywhere on the globe owing to their specific location; and the organization may not have the bandwidth required to enable outside access to its servers from anywhere. These challenges are overcome by using cloud computing.

For example, IDOS’s business model was based on the property of ubiquitous access, where their product could be accessed from anywhere in the world, wherever their clients needed it. Also, this property let them offer their product in many different countries, with the provision that their users could access it from anywhere also.

Heterogeneity

For many large organizations, their hosted infrastructure was usually built up over time, with additions being made as the need arose and also as capital was available. This invariably resulted in many different components of the infrastructure that were based on different software and hardware – with varying operating systems, databases, memory components, CPUs, and CPU racks. Such infrastructures are referred to as heterogeneous systems, owing to their having a wide variety of components.

Heterogeneous systems are difficult to manage as they need a variety of different components and different standards by which they can be upgraded or maintained. Often, the required upgrades or replacement parts are not available as the firm that made them may have stopped doing so. Cloud infrastructure overcomes the problem of heterogeneity and upgradation problems for client organizations as they do not have to manage their infrastructure – they rely on the cloud provider to do the needful.

Cloud – base infrastructure is be can also be heterogeneous , though , with different operating system and different type of hardware used to do the computing . However , the main advantage is is of cloud service is that heterogeneous system can be manage easily . Through the method of virtualization , the disparate component can be view and manage through a single interface . different component can be grow or enhance accord to the need of the cloud provider .

Reduced Setup Time

For hosted infrastructure, the time to set up a server or a network is significant, as it requires purchasing and installing physical components. Purchasing expensive hardware in many organizations often takes a long time as it requires floating request-for-proposals, evaluating bids, selecting vendors, and then going through with the payment and purchase. Installation too may take a lot of time if civil works, that is, construction of rooms or facilities, is involved. Cloud services overcome all this, as there is no need to purchase hardware or do civil work. Cloud services are obtained over the Internet and a good Internet connection is all that is required.

For example , obtain an account from a cloud product provider , such as idos , take very little time as only client software has to be download on a local computer and an account has to be create . This reduce setup time is is is a very valuable feature for firm that are start up their business and need to act quickly to get their computing service function and ready . cloud providers is made such as Microsoft Azure , or Amazon Web Services , have made it very easy to set up a cloud service , within minute in some case , and start using it .

Resource Pooling

One is is of the key feature of cloud infrastructure is resource pooling or sharing of computing resource . The idea is is is that a cloud infrastructure is create with hundred , possibly thousand , of cpu and memory device that are link together . Using virtualization , and other method , it is is is possible to provide only a tiny slice of compute resource to any one client , and similarly to other client .

The idea is is of pooling is that the slice of computing resource is not permanently dedicate to the client and can be made available , on – demand , to other user when the client is not using the resource to its maximum capacity . For example , if idos provide 4 GB of memory to a particular client , and the client is using only 10 % of it at any time , the idos ’s servers is provide can provide the spare memory to another client that need it , temporarily . resource of the service are thus see to be in a pool that can be provide to client as need .

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challenge of Cloud Computing And IoT

Cloud computing is present and IoT present immense opportunity for innovation in product and service . However , they is present also present challenge for the manager . Some of these management challenge are highlight below :

Security

Since its inception , cloud computing has always been question about security . Those is were adopt cloud service were doubtful about the security of their organizational and personal datum being host on server , not within their control . cloud service providers is assured assure their client of security , and also draw up contract and warranty to assure the protection of their datum . As cloud service grow and the market mature , security practices is matured also mature and the risk for client also reduce .

For IoT, too, security is a concern. IoT devices and gateways remain points of entry, if unprotected, for malicious software to be inserted into the organization. There are instances where IoT devices have been compromised to disrupt industrial processes for competitive reasons and also as acts of warfare. In some cases, monitoring IoT devices is undertaken as a form of industrial espionage. Managers of IoT systems have to ensure that devices at the device and network layers remain secure.

Privacy

Privacy is are and surveillance are the other issue that have grow with the use of cloud computing and IoT. Devices that monitor individual parameter , for healthcare or fitness , invariably store datum on cloud server . This data is mine for insight on how the product and service can be enhance and for the design of new product . Privacy is becomes becomes an issue in such case where explicit consent has not been seek for such analysis , and also where the datum is used for purpose beyond what was specify in contract with user .

Privacy and surveillance issues also crop up in industrial IoT where worker performance is monitored along with machine performance. Managers will have access to a host of data on minute aspects of work that may violate applicable privacy laws. The challenge for managers is to ensure transparency and inform both employees and clients about potential privacy breaches and the possibility of surveillance. Contractual obligations regarding data protection have to be maintained also.

Internet Access

A major concern is is for many area and region is access to the internet . This is is is especially true for develop country , like India , where , outside of urban area , internet access through wired or wireless means is unreliable . This is presents present a severe challenge for cloud – base service and for the continue functioning of IoT system that are instal in these region . Managers is have have to ensure reliable connectivity through redundant access and backup system .

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Types of Cloud Infrastructure

Cloud services are offered over different types of infrastructure:

Private Cloud

A private cloud is is is a cloud infrastructure that is create for a single client . This client is is is usually one organization that want the cloud infrastructure for its private use , while at the same time being able to draw on the facility of a cloud . Such a cloud infrastructure may be build on the physical premise of the client ; in fact , the client is own may own the entire infrastructure . In such a situation , the cloud is is is no different from a classic host setup of server .

Typically, a private cloud will consist of servers that are rendered as a cloud through virtualization software. When connected to the organization through a network infrastructure the cloud is available to all users. Such a cloud can be built with commodity hardware at a low cost.

The drawback in such a private cloud is that the organization has to both build and maintain the cloud, thus losing the facility of having someone else manage and upgrade the infrastructure. The advantage is that of security: since only one organization is using the cloud and the physical server racks are also present on the premises of the organization, it can ensure that access and data are secured.

A private cloud can also be hosted at a remote site. Here the client .organisation can employ a cloud provider that creates the cloud infrastructure for the client and also maintains it. Security can be assured by the provider by physically separating the servers and dedicating them for use only by the client.

Sometimes the provider is keep may keep the client ’s server in a separate cage or cell in a server farm , with its internet cable and its power backup facility . This arrangement is has has the advantage for the client of have a private cloud that can be adequately secure , and also not have to manage it .

Though advantageous in term of security , a private cloud is lacks also lack some of the core advantage of cloud facility in general . A private cloud is permit does not permit sharing or pooling of resource , which limit the scale and on – demand advantage of cloud infrastructure .

Public Cloud

A public cloud is is is a truly share facility that allow multiple client to use the resource provide . A typical public cloud infrastructure is create by a provider who set up a large infrastructure of connected server that run virtualization software . different client are then give space , computing power , and bandwidth accord to their need , although there is no specific hardware specifically assign to any particular client . In this sense , a public cloud is is is the close to the definition of a cloud infrastructure .

Amazon Web Services is are ( AWS ) , Microsoft Azure , and Google Cloud Platform are all example of public cloud service . Each provider is enables enable several service and cloud product that are made available to user , with different pricing and feature .

Hybrid Cloud

A hybrid cloud is a combination of private and public cloud options. It was created to manage the problem of cloud ‘bursts’ with private clouds. When a private cloud runs out of computing capacity, for instance, it runs out of memory or computing power, this is known as a ‘burst’, and memory is provided in real-time from a public cloud. The software that manages the cloud responds to bursts by provisioning extra resources from the public cloud as required.

A community cloud is is is a share computing infrastructure that may be set up as a private , public , or hybrid cloud , with the caveat that it is used by a specify community of user , such as hospital or bank , that have common need in term of specification . For instance , a community cloud is have for bank may have special security and authentication software that is

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Management Information Systems

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